Yangtze River Cruise - day 3

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Day 3 of our travels:

Todays excursion is on a small tributary of the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River called the Shennong stream. It is well known in China for the 'trekkers'. Because the water level in the stream was very low, the men would often have to get out and pull the boats for long distances- this ws the only method of transporting goods to the people who lived here. Now, because of the flooding of the dam, their services are no longer used, - the water is 135 meters high- but this is still a popular tourist destination.

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Photos

Along the River
A collection of homes in a town along the river. Millions of people have been displaaced by the dam; some are very happy to have new homes and new opportunities. A special road was built in 1996 to link some of the new communities. It is 28 km long, of which 40% is tunnels and bridges. Some real feats of engineering have been involved to complete this road.

Shennong
We boarded a smaller boat at the city of Shennong, which took us up the tributary of the same name. Spectacular scenery only made us wish that we had seen this 10 years ago before the flooding.

Alice
Alice was our guide for the trip. She is part of the Tujai minority one of 56 minority groups in China. Each one is very proud of their history, dialect, clothing and traditions. The Han minority is the largest of these 56, making up about 90% of the population in the country. Alice was very proud to show us her region and tell us about the Tujai people.

New Bridge
A new suspended bridge was completed recently to join both sides of the mountain villages. Alice says there are wild monkeys in the hills, but we couldn't see any today.

Snake Head
Snake Head
This stalactite in the middle of the photo looks amazingly like a giant snake hanging from a cliff, so it is called the Snakes Head. It takes 1000 years for a stalactite to grow a meter and this one is at least 2 meters or more. Lots of limestone is these rocks has led to hundreds of stalactites hanging along the sides of the hills.

Suspended Coffin
This cave contains a suspended coffin. For thousands of years, people believe that the higher the burial site, the closer to heaven the person will be. Some of these coffin have been relocated, but 2 still remain in this valley. It is hard to see in this picture, but look for the dark horizontal box near the bottom of the cave.

Burning Bushes
All along the steep banks of the stream, people were precariously perched and burning twigs and dead bushes. They collect the ashes for the gardens - sure hope that the boat that left them there returns!

woman rowing
This woman was rowing incredibly hard to manoever this boat- maybe she is going to pick up the bush burners???

Narrowing stream
The valley is getting very narrow- you can tell how difficult it must have been to travel this with minimal water.

Trekkers
Three of the 6 trekkers got out and pulled our boat using bamboo ropes. It was only for the sake of the tourists, but gave you an idea of what they used to do.

Scenery
The scenery on this trip was spectacular- you felt like you were in a living edition of National Geographic.

tourists
we were tourists, but no use fighting it - orange life jackets and all!

Folksongs
Alice sang us tradional Tujin folksongs on the way back. We English speakers sang 'Row, Row, Row your boat' in return.

Back at the dock
They call these 'pea pod boats'because of the shape.

Goddess Peak
TContinuing our journey from Shennong to Feng Du, we passed four of the twelve peaks in the WuGorge. This is Goddess Peak and is the most important of the 12 peaks. The Goddess is pretty hard to see in this phote, but she is there!

Goddess path
This is the beginning of a path that leads to the top of Goddess peak. A longgggg way up there. look right to left near the bottom of the green to see the beginning. We lost sight of it once it left the greenery.

Scissors Peak
Look at the top of the peak and the 'V' in the centre is the scissors of 'Scissors Peak'. I'll have to get on the internet to learn the importance of these peaks.

Lions Peak
The small bump on the horizon at the top right hand corner is supposed to look like a lion lying down. I had a hard time with this one, but the river guide said it was so!

Dragon's Peak
The ridges going up this mountain are the back of the lion, with his head on the other side of the mountain. These were the only 4 peaks that we could see as the rest were on a separate tribuary of the Yangtze.

Hydroplane
we saw several of these odd looking hydroplanes that ferried people from Chong Qing to Yi Chang. 12 hours downstream and 18 hours up stream.

More Coffins
More caves containging suspended coffins

Cannon house
If you look carefully there are 4 cannons on this house- 2 on the bottom level of the house and 2 on the upper level. It must have been very well situated for defense of the Gorge. Don't know if it is it's original or relocated location. I suspect original as it would have been very high up for guarding the valley.

Wu Gorge
This bridge marked the end of the Wu Gorge, one of three 'Gorges' that we passed through. (Ox Gorge, Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge)

Sunset #3
Another beautiful sunset from the front window of our cabin. This was the view that we had from the 'sitting room' of our suite. It was wonderful.

Dinner time
Our dinner companions included a young couple from Kentucky who are teaching english part time and travlelling a lot. They were a great addition to the table. The others in the 28 included 8 people from Germany and 16 Chinese.