Fendu and Yangtze River

China Day 11 - Fengdu - Family Home and Local Market

Today we visited a relocated family in the town of Fengdu, 150 km from Chongqin on the banks of the Yangtze River.  Millions of villages along the river were flooded out to build the Three Gorges Dam, causing no small degree of controversy.  Our tour company arranges this home visit with a family that has been relocated because of the dam project.  Mr. Dao spoke with us.  He is 74 years old and moved to his relocated home in 1999.  He used to live right next to the river's edge, in a small mud home that had been in his family for 150 years.  He said the mud home that he had was about 2000 square feet, while this new home is a little over 5000 square feet.  He has a wife, 4 grown children, several grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He is a farmer and still has a small amount of land at the new place where he grows fruit and raises fish in a small fish farm.  The government compensated him for the move by paying him 100,000 rmb (yuan) (roughly $17,000)and he borrowed another 50,000 rmb ($8500) from relatives to have his new home built.  He seemed pretty happy with the relocation.  We toured his home which is spacious.  When he first moved he had a number of his children and their families living with him, but now only his wife is with him.  His new home was built right up against existing older homes that had been there for centuries.  The contrast between those older, mostly mud homes and his bigger, newer cement and brick home was stark.  

The building of the Three Gorges Dam has been quite controversial in China.   Millions of villagers were relocated as their villages were flooded out as the dam was built.  The government compensated them and moved them, sometimes nearby their old home, as was the case for Mr. Mao, sometimes further away if they had relatives in another area or were offered new jobs by the government in some other area.  In China, families cannot just decide to move.  They are assigned their housing permits in a particular city or village and that is where they are expected to stay for their lifetime. That is where they get their medical care, their old age social security etc.   If they want to move to another part of the country they have to ask for a permit and those are not easily given out.  The relocated families did get that option because it served the government's interests as they were doing the dam project.

When we left Mr. Mao's home, his next door neighbor showed us how they grind corn, to make corn meal for baking.  They have a stone mill that they operate by hand to do the milling. I've included a picture of him showing us how it works.

Then we went into Fengdu and walked through the town market.  This is where the locals go, not a tourist spot.  We were the only Westerners walking through the place.  Children found us fascinating!!  The food market had stalls and stalls of meat, fish, herbs, spices, pickled vegetables, raw vegetables, herbal medicines etc.  We saw women chopping and fileting fish with amazing speed wielding large knives with remarkable accuracy.  The highlight of that walk through was the stall where people were having pigs legs (complete with feet) "barbecued" which was accomplished by scorching it with a blow torch!  And the blow torch was big enough for a welder to use on steel, never mind on food!  Folks would bring their meat to the stall and the guy hung the leg on a hook and torched it!  One stall had smoked pig products including everything in the pig - stomach, heart, intestines, kidney, you name it.  They smoke it and eat it!  There were boxes full of chicken feet, which the Chinese consider a delicacy.  We walked through the market and then through the local streets which were teeming with people.  It was great to be in the local neighborhood watching people playing mah-jong, cards, walking babies, milling about, shopping.  A couple of our group who were in China over 10 years ago said this town was more like the China they saw then, rather than the upgraded China that we have seen in the major cities, where the building boom is everywhere evident, as monumental high rise apartments are being built all over the place.  In every city we've been in we have marveled at the endless array of huge, (ugly) high rise apartment buildings that are under construction.  

When we came back to the ship we had a very interesting lecture about the Three Gorges Dam and the history of the Yangtze River basin.  After lunch we had another talk by a Chinese doctor about traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and "cupping."  He did demonstrations of both!  I had never heard of "cupping" until this trip and it was certainly fascinating to watch the demonstration on the member of our group who was willing to be the guinea pig!  They take glass cups that look like small flower vases, quickly insert a cotton ball that is soaked in alcohol and then set on fire into the cup to remove all oxygen from the cup and then put the cup on the skin at the crucial places (determined through Chinese medicinal methods like they do for acupuncture).  The cup sticks to the skin and then draws it up into the cup - its really incredible to watch!  It leaves quite a bruise when removed but the Chinese swear by it as a way to treat certain kinds of chronic ailments.  Google it - Wikipedia has an article about it.  It was really fascinating to learn more about Chinese medicine.  While it sounds weird to us, I have to admit they've been at it for thousands of years and they know something about healing arts from which Western medicine could learn a thing or two. 

The rest of the day I've spent relaxing on the ship.  We've cruised down the Yangtze River and its been nice to sit on the deck and watch the scenery, although I can't stay outside for long as it is really hot and humid!  In the Executive Lounge they had champagne this afternoon and I can report that the Chinese have a long way to go when it comes to "fruit of the vine" drinks!! Wine and champagne are most definitely not their strong suit!  I think I'll stick to my G&Ts while I'm on ship.  They even have Tanqueray, so I'm a really happy camper.

I've included some pics of the river scenery, Mr. Mao and his home, a neighbor's older, more traditional village home, the neighbor grinding the corn, and shots from the market.