If you say to a Chinese person you are going on a trip on the Yangtze river, most don't know what you mean. In China, it's known as 长江, Chang Jiang (Great River), The Yangtze is actually just one of the many tributaries of the ChangJiang that flows from Western China to the East coast at Shanghai, somehow 'Yangtze' or 'Yangzi' has become the name with which the river is know to the rest of the world.The journey levaes from Chongqing and goes as far as the Three Gorges Dam, just west of Yichang and via through the three gorges that give the trip its name "Yangtze, Three Gorges Cruise!" Some of this trip was a bit of a disaster, badly organised and wrongly informed by travel agencies through which you must book the trip, it turned an interesting, "last chance to see" trip into a disappointing shambles. But, this is what can happen when tourism takes over an interesting adventure and turns it into a moneymaking showpiece for tourists.
From Chengdu, the hostel at which I stayed informed me that they could book the river trip, or I could book at an agency in Chongqing, from where the 'cruise' starts. To make things easy I booked it there and to be fair to them, they probably only advised me from whatever information they were given by the connecting agency in Chongqing. I could book an "all inclusive" tour of boat trip, cabin, a few tours, plus transport to Chongqing or just the boat trip. Not wanting to be packaged into a 'set menu' as it was, I booked just the boat trip with bed, with knowledge i could go on individual tours whenever i wanted by just booking with a guide on the boat.
I took a train to Chongqing for 48 RMB instead of the inclusive bus option of 120 RMB so I could leave at a more suitable time. At Chongqing the agency who organised the ticket reiterated the facts, showed same pictures of the boat, explained they had restaurants, bar, disco, nice outdoor deck seating area and English speaking guides for the sights on route, and that nothing could go wrong. I met with two others who had also booked at the hostel in Chengdu and we were told to follow a certain guide to the boat. Twice my ticket was checked boarding the boat, but only when I tried to get my allocated cabin was I told I was on the wrong boat. So, to cut a long story a little shorter i eventually got on my 'correct' boat which was about a km away, back where I had left the agency. But this was a different style boat entirely, it was much smaller, older, rustier, poorly maintained, smelly, had no bar, disco, only a small outdoor deck, which you had to pay 55 RMB for, the deck had no covering to avoid the rain that poured down on the second day, you could only sit in a small little room, crowded with people or in your cabin. After questioning the agency they said I was on this boat because I had only booked the boat trip, not the tours, but this turned out to be nonsense as a Dutch lady (and others) who I met later on the nice, big boat had booked the same as me. It was also not as they also tried to tell me, because I had booked the 3rd class, because both boats had both 2nd and 3rd class cabins. So, I was separated from the two friends I had made, I was on a crap boat, the restaurants which had been promised was one small restaurant with just one choice of meal (although it was pretty good and cheap food admittedly) that opened for an hour at breakfast, lunch and dinner time, there was no on board entertainment at all, my new guide, who I eventually found, spoke no English at all and therefore avoided me, not knowing that I could probably have made myself understood well enough in Chinese anyway, but it made it difficult to arrange any other site visits, even though she happily helped everyone else with whatever they wanted. Finally this boat had problems which meant it ran late and therefore did not stop at one of the most interesting sites I wanted to visit, which was Asia's largest waterfall. A 'cruise' is not an appropriate word for spending three days on this boat !
OK, to stop the moaning, the good news was I met Michel from France. He was the only other non-Asian on the boat and we had a good time, chatting, moaning;), having a few drinks and sharing puzzles and stories. Michel had one of those metal disentanglement puzzles called in French "Le Casse-tête Chinois" (Chinaman's Broken Head!) with two metal 'M' shaped pieces that you have to separate, it looks easy but isn't, but was solved. I had my Rubik's cube, so we spent hours playing with these to pass the time. Michel has been living and lecturing in Russia for the past 10 months and so we chatted a lot about experiences in that country and he had brought a bottle of vodka with him from Russia, so was glad to find someone to share it with at last!
From Chengdu, the hostel at which I stayed informed me that they could book the river trip, or I could book at an agency in Chongqing, from where the 'cruise' starts. To make things easy I booked it there and to be fair to them, they probably only advised me from whatever information they were given by the connecting agency in Chongqing. I could book an "all inclusive" tour of boat trip, cabin, a few tours, plus transport to Chongqing or just the boat trip. Not wanting to be packaged into a 'set menu' as it was, I booked just the boat trip with bed, with knowledge i could go on individual tours whenever i wanted by just booking with a guide on the boat.
