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Riding the Yangtze
The Yangtze River stretches across south central China like a 3,982-mile-long capricious, caramel-colored
dragon. For the 400 million who live along the banks of the Golden Way, it is a conduit of life and death. For the millions
of foreign visitors who cruise its back, the caramel dragon provides a glimpse at old China and a voyage into the new China. Technically, "Yangtze" refers only to the stretch from Shanghai to Yangzhou
of what the Chinese call Chongjiang, long river. Blame the first British visitors to Shanghai who thought the name used by
natives referred to the entire river. By whatever name, it is the world's third-longest river, winding through soaring
peaks, narrow gorges and flat, arable expanses in its journey from Western mountains to the sea.
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| You'll find the captain's table under the tapestry in the Britannia dining room. |
Crossing on the Queen Mary 2
A cruise has port calls; a crossing has ocean. The immensity of the Atlantic Ocean begins to sink in (bad term for a nautical
story) on the second day without sight of land. By third day's end you speculate how terrifying it would be to be out
here in a small craft.
Six days with
nothing to see but ocean horrifies many but thrills those who find the ever-changing continent of water anything but boring.
Count me among the latter. Granted, 4-foot swells were the roughest patch we hit, but we did have 36 hours of pea soup fog
that obscured all but a thin strip of water directly below our balcony. The frequent, feel-it-through-your-feet-horn blowing
-- by maritime regulations a least once within every two minutes during periods of limited visibility -- reassured some but
unsettled others.
My personal take: A trans- Atlantic crossing on Cunard's flagship, Queen Mary 2, the only ship maintaining a
trans-ocean schedule, is an exhilarating absence of mundane responsibilities with deliciously ample leisure time in an elegant
environment where every need is catered to but certain levels of civility are enforced.
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