http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Yangtze River en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:27:31 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:27:31 +0000 This is our last day cruising.......very sadWe got up this morning for breakfast and for another shore excursion. We visited the largest hydroelectric power project in the world The 'Three Gorges Dam'. We learnt a little more about it and went to a couple of great vantage points to see views of the entire Dam. It is massive in size and amazing what they have done. They are also buillding a ship e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-455795.html Clare and I left Shanghai at the South Railway Station at 1930 on Wednesday 21st. We spent the day packing and tidying and realised that we have far too much stuff. Our exflatmates John and Vilin very kindly agreed to act as storage until we can get back to Shanghai to pick it all up. The train to Wuhan was an uncomfortable 16 hours and we didn't get much sleep. Sharing our booth with us were http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-448399.html From DianneOur journey up the Yangtze River Chang Jiang began many years ago with a special picture book The Story of Ping written by Marjorie Flack. Ping was a little duck that lived on a ldquowise eyedrdquo boat on the Yangtze River. As we read and reread this story to our children and then our grandchildren we never imagined being able to journey through time on this special river. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-442853.html Friday 17th July 2009 Yangzi RiverWe were once again woken at 5.30 by the ships morning call but we had no intention of going anywhere. There was another trip on up some other river but we were giving this one a miss. The mother in our room decided that 5 am was time to have full volume conversations though so it was hard to get back to sleep until they had left for the tour then we lay in til abo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-430691.html Chinese Cruising The Transfer On our last day in CQ we continued planning the next few legs of our trip and awaited our transfer to our Yangtze River cruise. As I mentioned we almost booked a tour of China to make things easier but instead decided to fly solo. Our 3 night river cruise was the closest thing we have come to a tour since our one night on Halong Bay and our one night on Frasie http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-427259.html We left 'The Johns' air conditioned apartment into the near 40 degree heat of Chongqing along with the other Irish couple and a couple from Quebec. Accompanied by our Chinese guide we headed to the ferry terminal all a little exicted and nervous to see the 'cruise ship' that would be our home for the next while. On arrival at the terminal we were greeted surprisingly with sight of two familiar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-419373.html Day 130Our overnight train arrived promptly into Wuchang at 7am. We had all managed to get some rest even if it was disturbed throughout the night. Julie stayed on the train as it was heading to Beijing as she had decided to go home due to her sister being ill. After getting some breakfast at the station we boarded a coach to take us on the 4 hour journey to Yichang to board the boat our home fo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-407364.html Before arriving in Yichang my son said to keep things simple in this city. As soon as we arrived yesterday we went to the concierge and asked about a tour to the 3 gorges dam. The concierge told us that we could sign for the tour right then. We did paying our 200 yuan on the spot. The only way to see the dam is via an official tour.A little later the confcierge told us that the tour would be a chi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-402288.html Next in the works was a Yangtze River cruise and we had the minor misfortune to find ourselves on a boat that I can only describe as well how do I describe the boat Hmf. Itrsquos as if you took what would have been considered a modern building circa 1968 Czechoslovakia only not as fancy turned it on itrsquos side and sailed it down river. Our room was so small I could actually place m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-392426.html Well we have been in China for 9 days now and wanted to really get to know the Chinese culture better So we booked ourselves onto a cruise up the Yangtze River well a basic boat tour to be more accurate with a Chinese Tour Group Being the only westerner's on board we received a lot of attention in the way of long stares. A few Ni Hao's Hello's slowly began to bring the group round to the i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-352397.html Although my post concerns what we did on Friday it is Sunday here and I've been checking on my DAWGS. Good news today for the Dawg Nation although looking at the play recap we appear to have had a couple of moments of anxiety.Friday on the YangtzeToday we took an extra excursion to the White Emperor City which dates from 25 AD. Apparently a high official in region looked at the mountain and sa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/Shennong-Stream/blog-343047.html Thurs Fengdu Ghost CityWe awoke on the boat this morning and our first excursion was to the infamous Ghost City a combination of Buddist Taosim and Confustion temples. There are so many stories and legends with this place I canrsquot get them all down here but suffice it to say we got all the basis covered in one place for making sure you get to the right place in heaven. The temple go up http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-342923.html Our departure from Tibet wasnrsquot 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 al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/Shennong-Stream/blog-341405.html We hopped on a cruise ship for our three day journey down the Yangtze River and through the three gorges. Unfortunately the weather was pants and poured with rain for most of the time. Perhaps this was to be expected given the name of our boat ldquoMS Fortunerdquo or ldquomisfortunerdquo as it was known boom boomhellipFengdu Ghost CityOur first stop on our ldquocruiserdquo was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-340775.html Ni Hao from the Yangtze River. After Tai Chi classes at 600am we watched the sunrise over the first of the major gorges. It was stunning. Misty fog around the mountains and the quiet morning made the scene seem surreal. Then we boarded small boats to cruise down some of the tributary rivers. Our river guide sang us folk songs and told us about life before the dam was built. It was the bitt http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-301288.html We began our morning with a city tour of Xian. We visited the city wall fortress and strolled along the top. To one side was the ancient city and to the other the modern Xian. It was a sharp contrast of architecture. We took a short flight to Chongqing and then visited the former home of General Stilwell. Our final stop in Chongqing was the musuem of the Flying Tigers. Late last night we boarde http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-300822.html From Chengdu we drove through lovely rural Sichuan landscape to Chongqing western China's largest city at somewhere around 30 million people. It was jampacked with tall apartment flats large roads flyovers and about 2 trees. Being on a hill there are very few bikes and even more cars and scooters than other cities. This was the departure point for a 3 day cruise down the Yangtze River includi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-286880.html Yangtze River Cruise Journal Day 1Today I began my tour to Chinarsquos Yangtze River. This morning I arrived in the city of Chongqing. My tour guide Violet was waiting for me when I arrived at the airport. She took me to my own personal car and driver which I thought was pretty cool. She took me to my hotel. I am staying at the Chongqing Holiday Inn a four star hotel. I have never stayed in a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-280075.html We have just completed our 4 day trip along the stunning Yangtze river. When we booked the trip in Yichang we didn't have a clue what we were booking. We spent 3 hours in a travel agent dealing with people who didn't speak a word of English. It was a mind blowing experience trying to explain with sign language that we wanted to go on a river cruise. I think we will both be experts at charades http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-277474.html Most Three Gorge tours start in Chongqing used to be Chunking before Mao started changing things. Short history lesson source LP In 1958 the Chinese adopted a system of writing their language using the Roman alphabet known as pinyin. The original idea was to eventually do away with characters. However tradition dies hard and the idea was abandoned. Nowadays most don't even know how http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangtze-River/blog-273031.html