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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 by the time we leave China. By the end we were so exhausted we just handed over our cash and spent the night wondering what the hell we had booked. Even the contract that we signed was in Chinese, we didn't have a clue!
The following morning we decided to make our own way to the Three Gorges Dam using a local taxi driver since it was not included in the price of our river cruise. The little shit agreed to take us there for 80 Yuan. Once he had driven us out into the middle of nowhere he decided to up his price to 220 Yuan. We had a massive disagreement with him resulting in him dumping us at the side of
the road! From there we got a local bus to the Three Gorges Dam.
By the time we reached the dam, we were out of time. We did an entire trip in 30 minutes that was supposed to last a few hours. I think we could probably enter the Guinness Book of Records for the speed at which we visited the dam. While we were there the guide was bragging how Chinese engineering will allow the Dam to withstand a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Its strange to think that I made a sarcastic comment about an 8.0 magnitude earthquake breaking the dam and wiping out the local towns. Little did I know a massive earthquake was going to hit a couple of days later!
When we returned to Yichang, it didn't surprise us that the cruise ship was not what we had been sold. The outside of the boat was falling to bits and there was a distinct smell of sewage in our room, but it was better then we had imagined so we just went with the flow.
We set sail into the gorges leaving the dam holding tones of water behind us. The landscapes and scenery
along the yangtze river were outstanding. The Little Three Gorges were beautiful. With the exception of an entertaining Chinese catfight breaking out on board, and me getting left behind on the banks of the river while I watched Glyn sail off on the cruise ship! The entire cruise along the river was amazing.
On the third day of our cruise we sailed out of the gorges and into Chongqing (Sichuan province). We soon noticed that the Chinese people on board were all in a bit of flap. After a bit of charades we soon realized we had been hit by an earthquake. We hadn't felt a thing because we were on the river! We had no idea how serious it was. As news came in, we discovered we were only 60 miles from the epicenter of the largest earthquake to hit China. Everyone was watching the pictures of the devastation come in. We seen pictures of landslides along the Yangtze river which we had passed only a few hours prior. We also heard concerning news that the Three Gorges Dam (now behind us) had cracked, trains had been derailed, the military had taken over Chongqing (our next port) and
Chengdu (where we were heading) was a disaster zone.
Everyone on board was glued to the TV for the next 24 hours as we sailed into Chongqing wondering what devastation we were going to encounter. Although we didn't understand the Chinese news, we began hearing that Chengdu and the surrounding towns had been seriously devastated. Thousands of people were dead. Its scary to think that if we hadn't got delayed back in Hong Kong by 3 days we would have been right in the epicenter of the earthquake when it hit. We are very very lucky!
We eventually left our cruise ship and entered the city of Chongqing. We were told the city had been seriously rocked by the earthquake. We tried to check into our hotel only to be turned away because it had been taken over by the Chinese military. We eventually checked into the only accommodation available on the 10th floor of a nice hotel. I tell you, that night we prayed another quake didn't hit.
The next day we tried to get on a train out of the Sichuan province because of the fear of aftershocks. All of the trains were completely booked up by thousands of displaced people who had just lost their homes. In addition trains had been derailed and there were delays. We were extremely lucky to get hard seat in 3rd class. It was an uncomfortable 20 hours with lots of unhappy people sitting on the seats and on the walkways of the train. It was a real eye opener meeting people first hand who had just lost their homes in the disaster. We were lucky to leave that day because further aftershocks shook Chengdu and its neighboring towns.
It was a surreal experience.
We are sooo lucky!
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