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Published: December 13th 2005
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David.
We went on a Yangze river cruise, from Chongqing to Yichang to see the three gorges. They are one of the major tourist attractions of China, and also the site of the monalithic Three gorges Dam, which is going to flood the area, lower the visible height of the three gorges and displace about 1 and a half million people by 2009. Nice.
Chongqing is a bit of a rough town really, a real port town. We did have a belting meal there though, spicy chicken and peanuts and they weren't kidding about spicy. I couldn't feel my tongue afterwards. Great stuff.
We boarded the ship about 7pm so there wasn't much to see as it was dark already. The ship was a chinese one so the entertainment was Karaoke all the way! Our room was below the bar so that was a treat. The chinese are mad for Karaoke, unfortunately a lot of them sound like cats being tortured, as do most Karaoke singers in the UK I guess. We decided to just chill out in our room the first night. We were sailing second class so we shared our room with two european girls which was
Lesser 3 gorges
our smiling faces nice, at least we could understand each other.
The first day of the cruise you are chugging through relatively flat (for China) terrain, stopping a couple of times to see a big pagoda that hangs onto the face of a cliff, which was cool, and a temple, which we didn't bother with.
When you are let off to see the pagoda there is a huge temporary market set up by the locals. It's like they are all waiting for the off, as soon as you get off the boat they are all over you! Fortunately cos it was a chinese tour boat, and they know the westerners aboard are pikey backpackers, they didn't really bother us! It made a refreshing change.
The pagoda itself was really impressive, clinging to the side of a sheer cliff face, as well as spread across the top of the hill. Apparently when the river reaches it's full height this will be an Island. It takes a bit of time to get to the top, and there are some stunning views when you get there. There are also lots of little balustrades you can nip out to and have a look around.
I might have said previously that the chinese aren't big into taking their time and enjoying the natural beauty of their country. The upshot of this cultural difference is that we almost got left behind by the boat when it decided it was time for the off while we were still on top of the pagoda!
Safely back on the boat (just) there wasn't too much to do for the rest of the day. There was a stop at night time for another temple, but we didn't bother with this one. It didn't look anything too special, and we had just seen a gorgeous one 2 days before in Chengdu so we were fairly templed out.
It was just time to get an early night to prepare for going through the first of the 3 gorges at 6.30 am the next morning! We had a bottle of chinese red wine (which was actually quite nice - Dynasty if you ever find yourself in need of wine in China) in our cabin and got some sleep.
Next morning we got up early and walked out to see gorge number 1, Qutang gorge. Technically at 6.30 am it wasn't actually daylight, so we could mainly see the silhuoete in the half light. It was still impressive though, the gorges rise straight out of the water on either side of you, dwarfing the boat. As we progressed through the light improved and we got to have a good look. If you could have taken away the hundred or so tourists and the guide shouting in my ear through a megaphone it would have been quite romantic. Bec admitted later she'd thought about throwing the megaphone in the water, but we were badly outnumbered so I'm glad she didn't.
Around lunchtime we got off the boat and onto a smaller one to go along the mini three gorges, which lie on one of the tributaries to the Yanzi. These were far more impressive, tall and imposing. It was a clear sunny day by this time, the river is much more narrow and the gorges tower over you, at times hiding the sun so that we were shivering on the boat. You can see the mokeys in the trees on either side, the fields being farmed right down to the river bank. There are submerged houses which have been abandoned to the rising waters, and some which have been demolished and the same bricks used to build another house a hundred metres further up. Markers indicate the water level, and where it will eventually rise to. It seemed to be at about 120 m and the maximum level will be 175 metres.
There were peaks and ridges all around which I was dying to get out and climb. In the UK they would have been full of walkers and rock climbers but here everybody was too busy with the more serious business of farming the soon to be submerged land.
Then we got off the medium boat onto an even smaller one for the mini three gorges (I thought they were just taking the mickey now). We got on a traditional chinese boat and sailed up and even smaller river, while the boatman sang chinese songs, and people on the banks sang to you. Strange. The water was far calmer on this river, a beautiful emerald green and the cliffs rose straight out of the water on either side in places, lush trees clinging to them wherever they could find a spot to grow.
Back on the big boat a few hours later we decided to have lunch, only to look out of the cabin window and see cliff face instead of river bank. We were going through the second gorge (Wu gorge). We ran outside to see and this one was pretty breathtaking. The cliff faces rise up almost 1000m on either side of the boat. We had a good gawp for 5 minutes, then as the chinese started to wander away, the lure of bad Karaoke stronger than that of the gorge, we pretty much had the deck to ourselves. So we took a seat, opened our last bottle of wine and spent a lazy afternoon watching the world flow past. We stayed there for a few hours watching towns slide by, and people go about their daily lives on the river in decrepid looking little boats. It was a pretty good way to spend the day.
We missed the last gorge because it was dark, and finally reached the start of the 3 gorges Dam locks just after 8pm. We got off the boat as we had paid to go and see the Dam, but if I went again I would have stayed on the boat, and gone to see the Dam the next day after we docked.
The Three gorges Dam is absolutely immense, about 2Km wide and very very ugly. The locks to get you from the lake on one side to the original river level seem to be a few kilometres long as well, the whole thing surrounded by a construction site, so it has made quite a mess of the area. First you look at it from the river side, then you drive to the lake side and look from an observation platform which is lit from below so that you can see, well, lights shining in your eyes. A bit of a waste of time going at night really!
Then we went to an aquarium, which was unexpected, then a live action chinese historical drama come stunt horse riding show. It was getting a bit surreal now. I'd been up a long time and thought perhaps I was hallucinating. (The stunt horse riding was actually really good though). It turns out all this has been put on because it actually takes 5 hours for the boat to go through the locks and they were killing time because we can't get back on till it reaches the end of them! We ended up having to pay some enterprising bloke 1 Yuan to sit on one of his camp chairs and wait, watching a weird chinese film about the sino japanese war.
We were glad to finally get on the boat at about 1am, and hit the hay ready for another early start the next day when they kicked us off the boat at 6am!
All in all I'm glad we did the three gorges cruise but if you fancy it remember, Chinese boats aint luxury, the karaoke is awful, and don't bother with the dam trip at night. The scenery was worth all the strangled cat karaoke though!
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Claire Macaulay
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Wish we were there
The cruise sounds absolutely fabulous (but david did u not wash while you were on the boat your face looks filthy-god i sound like mum dont i.)