Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 21:01:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: “Benjamin Sandler” <ibenibeni@yahoo.com>
Subject: From China
To: Everyone

Hello to everyone,

For those of you who may not know already, I’m back on the Yangtze River. This time I’m traveling with my friend Eddie. While last time I was here, the cold and solitude made travel a little difficult, this time the company has been a life saver. Eddie just has a way about him. Even though he speaks no Chinese, his spirit and charm brighten everything... for me and for everyone that we meet.

We’ve only been on the river for 3 days now, but it feels like much longer. Time seems to be slowing. Rain in the morning and early afternoon, balanced with extreme heat and pounding sun through the evening, make each day feel like two. Remembering everything just to make a journal entry has been a challenge.

Filming and photography has been going well, better than expected. Everywhere we’ve gone so far we’ve made friends with people who could show us around, and talk on camera.

We started out by going to Fuling, 500 kilometers upstream from the dam. This is where they are building a giant barrier wall to protect the city from the looming specter of demolition. Work on the wall has progressed, and sections of it extend all the way around to the Wu River, one of the Yangtze’s tributaries.

We were hoping to see Baiheliang, some stone carvings of fish jutting out of the river, but the water level is too high. It’s thought they were once used for river navigation. If the water level doesn’t get low enough this winter, they will presumably have been seen for the last time.

October of this year is when everything below the reservoir lines is scheduled for demolition. From Fengdu, we took a bus to the nearby town of Qingxi. They have no wall, and all of the cobble-stoned streets with old homes are doomed. It felt ghostly, as most people had evacuated. Only elderly people remained, a seemingly defiant statement of resilience. The rain was so heavy that you could only see a few meters, making everything feel prematurely flooded.

From there we planned to go to another small town called Zhenxi. At the dock, which was really just a big rock on which the boat balances, we met a group of people who were going to another small town called Xiao (‘little’) Taiwan. Since we knew nothing of Zhenxi, we asked if we could come see their town with them. It’s not on the map, and turns out, it’s a small island right in the middle of the Yangtze River. People have lived there for 700 years, and the town now has a population of 1000. Every home on this island must also be destroyed in October for the upcoming deluge. (Name omitted) and (name omitted), took us to their home. There, for six generations they have cultivated silk worms. Under the same roof live 4 generations, (omitted)’s parents, his grandmother (89 years old), his two brothers, their wives and children. Everyone was so gracious and happy. They insisted that we have dinner and stay the night, but Eddie and I wanted to keep moving, and we really didn’t want to put them out. They were finally able to convince us that even if they let us off the island we’d be in the sticks. The nearby towns were all condemned, mostly evacuated, the buses had stopped running, and there were no hotels to stay in. So we had no choice but to give in and stay the night. Giving in wasn’t too difficult. The island is like a paradise, lushly green, with the sounds of chirping birds and crickets. The loss of places like this makes me so sad... 700 years of tranquility, isolation, self-sufficiency... and soon no more.

Today we traveled to Fengdu... I skipped it last December, but now we are just in time. It’s a huge town brimming with life, and deeply rooted in the spirits of the ghosts that live in the mountain temples above. The new city awaits on the opposite bank. From here it looks like a void waiting to be filled, but really it just looks void... monochrome apartment high-rises, with prefab design, and orderly layout.

Back in China the contrasts of life and the river are all reawakening inside me... old and new, sadness and jubilance, rain and sun, modern and ancient, form and emptiness... all markers of the everyday experience here.

So long, and I’ll update as soon as I can...

You are all in my thoughts right now, in a part of me that guides the way.

-Ben