Fengming: Golden Princess Cruise Alaska Discovery Trip (3)

Fengming: Golden Princess Cruise Alaska Discovery Trip (3) Phoenix City Fengming On the third day of the cruise, at 6:30 am, the cruise ship has arrived in Ketchikan (…

Phoenix City Fengming

On the third day of the cruise, the cruise ship docked at 6:30 am in Ketchikan, the southernmost city in Alaska. This is the hometown of salmon - Ketchikan. Ketchikan is the first city in Alaska and the third largest port city in Alaska. Ketchikan's name means "shooting vulture's wing" to the Klingit people, and it has rich Aboriginal historical sites. From 1898 to 1901, abundant gold, silver, and copper mines were discovered in Ketchikan, which laid the foundation for the city's economic development and urban scale. Its abundant salmon production also earned it the reputation of "Salmon Capital of the World." Our family had breakfast, followed the passengers and disembarked one after another. We had to have our names checked at the exit. Our family took the map and walked to Xiaoxi Street along the route marked on the map. This picturesque port has a waterfront area built on stilts. The famous Creek Street was the red light district in the past. Now it has been renovated into a distinctive shopping street. The reflection of the wooden houses on both sides of the river appears on the creek. If it is a salmon live During the migration season, there are often thousands or even tens of thousands of salmon swimming back to spawn. Often the front of the team has reached the spawning ground at the upper source of the river, while the rear of the team is still at the mouth of the river. You can imagine how huge the procession is. Salmon move up the river from September to January of the following year, digging holes on the gravel river bottom to lay their eggs. When the floating juveniles reach about 6 centimeters, they swim along the river and into the sea. After 4 to 5 years of maturity, they begin to move up the river. Distributed on the Pacific coast north of Japan's Tone River, Kamchatka Peninsula, western North America, Norway and other regions. We came here in June and had already passed the spectacular sight of salmon swimming upstream, but it was a pity that we couldn't see it! But we have seen that people have built many "fish ladders" for salmon to make it easier for salmon to swim upstream. What is a "fish ladder"? It turns out that salmon have a natural tendency to swim upstream during the spawning period. In a natural environment, they will swim upstream along the river, reach the upper reaches, and then start to spawn. However, with the opening of human roads and pastoral areas, many river channels suitable for them to swim upstream have disappeared. Therefore, the research institute created artificial rivers called "fish ladders", creating a one-meter-high drop every few meters so that salmon can jump upstream. Interestingly, someone once conducted an experiment to allow salmon to swim to the spawning ground in a stable river, eliminating the process of swimming back and jumping. As a result, the salmon could not lay eggs. Because the kinetic energy and hard work of swimming back are actually the best way to give birth to them, it is for this reason that the research institution built this unique "fish ladder". We took an elevator to a high ground, which was like a garden built on high ground. There were some totem statues of the original people erected among the flowers and grass. I visited some photo exhibitions of aboriginal people. The staff were not at work, otherwise they could give detailed explanations to us travelers who came by boat from afar. Let’s take a quick look at it for ourselves. We met here with two other friends from Phoenix Chinese Christian Church. The three families sat in the corridor to take a short break, discussing what everyone saw and heard today, and watching each other's videos and photos taken in the past few days. Everyone gained a lot. The weather is not good today, and it rains lightly from time to time to welcome us guests from far away. Coming down from the highland, the three families were divided into two groups. A group of young people walked further to see the scenery. Those of us who are older and infirm slowly walked back, preparing to return to the cruise ship to rest. The return ship still needs to be verified and the safety inspection is carried out. After everyone has completed the routine inspection, they go back to their room to rest. Dinner is still served in the large restaurant, with the starter, main meal, and dessert at the end. After dinner, we walked around on the deck. There was a magician performing magic tricks in the small theater tonight. Since we arrived late, we didn’t have a good seat, but we could still see it. There is no language barrier to watching a magic show. The young magician Alexander Magician took the same name as the great magician Alexander Magician THE GREAT. Although he is young, his performance skills and artistry are still good. He stars alone from beginning to end, and different programs have different assistants. Starting from the simplest one-person performance, first there is the transformation of red and white silk scarves, and after the white rope is cut, it turns into a complete rope with one pull, etc.; the most thrilling and jaw-dropping one is the transformation of a living person, which has three performances. The first big transformation was to put a girl in a box and push the box around once. When the box was opened, there was no sign of anyone. Then the box was pushed around once again. When the box was opened again, another girl appeared. The second big transformation is that a girl is spinning around on the tip of a sharp sword. When the music starts, the sword penetrates the girl's chest. It's so scary! The magician covered the girl with red silk, and when he opened the red silk, he found that the girl had survived, making the audience finally feel relieved. The last performance was a girl in a suit, who was put in a box. The box was folded by the magician into a small square box. A shining sword was inserted in three different directions in the box. After rotating the box for a week, the sword was taken out, and the box was restored to its original size. Then the box was opened. The girl had changed her clothes and held a red fan in each hand. She was very elegant and beautiful. The magic show ended here. The entire audience stood up and applauded enthusiastically to congratulate the magician on his successful performance! After walking out of the theater, my friends and I talked endlessly about the wonders of magic! Today I was a little tired after walking for nearly three hours and being caught in the light rain. After watching the magician’s performance, I returned to the room to wash up and rest before tomorrow’s activities!