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Published: November 14th 2014
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Twin Bedded Stateroom
Riverboat, Victoria Katarina at Chongqing 8 Days with Shu Fey- Boarding the Victoria Katarina on the Yangtze River After getting the lay of the riverboat, we unpacked. Fortunately we were able to leave all but one bag at the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing so for the 8 day river cruise we just have our over the shoulder bag and one rolling carry-on. Easy. We are told that since we are “special” ;-) with Princess we will be taking all of our meals on the 6
th deck in the VIP dining room. Works for us. There is a dining room on the 4
th deck for everyone else. We have about 50%!A(MISSING)mericans, Australians and British and the other 50%!a(MISSING)re Chinese. Our Cruise Director is from New York City and our Captain is Chinese. Meals are all buffet style. Each evening there will be entertainment. On the 3
rd Deck there are 4 small shops with jewelry, scarves, cards and beautifully painted bottles.
During dinner, Shu Fey tells us what to expect over the next few days. We turn in to the sounds of the river.
Our first day on the river was getting adjusted to the new environment
and continuing to develop our relationships with our tour group members-very interesting and fun people! On the buses we were separated into Americans on one bus and Australians and the British on the other…but now we can co-mingle a bit ;-) Virtually everyone is a seasoned traveler so it has been very easy to travel with everyone. People get their bags out on time, they are ready to go whenever we are told and treat each other warmly. So all is good ;-)
We can’t believe that we are really on the Yangtze River, the 3
rd longest river in the world behind the Nile and the Amazon. It was the 4
th longest after the Mississippi, but we are told that Chairman Mao didn’t like that so had the river re-surveyed. Turn out it is 100 miles longer than the Mississippi. Go figure ;-) The Yangtze is the largest river system in the world with 450 million people living along it. More people live along the Yangtze than all the people in the USA! Actually, the Yangtze is made up 7 different rivers, beginning with the Yellow River in the north; one by one they run into each
Along the Yangtze
Yangtze River, China other. However, most people call the entire length the Yangtze all the way to Shanghai. The name comes from an emperor, Yang, and then “tze “means “noble”, thus the
Yangtze.
We are on the river from Chongqing to Yichang, 410 miles, which is going to take us three days to traverse-at this time of year it is a very smooth and gentle river. There is lots of boat traffic, both commercial and private. There are small fishing boats, other riverboats like us, party boats, barges and ferries.
This is a rest day, watching the traffic on the river and staying aboard as we make a stop for people to walk to the Red Pagoda about a mile away.
Tomorrow: Feng Du, China
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