ASIA LETTER: I awake in my dreary hotel room to a host of unfamiliar noises. It takes a few seconds to remember I am not in my secure compound apartment in Beijing. I am experiencing the other side of China, over a 1,000 miles away, in an ancient river town on the great untamed Yangtze.
It is 6 a.m. and Fengdu is slowly coming to life. From the alleyway outside the sounds of a new day creep through my bedroom window - a radio blaring traditional Chinese music, old men clearing their throats and spitting with great gusto, a child wailing, people bickering and pots and pans banging shrilly together as breakfast is prepared on huge outdoor gas burners.
Fengdu is a collection of grey, grimy apartment blocks that stretch along the northern bank of the Yangtze. It is known as "ghost city", the final resting place of the King of the Underworld, or so Chinese legend has it. Built in the shadow of Mount Minshan in south China's Sichuan Province, Fengdu's temples and landmarks have been drawing visitors for centuries. But most foreign tourists just pass through. Few stay the night and it is easy to see why.
The bedclothes are filthy and the shower doesn't work in what I had been assured was Fengdu's best hotel. What did I expect for €16 a night? I step out onto the bustling streets with my translator in search of breakfast and am greeted by the misty pall that envelopes the town.
Fengdu has a death sentence hanging over it. In 12 months time, it will be completely submerged in water to make way for the $23 billion Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric project. The entire population of 70,000 will move across the wide stretches of the Yangtze to the new Fengdu town currently under construction. It is like moving Waterford across the estuary to Passage East.
The decibel level rises as we walk the crammed, narrow streets. Typical of hundreds of small Chinese cities in this region it is loud, crowded, and dirty.
Cars honk their horns in the twisting traffic and pedestrians jostle each other. Shops laden with goods are full of idle staff. Traders shout out to passers-by. Little children scurry to school, with battered satchels on their backs. They all have happy, smiling faces and they follow me, full of wonderment at the sight of a westerner.
"Hello, hello," they shout, showing off their one word of English. They giggle at my feeble efforts to return the gesture with a "Ni hao". (Hello in Chinese).
There are few bicycles in Fengdu because it is steep and built on different levels. The streets rise from the riverside up the hills.
All necessary goods and services are to be found along the alleyways. Shops, restaurants, cobblers, tailors, barbers, dentists and doctors. A lot of their work takes place outdoors. A crowd gather around as one man, sitting in a chair on the cobbled footpath, has his teeth checked by a dentist in a filthy white coat. Little stays private in this town.
Old men haul heavy loads on bamboo poles balanced across their shoulders, the same way goods have been carried in the south of China for hundreds of years. Most of these "porters" are peasants with farms in the mountains and a wife or other relative tending the land while they come here to make some extra money. They can be found in all the river towns along the Yangtze.
We stop at a street-side food stand and order a bowl of noodles from Yang. They are really good and cost just €15 cents a bowl. People gather to watch this foreigner eat. They just stand and stare. I smile and they smile back. One gets the impression no one is in a huge hurry here.
Yang has been living in Fengdu for 30 years. He originally came from a mountain farm outside but life was tough and his family moved into the town. He is married with a 10-year-old son, who is busy washing dirty bowls in a big basin of soapy water on the side of the street. His wife is expertly cutting vegetables with a huge chopping knife. His little business earns him the equivalent of €100 a month, barely enough to survive.
We return the same night to Yang's for dinner. There is just one dish on the menu, a spicy Sichuan hot pot. I have it with rice and a local beer. You can live cheaply in these parts, the meal coming to just €60 cents.
It is warm and it seems as if all of Fengdu is sitting outdoors, contemplating life. People are anxious to tell their stories to this stranger. They are curious about Ireland. Most have never heard of it, and those who have confuse it with England.
The locals live a tough life, and most struggle to exist from day to day. But they are warm and welcoming, and very good hosts. Here it is a world apart from cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
This is the heart of Sichuan, which, with 120 million people, is the most populous province in China. One in every 50 people in the world is from Sichuan.
Most tourists who visit China don't get past the big cities. But it is too easy to forget that three out of four Chinese still live in places like Fengdu. That's 900 million people in total.
A vast country . . . with vast differences.
miriamd@163bj.com