Yangtze River Cruise

This blog covers 11th October to 14th October, which is the dates that we did a river cruise along the Yangtze River, the biggest river in China and the third biggest in the world. We didn’t have the Internet while on the ship, hence the reason I am so far behind in this blog.

11th October

Not much happened today, it was a day dedicated to transit. We flew from Xi’an in the morning to Wuhan before taking a 4.5 hour bus ride to Yichang where the cruise started. We had dinner in Yichang, so by the time we got on the boat it was around the 9pm mark.

On the ship there is no cash flow, everything is done by signing a chit sheet, which can be kind of scary!

12 October

The cruise ship set off for its 3 day trip around 6:30 am, it was pretty chilly out on the top deck, I had to go back to the cabin to get a jumper.

Photographs do not do the river and the mountains around the area any justice.

We had a shore excursion around 1030am to visit the Three Gorges Dam. The dam is very controversial, as it has changed the Yangtze River forever and destroyed many historical sites and buildings. When the dam was being built, millions of people that lived near the river were forcibly removed and relocated. As a consequence people visiting the dam have to go through security similar to that at airports.

After we got back to the ship, we had to wait for around an hour before we could get into the locks. Once we got into the locks, it would take around 5 hours to get into the dam so we could be on our way. The first one took the longest waiting for other ships to enter, we had 7 ships, 3 cruise ships and 4 cargo ships. It was a interesting when we went through the first and second locks but the next 4 hours our view was of the other ships and the wall in the locks, not really inspiring. When we finally got through the locks and into the dam, the sun was setting.


Tonight was the Captain of the boat’s Welcome Party, which was over in about 10 minutes before everybody went for dinner. Very odd event. Was funny when one of the Germans that were on the cruise came up to the table with plates of nibbles and picked up two plates of nibbles to take them back to where she was sitting before the captain even arrived. The waitress quickly advised that they were to stay where they were.

13 October

We had an excursion this morning up the Shennong Stream near the city of Guandukou on the Yangtze River. We left our cruise shop onto a smaller ship around 8am to enter first stretch of the stream. The day was still a bit foggy and very cold due to the wind chill factor - of course I was one of only a few that persisted on the top deck of the boat. Hey I bought my wind and rain jacket all this way and this was the first time that I got to wear it! Unfortunately with the fog around, the pictures didn’t come out that great.

Like much of this area, winds and photos don’t really do it justice. At one point in the stream we actually had to get onto a small wood boat that is manned by the 5-6 trackers. We spent another 30 minutes going up further the stream in these boats with a local guide who was of the local Tujia minority nationality. The trackers demonstrated who they use to have drag their boats up the stream when the water level is low, however since the three gorges dam, the water level is a lot higher so the tracker do this only for the tourists. On the way back to boat to take us back to the cruise ship, our guide sang us a folk song, a song that her minority usually sing during their wedding.

Not much else happened today other then experiencing some great scenery passing by. Members of the staff on the cruise ship put on a fashion parade for the guests tonight. It does appear that it was a case of shortest straw does the fashion show tonight as only a couple of the 8 or people actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. Of course the cloths they were wearing were all conveniently located in the gift shop located on level 2 of the cruise ship.

14 October

Our morning shore excursion today was to the Fengdu: the City of Ghosts. The city moved recently from one side of the Yantze to the other. Fengdu is dedicated to the afterworld and its ruler, Tianzi. There is a lot of temples and shrines scattered across the mountain, along with a torture chamber depicting what happens to those that don’t pass and go to hell.

There was a lot of construction going on in the city along with the thousands of people wondering around made this probably the more disappointing sightseeing parts of the trip so far. The noise was just so loud that you couldn’t hear our guide (from Fengdu) who was trying her best to explain the history and importance of the various temples, shrines and buildings we saw.

The day was either foggy, misty or smoggy, so that the rest of the day sightseeing was a waste of time.

The last night of the cruise was a talent show where the members of the crew along with each of the groups on the boat do a performance. Once again, the staff didn’t seem to really enjoy their performances. There were some cool performances from the crew along with the guests. However with Chinese, Germans and English speaking folk on the boat, each performance was translated into the other two languages (which is fair enough) so the night went for nearly 3 hours.

Tomorrow morning we disembark the boat and have a half-day in the Chongqing before flying to Guilin.

---

---

Part of trip: Classic China

---