Huangpu

It is 11:00 AM and I am standing on the pilot deck in Huangpu, a coal port,surveying the world around me. To get here we spent almost five hours traveling up the Pearl River, a shallow and congested waterway. Beneath my vantage point is a coal black dock. In the distance I can see the city of Huangpu, barely. It is shrouded in smog. The air is damp and the port is bleak. In the near distance are three football-field sized coal bunkers.The two outer bunkers are busy. Front loaders in each bin are shoveling coal into dump trucks. There is a miasma of coal dust added to the smog that shrouds the port. With each scoop of coal into the dump truck, a third layer of billowing coal dust temporarily rises up in great black clouds.The coal dust hardly settles before the next load is added.
Welcome to working China.
Next to us is the stern of an Iranian bulk carrier. She is empty and they are preparing to leave. Two tugs, fore and aft, sit in readiness to pull her away from the dock. There are two mechanical windlasses, three crewmen,and one officer. Three stern lines and one spring line are released from the dock. At one windlass the extra crewman is tailing and coiling the line. At the other windlass the lone crewman is trying to wind and coil at the same time. An order is given. The crewmen are taking too long. They speed up the process letting the lines fall where they may. Another order is given. The men remove lines one and two from the windlasses and wind on lines three and four. But wait! Lines one and two are not completely wound in. Another order is given. Lines three and four are now removed and lines one and two returned to the windlasses. The Captain and the Chinese pilot are leaning over a rail on the bridge deck. The pilot is shaking his head in disbelief. The stern deck is in complete disarray. It is a combination of Laurel and Hardy meet the three stooges. Finally the ship is completely cast off and an order is given to the tugboats. The ship slowly moves away from the dock.
We are next to leave. I am glad to be underway again. The hypochondriac in me is making me cough. Our next stop is Qingdao, home of the famous Tsingtsao beer and site of the 2008 Olympic aquatic events.