2014 China : May 29 Yeuyang

Well, looks like we're not about to lose any weight on this trip. The breakfast buffet is a weird mixture of eastern and western, but with a few blatant exceptions it's all good. There's an Egg Guy and an Omelette Guy and a Soup Guy all making fresh stuff, lots of fruit and pastries, all the dead animals that go with the usual western breakfast, rice gruel, noodle soup, and a half-dozen oddball dishes just to keep us on our toes (who knew that fried rice noodle went well with eggs?). And just like in Heaven, there's always a desert table. It's important to get the rules right when it comes to drinks. Coffee and beer are $5 each, wine is $10 a glass. But you can have unlimited free coffee at breakfast and unlimited free wine and beer at lunch and dinner. Why is coffee free at breakfast but you have to pay $5 at dinner? Just because, I guess.

Today's excursion was early afternoon, as that's when we got to Yueyang. The city is scroonched between the river and Dongting Lake, one of the largest lakes in China. It is a huge fish producer with sturgeon up to 1200 lb, apparently. The tour started at the downtown fish market, although 'fish' is apparently used to describe anything without fur or feathers. Lots of frogs, eels, live bright red crayfish, turtles, and God knows what else. Every once in a while we'd come across something making a break for freedom, which we'd point out to the nearest guy who would promptly scoop it up and return it to its less adventurous brethren. I had mixed feelings about ratting on them as it’s the western way to root for the under-crustacean, but I didn’t want to hear that special sound when one of our group stepped on one…. If you don't want them alive, they have them dried, salted, chopped, powdered, and there's probably some shellacked in the back room. The whole market is basically two or three blocks of alleyways that have been partially roofed over with a covered drain going down the middle. That was followed by a couple blocks of artisan shops, touristy but mostly for the locals I think. Some very nice jewellery, pottery, stitched 'paintings', etc. Then it was back into the bus and another opportunity for the driver to run down any pedestrian that had strayed from the group.

Fresh from the lake.

Local vendors watching the gwai lo watching the vendors.

This is the dried (bulk food) section.

The local gift and curios shops in very nice historic buildings, which I think means anything before 2000.

Geezers flying very cool kites in the square.

Killing snakes is always popular, no matter the culture.

Shortly after re-embarking we were once more steaming up the river. Since leaving Wuhan the Yangtse has been very silty or muddy, but this afternoon we passed dozens of barges that were busy dredging a channel in the river. They pump a slurry of water and goop up off the bottom, run in through screens to catch the solids, and let the water run back into the river. I'm guessing the solids are destined to become road-beds or concrete... It's probably a full-time job keeping a channel open here. In any event, the river is much cleaner above the dredges!