On The Yangtze river

After 4 crazy days of bussing and flying around China we were sort of hoping that our time on the Cruise ship would be a little slower and it was……sort of.

The scenery was beautiful.

On each day there was one regular tour which was part of the cruise and an optional tour that had an extra fee. Both Joani and I had already discussed the fact that we would probably not be back to China so I was determined to see as much as I could see. To be honest though, the first morning we woke up to tsunami type rainfall so we were both very happy that the morning tour was the optional tour and took the opportunity to rest a bit.

 By the afternoon the rain had let up a bit so we donned our raincoats and went out in a steady drizzle to see what was, at the time built, the largest dam in the world; “The Three Gorges Dam”. Our guide explained that since it’s completion two other dams have been built that are larger but this one still produces the most electricity in the world. We were given an explanation of how it worked and how much electricity it produced but I had left my engineering degree at home so didn’t really understand much. On the other hand, I was really interested in the locks system

 being as how our liner would be going through it later in the night. Somebody I met showed me how to set my camera for night photos (should have brought that ENG. Degree) and I have attached a photo of us in our large cruise ship snugging up behind an even larger transport ship carrying new cars.

It was really cool using these water locks to rise up to a higher level in this large river. Five locks in all. Very, very, cool!!

 The next day I did both outings while Joani skipped the optional as she thought it would be a good idea to conserve energy for the final week of our trip. The first outing was going out in smaller boats to “The Shennong Stream”. The first portion of this was done on a smaller boat that only carried about a hundred people and we all stood out on the foredeck and got unbelievable shots of smaller gorges,

and then were shuttled on to small wooden canoes. Twelve of us per boat being rowed by four men with one pilot steering. Our Guides were local girls who all looked like teenagers to me but were actually all older married woman with children. They sang folk songs to us in their native dialect,

cheered on the rowers of the individual boats (who seemed to find it a thing of honor to try to race the other boats) and gave us a complete rundown of the history of the Gorges. It was terrific.

The afternoon outing was the one I did without Joani and it was a trip to the “White Emperor City” with another child guide. 

 To be honest with you, the two most memorable parts of it were, that it was built on an almost island with only one bridge to access it, and after crossing the bridge, there were close to 400 steps leading up to the city. Now since a lot of the people on this tour are of an advanced age you can imagine how well that went over. I consider myself fairly fit and my legs were burning by the time I got to the top.  Some of the group with me hired sedan bearers to carry them up the stairs, which is a story unto itself.

 I know this is already getting to be a long email so I will end by telling you that the last day on the Boat we both only did the regular tour which was an excursion to “The Shibao Pagoda”. The Pagoda was cool, 

but what was best about this day was, for the first time we got to wander freely in a smaller town shopping and haggling with local vendors. We picked up some great souvenirs and had a fun day.

 Tonight it’s the “Captain’s Farewell Banquet “and tomorrow we fly to Beijing.

 Rest time is over!!