In China, the first week in May is use to celebrate "Labor Day." This is a vestige of the old Communist practice of using May Day to celebrate the workers of the world and to have parades celebrating military hardware. Nowadays the Chinese government gives students, teachers, and workers the week off work for Labor Day as a chance to travel and visit family.

This year, instead of using this Labor Day holiday to celebrate workers of the world my fiancee, Becky, and I were invited by fellow Peace Corps Volunteers Robbie and Judy Peters-Wren to accompany them on a "rafting competition" on the upper reaches of the Yangtze from Yunnan down to Panzihua, where Robbie and Judy live in Sichuan Province. It proved to be an interesting time.

We arrived in Panzihua on the evening of April 30^th and then went to register for the race on the 1^st of May. The organizers of the race put all the teams up in a hotel in western Panzihua. Usually organizers of events such as this competition treat the participants like visiting royalty and we expected no less here. We expected all sorts of VIP behavior and banquets. While the VIP behavior was in effect, the food provided was uniformly horrible. It was presented in a buffet type forum and the Chinese just can't do buffets. Actually, as far as I can tell, the United States can't do buffets either.

Anyway, on the 2^nd we participated in the "time trial." There were approximately 50 teams altogether, including five other teams of foreigners of American, German, and Japanese persuasion. About 35 teams were men's teams and the remainder were women's teams. We were considered a men's team even though we had two female team members. We were also assigned a "cox" (a term that provided us with much merriment) who in most places would have been considered a river guide to see us through the more treacherous waters. Some of the Chinese teams were sponsored by local businesses and others consisted of professional boat rowers from ferries farther up the Yangtze.

Considerable pomp accompanied the beginning of the race. The streets between the hotel and launching area were lined with people cheering the motorcade of competitors as we went past. When we arrived at the launching area there were bands, marching bands, drummers, minority dancers, and small singing children. There was even a hot air balloon and water-skiers, both dubious propositions in China. No less than the Consulate General of the United States in China was there. Robbie, Judy, Becky, and I were interviewed by numerous television stations and newspapers. Robbie recited the athlete's pledge not to cheat and to maintain public order. At one point the coverage surrounding us grew so intense that a competitor from Hong Kong leaned over and said, rather bitterly, "The only reason they are paying so much attention to you is the color of your skin." Well, duh!

The time trial consisted of a 25 kilometer race right through the middle of downtown Panzihua and the object for us was to finish in the top twenty of the men's teams. Panzihua is kind of like the original Third Line city, meaning that during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution the Chinese relocated industry from the east to the mountains of the west and places like Panzihua to hide from American and Russian missiles. It's a newly built city (a city of million that didn't exist before 1964) nestled in the mountains of Southwest Sichuan that contains huge industries. Panzihua manufactures something like 99% of China's titanium and tungsten as well as large amounts of steel and other things needed to make a country run.

Rafting through the middle of Panzihua was something like rafting through the middle of Pittsburgh in the 1930s. Slag heaps run straight into the water and noxious fumes waft across the surface. Huge cooling towers and smokestacks belching yellow smoke were visible pretty much the entire course of the river. Not too much of the natural grandeur that accompanies float trips in the West. Oh, and since Panzihua is located in the Yangtze river valley, it was hot - like 90 degrees hot. We spent about two hours rafting through this industrial apocalypse before reaching the end of the "time trial."

Since we wanted to qualify for the big race, we paddled hard and by the time we were finished we were quite tired. It turns out that we finished 17^th out of all the mens teams. It doesn't sound all that impressive but we did beat all the other foreigners and most of the teams that beat us consisted of larger teams made up entirely of men. And we met our goal of qualifying for the main race.

The next day was a rest day. The rest of the teams went to tour a huge hydro-electric project on the Yalong River and to see a flower endemic to the region. That really didn't sound exciting to us so Robbie, Judy, Becky, and I returned to Robbie and Judy's apartment and watched old episodes of "Friends" on DVD all day.

On the 4^th of May we traveled with all the other teams who qualified up to Yunnan to begin the final leg of the race. We were repeatedly assured that we would not be rafting on the 4^th, just traveling to the village where the race would begin. Sure enough, we had to raft on the 4^th. Since we had expected to spend the day riding in buses we didn't wear our rafting gear but changing from my street clothes into my rafting gear did afford me the opportunity to get naked in front of a crowd of Chinese villagers. Fortunately, the rafting on the 4^th only lasted about half an hour during which time we joked and played with other teams as we went through a series of minor rapids to the village where the rafting race would officially begin.

The name of village where the rafting would begin was Wangbi. Wangbi is 71 kilometers upstream of Panzihua and is reached by a combination of driving and rafting. It actually took longer to get there by driving than it did to raft down to Panzihua the next day. Wangbi is a village of a couple of thousand and is populated primarily by members of the Lisu, Bai, and Yi minorities. Outside of this rafting competition, I don't think a whole lot happens in Wangbi but when it comes to the rafting competition they pull out all the stops. We arrived there about 3:00 pm and were greeted by women in minority dress flinging water on us and giving us cups of rice wine (real wine, not the rotgut that usually passes as wine). The village elders put Robbie, Judy, Becky, and myself up in the local school house.

After we got settled and explored the village a bit we went to dinner. The simple dinner provided was much better than what was served at the hotel and was also much more lively. We started drinking bowls full of wine and before long we were singing songs ("Dixie" since Robbie and Judy are from Mississippi and "Silent Night" because we couldn't remember anything else) and playing drinking games with the mayor and other important personages of Wangbi village.

