more pics

And this is Laura, the ECE coordinator and my immediate boss.


While I was doing the last posting something happened. Here is the picture of Lynn and her family.

Thanksgiving pics

Lynn and her family. Lynn is a great friend and comes from the US.

Okay, Claire put the pics on my memory stick and I'm set to go. Me and many friends from various parts of the world enjoying a canadian holiday.

Gongqing Forest Park

Hi All, well already I can't view my blog again and I had a very difficult time accessing it all. It wouldn't recognize my password and somehow now there is a google account involved that I know nothing about. I also am not able to access any pictures from the Thanksgiving Dinner (which was a big hit) because Flickr has taken over for yahoo photos which is where they had been posted by the person who took the pictures. The dinner was a lot of fun and of course there was tons of food. The turkey was cooked by Brown's restaurant and delivered to my apartment. It was delicious. There was about 40 - 45 people here. It was a great evening.
Gongqing Forest Park was quite lovely and very large. It is a forest in the middle of Shanghai. Quite some years back the Shanghai municipality encouraged people to come and plant trees and this huge park developed. It is a very natural setting, not manicured with a lake where people were boating in rowboats, paddle boats and several other types of small boats. There are playgrounds for children including one with a small train, a small roller coaster and other rides. There is a glider that adults and probably teenagers can take a ride on. There were about 50 people from Yew Chung on this outing. It was only 45 minutes on a bus from here and if traffic hadn't been an issue it would probably been 30 minutes. About 10 of us from the Yew Chung campus had a great picnic together with some fabulous cheese, hummus, eggplant and a french baguette. There were also sandwiches, fruit and dessert. Unfortunately no wine. We took the pathway to the scenic panoramic view of the Huangpu River (that is the tributary of the Yangtze that runs through Shanghai. Don't laugh when you look at the picture which is the first one I'm putting on. Okay I uploaded it and from this view it is immediately above my typing. The rest of the pictures are views of the park.

Sat. Oct 20/07

Hooray, I can actually get to my blog through the address bar. This morning we were waiting for the bus for a school trip (all the teachers, that is). Terry was talking about his blog. I found out he does use blogspot and it just came back to normal. He said it has been only accessible here from google because of interference from the gov. It came back 2 days ago so now I have looked at all the blogs I have sent since June. Today we went to Gongqing Forest Park here in Shanghai, it was only a 45 minute bus trip. It is about 100 hectares along the Huangpu River and quite lovely. We all enjoyed the day relaxing in the park, we had a picnic, enjoyed the nature and the sun. I just got home and was anxious to view my blog. My next blog will show you the pictures from today and I will do another with the thanksgiving pictures.

Yangtze River Cruise, con't.

Okay, this is the final installment of the cruise. The picture with Doug (the guy in the life jacket)is on the Shennong Stream that was the highlight for me. We went through the 5 step lock system in the evening. The next morning we toured the dam sight. We couldn't see the far side because of the haze. I didn't find this part very interesting but I'm sure engineers and dam enthusiast would. What did the China Sturgeon say when he hit the wall (the china sturgeons cannot return upstream to spawn because of the dam)? "Oh,dam." We got a few of those jokes along the way. The last 2 pictures are a lock and the dam. Then we continued past the 3rd Gorge, the Xiling Gorge which are depicted in the middle 4 or 5 pictures. After we passed the gorges the land started to flatten and by the time we got to our destination, Wuhan it was so different. It was a very enjoyable trip, relaxing and informative with amazing scenery and did I tell you about the absolutely fantastic bread that was served at all the meals. Doug was actually more impressed with the river and the gorges than with the Great Wall.

YRC con't.

Something happened as I was typing. The print all went large, the cursor went up to the title and I could not get it back, so to continue. I felt we were being inhumane to these people as you could see how hard they were working just to take us a little further upstream. The water at this point was crystal clear and the guide said the people could drink it. If I could have gone swimming at this point the trip would have been perfect (except for the inhumane part of course). We ate our box lunches and shared with the crew before they turned the boats around (there were probably 8 -10 boats of people)and headed back downstream and back to our ship. This part reminded me of canoeing on the Grand with the serenity and nature which was why I enjoyed it so much.

YRC con't.

Alright, I'm already getting tired of doing this. In the afternoon of this 2nd day we went on boating excursion which for me was the best thing of the whole trip. We stepped from our ship to a ferry boat which took us across the river and down the Shennong Stream. At a pontoon dock we transferred to a small boat they call a pea pod because that is the shape of it. Four oarsmen and 2 captains take 13-15 people further down the stream. One captain is at the back steering with a wooden rudder and the other captain is sitting on the bow. A guide is telling us about the scenery and the water. There are gorges, the narrowest point barely allows 2 boats to pass each other but that is only about 10 feet long at that point. The water of the Yangtze is muddy but the American's aboard say the Mississippi is worse. This stream at this point is also muddy. We row for about 40 minutes then the crew gets out and pulls the boat further along in extremely shallow water. This part is nerve wracking and I feel like we are being in

YRC continued

Actually these pictures probably look very hazy to you. That is because it is always hazy at the gorges. The river guide on the ship said he has been doing this job for about 10 years and he has only seen about 4 sunny days. The pictures you see in books are gotten only by waiting for the right day.



The talks told about the heights of some of these peaks and how deep the water is now and how deep it was before they made the dam and how deep it will be after they make the dam bigger. It was interesting but I don't remember any of that stuff now. It is quite a spectacular piece of topography. About an hour or 2 later we started passing the 2nd gorge, Wu Gorge. This is much longer and takes about 2 1/2 hours to sail past it.


I'm going to do a new post for each segment because as usual there are problems using this program from here. I cannot view the blog and when I post the pictures I see them only as computerese so I cannot comment alongside the pics and I can't tell if the pictures are clear enough for you. I don't want to type this whole blog and lose everything so I will do it in bits. If you want to comment about anything you will have to e-mail me at cathybarrie@yahoo.ca I can't access the comments although I guess that is not working for people either.
So the next morning we arrive at the first Gorge - the Qutang Gorge - it takes us only 20 minutes to sail pass it but it is very beautiful and amazing to see.

Yangtze River Cruise

Hi All, I know it's been awhile but this was worth waiting for. Doug and I started our trip Tuesday night aboard the Princess Elaine. The cruise itself was much like any other cruise anywhere. The ship and our cabin were clean, the crew friendly and helpful, the bar was open but you pay for your drinks and their were demonstrations and entertainment. I went to the demonstration on chinese traditional medicine and the onboard river guide talks. The talks all pertained to the Three Gorges, the locks and the Three Gorges Dam. The Three Gorges are spectacular definitely the highlight of the cruise. There were 3 shore excursions - the first one being Fengdu the ghost city. The ghosts are actually these 2 guys who told everyone they were immortal and the people thought they meant they were ghosts. We had to go up the mountain to this place so I took the cable car, Doug and a few people walked. There was a temple there and the scenery wasn't bad but the trees actually blocked the view of the river. I wasn't overly impressed with this trip but Doug said I missed quite a bit because I didn't climb up beyond the temple.