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Published: August 10th 2007
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Cruising the Yangtze River
Stand to attention when you hear the national anthem!! All Awash on the Yangtze Some people would call it brave to take a 4 day cruise down the Yangtze River just days after the largest flood in 100 years.
We boarded our 4 storey Chinese rust bucket of a boat late at night at Chongqing and made our way to our 1st class cabin (ha ha - see the pics). We sat on our bunks, unable to put our bags on the floor as the carpet(?) was waterlogged. We dismally sat there snacking on packet noodles and beer. What had we done to deserve this!! (More later on the boat)
Well it started off dismal but as the carpet dried out (no it wasn't the toilet leaking, thank God) and we aclimatised to the diet of noodles, fruit and beer, the smog lifted and we started to take in the incredible scenery through our cabin window.
At this point we have to mention our english speaking (4 words - money, tickets, yes and no) onboard guide who we nicknamed "Thin on the Ground" because he was never around when we needed him. Miraculously he would appear with entry tickets for tours right at the last minute
and then totally disappear for the rest of the day.
There was a busy program of on-shore tours of various temples, etc, all of which required a 7am start with 5.30am wake up calls (yes, noise, alarms and everything). We soon started to meet some of the Chinese families in the other cabins - no english of course, but we all had a lot of fun photographing each other with the gorgeous background. It turns out they also liked the local beer so everyone had a great time.
We opted not to go on some of the evening activities such as the dance show and karoke in some town along the river. Instead we decided on a romantic night eating (you guessed it) - noodles and beer.
All along the river we saw markers for the maximum river height of 175m, which will inundate many large cities, small towns and farms. We passed by many ghost towns and others where farmers still worked their orchards and crops, but now lived in a nearby town above the expected flood level. This was quite eerie and strange - like towns after an atomic bomb blast.
We sailed along
the 3 main gorges - Qutang Gorge (8km), Wu Gorge (40km) and Xiling Gorge (80km). At a large city called Daninghe we transferred onto small boats and spent the afternoon sailing through the 3 smaller gorges.
The highlight of the tour was the afternoon tour of the 3 gorges dam project itself - that's right we were just thrilled to get off that rust bucket!. We were taken by buses to an information centre where there is a scale model of the project and to various vantage points along side the dam wall, across the top of the dam wall itself and to a commemorative park in front of the dam. Well, the dam is huge and impressive - an amazing project - and of course there was the inevitable souvenir sellers at every turn!
After a long and hot final cruise day we boarded a bus to Yichang, a small city of 4 million, and the end of our tour. By this time it was around 6.30pm and we transferred to another bus which we had booked with the cruise operator for our trip to Wuhan where we had booked a hotel for the night. We also
We arrived in our 1st class cabin...
We got used to it after a while and the wet area dried! saw some of the Chinese people from the boat at the hotel. Aparently the bus was supposed to drop us all at the hotel, but instead we were all left outside another hotel where they pay commission to the driver - yes and that's even the Chinese!!
Anyhow, we caught a taxi and finally arrived at the correct hotel just after midnight. When we booked the hotel with the cruise operator we also booked our tickets for the train to Guilin the following evening. He told us that the hotel was close to the railway station - yes it was, but it was the wrong railway station right at the other end of the city!!
We were told that the hotel would give us our rail tickets when we arrived from Yichang, but the hotel people said we would have to collect them the following day at 12.40pm. So we waited. And waited. At around 1.30pm a woman arrived with our tickets - The cruise operator had booked us hard sleeper beds on the overnight train (we had requested soft sleeper) and we notice on the ticket that the train departed at 3.05pm from the other railway station
Chongqing light show
There was a huge lightshow around the harbour when our boat departed at around 11pm. way over on the other side of town (a small city of 8 million people!!).
Somehow we managed to hail a taxi and make it to the other railway station in time. It was absolute bedlam at the railway station as they are constructing a new one and trying to function within the construction.
We have only been taking soft sleeper compartments on our train trips so this was to prove and interesting experience. With only a middle bunk bed space and a small aisleway fold down seat for a 16 hour trip in a full carriage we settled down to yes - noodles and beer! And again we soon got to meet quite a few of the chinese tourists in the adjoining beds. Six girls going to Guilin - three spoke resonable english and one had been to Sydney and a couple of other families. After lots of photographs together and much joking a laughing we settled down to sleep.
Next morning (5am) we arrived in Guilin, a touristy city of 1.5 million. We caught a bus from outside the railway station and headed for Yangshuo where we are now. (Robyn and Gene, yes we overpaid
Fendu Ghost City pier
Every time we stopped we always had to walk up lots and lots of steps.Our boat is at the back - 25y each for the bus - should have re-read your e-mail). And everyone is right about Yangshuo, it is paradise!
More in our next blog.
Bye for now
Rob & Donna
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Magenta axam
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HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY! Have a great day! Love Magenta xxx