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Published: March 12th 2012
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I finally got to do one of the top things on my China To Do List (it really does exist, and will sadly not be satisfied this trip due to time constraints): Go on a river cruise up the Yangtze River to see the Three Gorges.
To get to the cruise, we took a sleeper train to Chongqing (not the first sleeper train, and not the last). It is the largest municipality in the world with 29 million people (almost the size of my home country, Canada) but is not a destination that has much to offer sightseeing-wise, other than a never-ending sea of high-rises. After arriving, we had five hours to kill, so we went to a square where the bus that would take us to the boat was to pick us up. We quickly became
the tourist attraction, a group of white people playing Jianzi (a Chinese hackey sack that looks like a shuttlecock). People were taking pictures of us (some tried to be subtle, but failed miserably), grandparents tried to get their children to join in. One particularly cute little girl was crying in terror at her grandparents' insistence she take a picture with us.
That is, until I offered her some Skittles (after grandma nodded her head in agreement). Then she was my best friend. Until the Skittles were gone. Then the crying in terror began again.
We finally boarded the bus for the four hour ride to the boat dock. They were offering a free stop at a waterfall on the way - the Qinglong Waterfall. Something about the attraction being rebuilt, and it being the first trip of the season. Obviously free translated to yes for us, but as we learned everything has a cost. Look out for pictures of us on your local Chinese tourist websites advertising the Qinglong waterfall, as a professional photographer followed us the entire trip (such a coincidence that this was the group he was with, the only white people on the entire boat of 160 passengers). Regardless, it was quite beautiful (if not epic), and worth the trek to get to it.
The only confusing thing was that when we finally arrived at the boat we were still in Chongqing. After 4 hours of driving. It is a very big place (in case the 29 million person population didn't tip
you off to that).
So we boarded the boat with our backpacks and beer, and found our cabins. They were surprisingly nice. As I was the odd person out, I was supposed to get a surprise roommate as the tickets are per bed, but they never showed up so I ended up with my own room. (which was glorious). The next day was "Gorge Day" as I thought of it, and we spent the day oohing and ahhing over the cliffs and peaks that we passed as we sped along the Yangtze (no slow leisurely pace for this boat). The weather was great, and when we docked in the afternoon for an excursion out of my willingness-to-pay range, I sat on the rooftop deck reading a book and enjoying the sun and fresh air. A perfect way to spend an afternoon, after so many days in cold, gray cities full of pollution.
The only downside was that the next day was not nice, there was so much fog we couldn't see the Three Gorges Dam. There were hints of it as we drove past it, but not enough to take a proper picture. Very
disappointing, but a relief that I didn't bust out the money for a "damn sightseeing tour" that would have been 180 yuan of fog, fog, and more fog.
All-in-all, it was a good trip. I haven't felt like such a tourist attraction myself since being in India, but it was more entertaining than irritating. I got my river and my gorges, which was the goal. I also got some blessed fresh air, which was a bonus.
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