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Asia » China » Yangtze River September 11th 2019

Day 44 to 47 of 80 As we said in the last blog, day 44, Sunday 8 September, was a day spent travelling, from just after 08.00 to 21.30 on the train, then 90 minute bus transfer to our boat. A somewhat tedious day. Strangely enough, though advantageously as it turned out, we had all been booked into sleeper berths rather than seats, even though we weren't overnighting on the train. As the party had been allocated 2 lower and 2 middle bunks in each set of 6 that meant that we could each, if we wished to, lay down and kip for some of the journey. Nothing over exciting to see en route. Cities, rivers, lots of tunnels, various crops including rice paddies. As rail is the the main mode of long distance travel for ... read more
Our boat
Local tourist boat
Ship lock

Asia » China » Yangtze River November 28th 2018

Wu gorge formed by the Wu river, it stretches 45 km from Wushan to Guandukou, and is located down stream of Qutang George and up strean of Xling gorge. he gorge boundry between Wushan county of Chongging municipality and Badong county, Hubei Province. The Qutang Gorge is the shortest and most spectacular of China's three gorges. Immediately down stream of the ancient village Baidicheng the Yangtze river passes between the Chijja mountain of the North and the Bayan Mountain.... read more
Wu gorge 1
Wu gorge 2
Wu gorge 3

Asia » China » Yangtze River November 25th 2018

Yinchang is a prefecture level city located in the western Hebel province . It is the second largest city after the capitol Wuhan. The 3 gorge Dam is located in the area made of Yiling, tiling Wujagang and Dianjun urban districts as Xiaoting district not yet urbanized. Under the Qing empire Yichang opened forgein commerce as a trading post. During the wars it was the primary supply depot, Thus today the cruise port where we will embark the century sun river cruise boat late in the evening. The course of the Yangtze river is the longest river in Asia and the 3rd longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow in one country. It drains 1/5 th of the land area and it's river basin is home to 1/3 rd ... read more
yichang location
century-sun-cruise-ship
Leaving Shanghai

Asia » China » Yangtze River October 24th 2017

On Monday, our first full day of sailing on the YR was spent touring the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydro power project. It is five times larger than the Hoover Dam, producing 18000 megawatts of electrify with 26 turbines. It took 17 years to build and cost 31 billion US dollars. It used 21 million cubic feet of cement in its construction. During construction 40,000 people were employed but now only 10,000 remain to maintain it. It was built for four reasons. First to control flooding, second to produce energy, third to improve the navigation through the river and lastly to attract tourism, which it surely does. Of course there was a terrible downside to this construction. 1.3 million people were displaced as the 410 miles long reservoir has flooded 244 square miles of ... read more
Looking down from the top
Four Section Elevator to top
Fountain at the top

Asia » China » Yangtze River October 23rd 2017

As I write this blog, I am lying in bed listening to the clammer as we make our way through the five locks at the Three Gorges Project. We began the journey through the locks about 7 PM and it will take about 3 1/2-4 hours to get through them. On Sunday afternoon,after an early rise and on the bus by 8 AM , we arrived at the dock where we embarked on our Yangtze River Cruise . We had lunch in Jingzhou and had a tour of the old city and a short visit to a museum where we saw a mummy that had been preserved for over 2000 years. Our first impressions of the ship were very good. Our cabin is quite lovely. We have a balcony with two chairs and a little table. ... read more
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Asia » China » Yangtze River October 23rd 2017

Saturday was a travel day to Wuhan. We flew on Southern China Airline. Wuhan is a city of 12 million with great contrasts. The skyline is filled with hundreds of high rise apartments in stages of building. Cranes are everywhere......but beside them there might be an area of shacks. Of course the Wuhan Airport is about an hours drive to the city centre where we were staying in a Howard Hohnson hotel. The drive was good at the start but the closer we got to the city the worse it got. It took us about two hours to get there but it was an amazing experience. We were mesmerized by the sights. We were told that our hotel had a big golf ball at the top so we were excited to finally see it. Our room ... read more
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Asia » China » Yangtze River April 17th 2017

You know you're not in Kansas anymore when the first prize in a competition is a three hour session in a Karaoke room! Our Yangtze River cruise turned out to be an unexpected cultural experience as well as a chance to see the stunning three gorges. We had expected to be in the minority on our cruise given the large number of Chinese tourists we'd seen elsewhere on our trip. What we never expected was to be the only two westerners on a boat of 500 people. We should have know as soon as we arrived and went through security checks - before we'd even got to our e-ticket the policeman was pointing at our names on his list, which left us wondering how he'd figured it out!! Duh!?! Our cruise was an opportunity to experience ... read more
Balcony View on First Morning
City of Ghosts
Another Cute Pagoda at City of Ghosts

Asia » China » Yangtze River October 30th 2016

Today after breakfast we visited the Three Gorges Dam. That damn dam! Very interesting and very protected! We had to go thru security, like airport security to see it. (pictures to come) Sadly today is a travelling day. After the dam visit we boarded the ship for our last hour or two to get us to Sandouping where we stopped for lunch and continued travelling on a bus to travel for 5 hours to get to an airport that would take us to Shanghai. The day was very, very, very long. China is a HUGE country with lots to see, but if you are thinking of going, study the map and see how far apart places are. Lots of time spent travelling. ? And going thru airports is painful... you cannot bring a lot of things ... read more

Asia » China » Yangtze River October 30th 2016

Day 2 on the boat. Didn't partake in any tours today as it was a rainy cold day. And let's face it, I was exhausted. It's been early days and late nights and I thought I'd take it easy and just enjoy the amenities on the boat. So after breakfast, I headed for a foot massage. Wow, fantastic. He worked from the tips of my toes to the tops of my thighs... And for a full hour! it was very hard to stay awake!! So people on my tour who had it done earlier said it was painful... But I really enjoyed it! I coulda stayed for another hour! I then walked around the ship. Not much to do. Everything is very rigid. breakfast, lunch and dinner at a specific time... No snacks ? Thank goodness ... read more

Asia » China » Yangtze River October 21st 2016

The bullet train was all we expected. It was super quiet, super smooth and quite quick at 304kph. Think of that between Brisbane/Sydney Melbourne. The carriages were fitted out with plane seats. Staff walked up and down selling fruit, noodles and drinks. There was free hot water and western style toilets – thank heavens. The stations at either end were more like international air terminals; lots of retail and spotlessly clean. After 5 hrs and 2 stops, we arrived in Shanghai. We were told to meet our new guide at the North Arrivals exit, but unfortunately the train bought us in at the South Arrivals end of the complex so we had to navigate our way to the other end of the station some 300 mts away with not a single sign mentioning anything connected with ... read more
Watertown - Shanghai
Shanghai night lights
Tribe of the Three Gorges tour




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