Hi everyone,
We're back from our four day trip down the Yangtze and had a fantastic time. The scenery was incredible, the weather was (eventually) sunny and the boat was great. We really couldn't have asked for any more!
We left an overcast Chengdu on Wednesday morning and the bus arrived in a very rainy Chongqing* 4 hours later. Visibility was down to about 20 metres and it looked like we'd be lucky to see the boat, never mind the Three Gorges!
(*By the way, for you fact fans out there, we should mention that Chongqing is the world's largest city by some calculations. The centre only has about 5 million inhabitants, but the municipal boundaries encompass over 30 million. How about that eh?)
fog on the Tyne.. or is that the Yangtze?!
We briefly toyed with the idea of giving up on the cruise and flying straight Shanghai but decided that seeing as we'd come all the way to Chongqing, we should get on the boat and cross our fingers that the weather would change. We're glad we did!
setting off in the fog - with four days provisions
We managed to book tickets for a boat leaving that evening and had our own private cabin for the trip. We booked with a Chinese operated ship rather than one of the much more expensive cruises offered by American and European companies. It was a bit of a gamble because we'd heard from various sources that the standard of boat was pretty much pot luck and that some of the Chinese ships were quite poor. But as it turned out, we really couldn't have any complaints about the boat we ended up on, and are considering trading in our house for a boat like this to live on when we get home!
Sarah in our cabin
Our cabin was clean and fairly spacious, with an ensuite bathroom. It was so nice that we even decided not to upgrade to the "executive suite" that we were offered within minutes of getting on board. The executive suite was much bigger, and even had a chaise longue (!!) but we decided the extra 20 quid didn't compensate for the fact that some genius had decided it would best be located right next to the all night karaoke bar. And the Chinese do love a bit of karaoke....even from much further down the corridor, there were several times when we were "treated" to what sounded like small creatures being strangled to the latest Chinese hits!
The boat left at 11pm on Wednesday night and we woke up to a dry though hazy view out of our cabin window on Thursday morning.
But the haze lifted within a couple of hours and the rest of the day stayed sunny. The views of the gorges were fantastic, with enormous mountains and cliffs lining the river. We'll leave it to the photos to show exactly how good!
The boat stopped at a couple of temples and an abandoned "ghost" city on the way downriver but we decided to stay on board. Each stop was quite expensive and we'd read that the sights weren't that great. This was confirmed by a couple we met who said the abandoned city could only be termed "abandoned" if you didn't include the people still living there and the numerous hawkers chasing them down every street trying to sell them iffy tourist souvenirs!
Instead, we stayed on the boat and contented ourselves with games of scrabble while eating our bodyweights in cashew nuts and chocolate and enjoying the very finest 'Great Wall' wine. Yes, you read that right. We were drinking Chinese wine. Suffice to say the French probably don't have too much to worry about just yet.
Cracking open the Great Wall wine. Note the new jeans - 2 pounds from the Chinese supermarket!
The weather was even sunnier on Friday (warm enough for t-shirts!) and just after lunch we transferred onto a smaller boat for a 6 hour trip up the 'Little Three Gorges' - and then the 'Mini Three gorges'. The main Three Gorges are on the Yangtze River between Chongqing and Yichang, the Little Three gorges run off the main river, and the Mini Three Gorges are on a tributary running off that - so three lots of three - neat eh!
On the mini three gorges
Each new set of gorges gets a little narrower and shallower than the last - meaning two boat switches - but the scenery gets even more spectacular with each turn. The cliff faces get taller and the narrowness really makes them feel massive as they loom over you. The Chinese tourists show their appreciation of all of this by getting very noisy and as we cruised up the mini gorges we were treated to a bit of group singing and a tour guide doing some kind of repeat-after-me chanting to erm, enhance the natural beauty of our surroundings!
Back on the main cruise boat and it was time for dinner. Now apart from about 6 Westerners, all the other passengers were Chinese and only two of the crew spoke any English and even that was very little, which made for fun at meal times when we tried to order food by trying to match up Chinese characters with our phrase book.
Eventually, we found out there was a menu with English translations, which did help a bit but not entirely....a lot of the translations were fine but some did leave us a tad confused. By far the most perplexing of which was a seafood dish described as (we kid you not) "A kind of very famous rough hot fish near the airport". Here´s a photo in case you don´t believe us...
our favourite 'Chinglish' translation so far!
aubergines for dinner - these weren't from anywhere near the airport, disappointingly!
The boat arrived at the Three Gorges Dam early on Saturday afternoon, which is where we got off. We're not sure why the boat didn't carry on past the dam (boats can get through) and on to Yichang as we'd been told by the travel agent but we were transferred to Yichang by bus instead.
we got bored at this point - and made a dalek out of crunchy biscuits
The dam itself stretches 2 kilometres across one of the widest stretches of the Yangtze, though it's actually not very tall. We were expecting something like the Hoover Dam but it's "only" about 180 metres tall.
the three gorges damn - through the fog
The building of the dam has obviously been very controversial with lots of concerns over how it will affect the environment. Around 1.5 million people will have to leave their homes because of the rise in the water level when the dam is fully operative next year (13 cities, 140 towns and over 1,300 villages will be submerged). The flow of the river will also slow and there are concerns over how this will affect the river's ability to oxygenate and clean itself. Some people have said that it could end up as the world's biggest septic tank. We really hope the damage is as limited as possible and we feel privileged that we had the opportunity to see the river and the Little (and Mini!) Three Gorges in all their glories.
Upon arrival in Yichang, we caught another bus to Wuhan where we stayed the night before flying to Shanghai on Sunday. Wuhan is aother huge city that we hadn't even heard of before we got to China and is home to the world's 18th tallest buiding, which we think we just about saw through the rain on Sunday morning.
Wuhan in the morning. Don´t bother.
We had a bit of a surreal time in Wuhan....by the time we arrived late on Saturday, it was tipping it down again so we repeated our lazy backpackers sin of taking a room in the hotel oustide where the bus dropped us off, but again were rewarded with a perfectly pleasant (if slightly bland businessman-oriented) hotel with an amusing line in 'non-complimentary toiletries'...
The hotel restaurant was closed so we popped to one next door, where the staff spoke no English and where we were sat near some black plastic bags containing mystery live animals that kept twitching and hitting out at the inside of their bags... thankfully the menu had pictures so we pointed at a picture of a fish and some broccoli... which arrived looking reassuringly dead!
On Sunday morning we had a few hours to kill before we needed to leave for the airport so we had a look around Wuhan in the rain. It's fair to say it's not the most glamorous place we've ever been to. The rain probably didn't help but the whole city felt like a building site with new skyscrapers popping up everywhere and all the old buildings being demolished to make way. We travelled a few stops on the skytrain and then got off for a stroll down the promenade by the river. Not surprisingly, we were the only ones there!
we got bored in Wuhan too...
Eventually we gave up and made our way to the airport and to Shanghai where we are spending five days. We'll try to send another update before moving on to our last stop in China, Beijing on Thursday night.
'Speak' to you all then! Lots of love,
Phil and Sarah x x
