5 August 2007

Cultural Enrichment: Longqing Gorge

First, a quick summary from http://www.chinavista.com/travel/longqingxia/main.html. I feel like it gives a good introduction.

"The Longqing Gorge Natural Scenic Area is located 10 kilometers northeast of the county seat of Yanqing. Known as 'Lesser Lijiang river outside the Great wall' and 'The Small Three gorges of China,' it is one of Beijing's top 16 tourist sites. Longqing Gorge covers an area of 119 square kilometers. The main scenic spots include the largest dam in Northern China-a concrete dam more than 70 meters high. Here tourists can see waterfalls in summer and icefalls in winter.

Boating on the lake.

The 7-kilometer tourist boat scenic area has pleasant scenery. The river is flanked by cliffs, and along the river tourists can enjoy more than 30 spectacles such as the stone screen on water and ax-split mountain. Longqing gorge combines the delicateness of the south and the boldness of the north.

Tourists can tour the scenic area in a day. In the morning, tourists arrive at the mouth of the gorge by bus. They walk along the gorge for 20 minutes to the dam, where they can take the 258-meter elevator to the top of the dam. The elevator was built in 1996. Since it is shaped like a dragon, it is named the 'Soaring Dragon' Elevator, and it is included in the Guinness Book Of Records for its length."

... yep, that's where I was yesterday. If there's one thing that I've learned about China, it's that you should never expect anything. For example, when told that we were going to "a national park" yesterday I thought, oh, it will probably be something like Yosemite. We'll maybe hike a bit, have a picnic.

Instead, we arrived at the tallest dam in Northern China, walked into the mouth of a huge plastic dragon that "scaled" the dam, and took four or five escalators (Escalators! This is in the middle of the wilderness...) up to a lake. The 风景 (scenery) was breathtaking... tall cliffs plunged into a perfect, green lake. We boarded a boat near the dam and it took us to another dock on the lake, from which we could:

1. climb the cliff and go bungee jumping
2. rent a canoe
3. climb the hill and visit a Buddhist temple
4. zipline across the lake
5. motorboat around
6. eat at any of several restaurants

It was as though California had decided to hand Yosemite over to Six Flags! I was awed by the natural splendor of the gorge, but still can't make up my mind as to whether I support the "plastic dragon" aspect of the place. I mean, it's fun to ride bumper cars down the side of a dam (yep, they had that too!) but it's also at odds with preserving the environment.

I watched a few of my classmates bungee jump, but opted out myself. I did, however, rent a canoe and paddle around. The temple, despite being obviously touristy, was actually one of the prettier ones I've seen. Its courtyard was filled with fluttering multicolored cloth, strung from wall to wall, and from the trees' branches hung low with yellow-and-red ribbons.

All in all, the day was kind of surreal.

If you want to see good pictures of the gorge I'd suggest checking out the web site http://www.kinabaloo.com/lq.html. My explanations feel inadequate!