Several bowls of wine later, we went out to the beach where the rafts were and where the village had several bonfires going. We danced like pagans around the bonfires while the villages who weren't dancing launched fireworks that exploded directly over our heads. Every time we tried to quit dancing we were pulled back into the circle by enthusiastic natives. Finally, we got away and stumbled into bed around 11:00 pm as the party continued to rage.

We all awoke the next morning psyched for the final portion of the rafting competition. The official name of the competition was "The International Drifting Competition for the Preservation of the Environment of the Mother River." As the sole international representation in this portion of the competition we fully intended to take the "Drifting" part of the competition seriously and to relax our way down the river. The Chinese teams showed that they were taking the "Preservation of the Mother River" part of the competition seriously by tossing empty packs of cigarettes and empty cans of "Red Bull" energy drink into the Mother River.

We got started about 9:00 am. By 10:00 am we had been passed by every other team. Like I said, we were taking the "drifting" part quite seriously. The entire time we were in Panzihua, people had been telling us how dangerous the rafting was going to be. Class III rapids crashing between the walls of giant gorges and whatnot. It turns out that we were disappointed. While there were some "rapids" on the upper part of the course they were not anything very impressive, not anything that we couldn't have done in a canoe. The scenery on this part of the trip was quite nice however. It really reminded me of central Arizona. Arid hills composed of volcanic rocks and red dirt rose from the river. Periodically we'd see a herd of goats or donkeys guarded by a lone shepherd. Occasionally there would be villages and hamlets of adobe build into the sides of the hills. It was an awfully nice place to drift.

Unfortunately, about 30 kilometers into the course, the water stopped moving. Literally. This put an end to our drifting plans. If we intended to reach Panzihua by the time darkness settled we would have to paddle. So paddle we did. And did. And did. The rafts that we were using weren't exactly made for long distance flatwater paddling so after the first hour we were quite tired out from pushing this rubber donut across uncooperative water.

Nevertheless, we persevered and about 3:30 we pulled on to the beach at the end of the course. We were the last team to make it. In fact, all the judges and people that had been posted at each "rapid" as rescue workers had passed us. If we had intended to do anything except drift I suppose we would have been disappointed but as it was, we were just sunburned and tired. As we stumbled out of the raft on to the beach the people had been waiting for us handed us bottles of nice, refreshing SALT WATER! The Chinese can be kind of weird.

The next morning, the morning of the 6^th of May, we receive a phone call telling us that we had received the "Spirit Award." Otherwise known as the Foreigner Consolation Prize. So that evening we went to the award ceremony at the Panzihua municipal stadium. Us and about 50,000 Chinese folks. The award ceremony was quite a big deal. The winning teams were each awarded 30,000 yuan, the second place teams 15,000 yuan, the third place teams 12,000 yuan, and the forth place teams 10,000 yuan. As winners of the "Spirit Award" we won a trophy.

The award ceremony was also a rock concert. China's biggest rock band, Tang Dynasty, played as well as Black Puma (bar rock), Flower (three chord punk rock) and X-Boy (a boy band). To top it off, between the bands Black Puma and Tang Dynasty about fifty women got on stage and go-go danced to really loud techno music.

A Chinese rock concert is one of the stranger things on this earth. It's a family event. There were babies pooping on the field and old women with no teeth and wearing pajamas in the crowd. Once the music begins audience stands still, as if in a trance until one of the band members begins to wave a plastic glow wand. At that point, the entire audience also begins to wave plastic glow wands in unison. Comparisons between plastic glow rods and Little Red Books would be counter-revolutionary, I suppose. At one point during Black Puma's set (Black Puma looked like a bunch of gas station attendants who got lucky enough to perform their bar rock in front of 50,000 people) a girl ran up on stage and handed the lead singer a bottle of orange juice. The lead singer opened the bottle of orange juice, took a swig, and dumped the rest over his head. Really weird.

Chinese rock music tends to be rather derivative and the bands tend to be put together by the state to fill a particular niche. In fact, if you were to substitute "corporations" for "the state" it would resemble the American music scene.

One of the best things about the show was not the music but watching the audience behave bizarrely. Tang Dynasty was actually quite good. Live, their music kind of reminded me of a cross between Pink Floyd and Dire Straits. In a foot note, when we took a train back to Kunming late that night, all the bands were on the train with us. Tang Dynasty, the biggest rock band in China, that quite possibly has more fans than the Rolling Stones, travels hard sleeper. Being a rock star in a state owned stable has its drawbacks apparently.

That night we took a train back to Kunming. We had planned on training it back to Liupanshui later on the 7^th but so had a ton of Chinese people and the train was sold out. Big tragedy. That meant spending an extra day in Kunming eating Dai and Italian food. Kunming has this excellent Italian restaurant called Rocco's. Rocco's is located in the bird and flower market. It's tucked away in an old (1884) Chinese house that in turn has been a residence and a hotel for bird traders. The owner, an Italian fellow named Rocco, has the place decorated beautifully with all the original wood and artwork. The food is delicious. He makes his own mozzarella cheese, pasta and the ingredients are, of course, fresh.

The next day Becky and I took a train back to our home in Liupanshui, tired and grateful to have survived our encounter with the mighty Yangtze and the population of Panzihua.

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