Blogs from Shennong Stream, Yangtze River, China, Asia

And so to the impressive gorge sections of our Yangtze River Cruise. First to wow us is the Quatang Gorge, its huge towering mountains enveloping us on both sides in all their majesty. Massive folds of rock cascading down to the water's edge, a white stripe indicating the levels the water rises to in the winter months. Rock beautifully drizzled with vegetation clinging to its folds, lush and green against light brown. In the gorge we are suddenly dwarfed, our previously large boat now a tiny spec floating on the water as if nothing but dust. Massive grins and sighs from Lottie Let Loose, in her favoured natural environment. But even here man has made his mark with massive red lettering carved into the rocks 'Kuimen stands powerfully and sails pass trippingly' it proclaims. Personally I ... read more

I was awake before the birds this morning. We had a later breakfast as our shore excursion today was not until the afternoon. I planned to sit on my balcony taking some great pictures as the world went by but it was too misty (apparently this is normal this time of year). I still sat on the balcony anyway and watched the world went by. We docked and hopped off the boat at Fengdu - 'the City of Ghosts'. This is where heaven and hell are apparently located. This was very touristy and not like the other places we had been before. Apparently they are building some kind of tourist park and there was a lot of construction going on. There were some really cool statues depicting different ghosts. I wouldn't but this high on my ... read more

It's funny how one person coming onto a tour bus with a nasty flu can affect the 26 other people. Slowly over the days people started coming down with the lurgy - sore throat, high fever, nasty cough... We were all just waiting to catch it. Our guide Ding told us to go to the Chemist to stock up on cold and flu medicine as we were going to be on the cruise for the next couple of days. It was quite funny seeing groups of foreigners walking to the chemist (who by the way did not speak ANY English) and try to mime their symptoms. It was hilarious. We got by though and came away with an assortment of things to try and keep the flu away. We got to the airport around half eleven, ... read more

Our departure from Tibet wasn’t straight forward, well there was no chance that it would be really was there! Our flight to Chongqing (the gateway to the Yangtze River) was cancelled and, after a lot of calls to the agent, we decided to head to Chengdu instead and take a bus to Chongqing. Any extra delay would mean that we would miss the departure of our Yangtze Cruise boat which we had already booked. Eventually, we arrived in Chongqing and were met by a lovely old porter who insisted on attaching both our big bags to a pole with rope which he then hoisted on to his back. He looked really frail and both Andy and I protested at this, but he insisted and set off at a fast pace. We followed him about 500 metres ... read more

Today we head for Shennong Stream. But first we go through Qutang Gorge, and The Wu Gorge. The sights were unforgetable. Took loads of photos, just too many to post to the site. The trip with the boat men, was awesome - Wish it could have been longer!!!! The farewell banquet later in the day, just rounded it all off. One comment though, the portions could have been bigger. And while I'm at it, the drinks could have been cheaper. (30rmbs a bottle, when they are 5rmb in the supermarket) Ok! We did expect to pay a bit more. But £2 a bottle and it wasn't even imported beer!!! It did put a bit of a downer on the celebrations, cos' no one wanted to be riped off!!!!! Later the staff put on another show ... read more