I took a train to Chongqing for 48 RMB instead of the inclusive bus option of 120 RMB so I could leave at a more suitable time. At Chongqing the agency who organised the ticket reiterated the facts, showed same pictures of the boat, explained they had restaurants, bar, disco, nice outdoor deck seating area and English speaking guides for the sights on route, and that nothing could go wrong. I met with two others who had also booked at the hostel in Chengdu and we were told to follow a certain guide to the boat. Twice my ticket was checked boarding the boat, but only when I tried to get my allocated cabin was I told I was on the wrong boat. So, to cut a long story a little shorter i eventually got on my 'correct' boat which was about a km away, back where I had left the agency. But this was a different style boat entirely, it was much smaller, older, rustier, poorly maintained, smelly, had no bar, disco, only a small outdoor deck, which you had to pay 55 RMB for, the deck had no covering to avoid the rain that poured down on the second day, you could only sit in a small little room, crowded with people or in your cabin. After questioning the agency they said I was on this boat because I had only booked the boat trip, not the tours, but this turned out to be nonsense as a Dutch lady (and others) who I met later on the nice, big boat had booked the same as me. It was also not as they also tried to tell me, because I had booked the 3rd class, because both boats had both 2nd and 3rd class cabins. So, I was separated from the two friends I had made, I was on a crap boat, the restaurants which had been promised was one small restaurant with just one choice of meal (although it was pretty good and cheap food admittedly) that opened for an hour at breakfast, lunch and dinner time, there was no on board entertainment at all, my new guide, who I eventually found, spoke no English at all and therefore avoided me, not knowing that I could probably have made myself understood well enough in Chinese anyway, but it made it difficult to arrange any other site visits, even though she happily helped everyone else with whatever they wanted. Finally this boat had problems which meant it ran late and therefore did not stop at one of the most interesting sites I wanted to visit, which was Asia's largest waterfall. A 'cruise' is not an appropriate word for spending three days on this boat !
OK, to stop the moaning, the good news was I met Michel from France. He was the only other non-Asian on the boat and we had a good time, chatting, moaning;), having a few drinks and sharing puzzles and stories. Michel had one of those metal disentanglement puzzles called in French "Le Casse-tête Chinois" (Chinaman's Broken Head!) with two metal 'M' shaped pieces that you have to separate, it looks easy but isn't, but was solved. I had my Rubik's cube, so we spent hours playing with these to pass the time. Michel has been living and lecturing in Russia for the past 10 months and so we chatted a lot about experiences in that country and he had brought a bottle of vodka with him from Russia, so was glad to find someone to share it with at last!
Left: Leaving Chongqing at night.
Right: Deserted, evacuated city that will be flooded within 2 years.
The trip was OK, some nice scenery, but nothing special until the three gorges which we passed through which were all picturesque and best of all there were the three small gorges, for which first we had to get on a smaller boat and then later, yet another even smaller boat, were even nicer as we passed through very narrow gorges with high cliff faces, waterfalls and rock caves. The first stop was a place strangely called 'ghost city' which I had not booked for, but I got off the boat a little later than everyone else therefore having a nice lie in and still made it to the nice temple there at the top of the ridge overlooking the river, without having to follow along with a guide I would have barely understood anyway, much better way to do it! 'Ghost City' was a strange name for this place that had nothing ghostly about it at all, but later on we passed by cities that were real ghost cities, cities now deserted, empty, gutted buildings where people not so long ago lived, but had recently been evacuated because within the next two years these cities will disappear under the water, flooded due to the construction of the three gorges dam further downstream that will provide energy for a large percentage of China in future. On the third day we stopped at Wushan city, thanks to Wang, a business student from Guangzhou who we met on the boat who was the only other English speaker on board I think, I learnt that Wushan was a new city, two years ago the original Wushan, which was now flooded due to the dam, sat below us as we sat and chatted on the boat. This was a story that was repeated for many more settlements along the river and will be even more within the next two years, as yet more villages, towns, cities are flooded, people evacuated and rehoused away from their origins to make way for the new China. This was all rather sad, thinking about what has happened to so many people's homes and lives in the past few years as they are moved away from the ancestral origins. It really is very sad indeed.
At Wushan, we had a cultural show experience with locals providing entertainment in the form of dance and local rituals at a city theatre. That evening I also sneaked onto the nice big boat and had dinner with Paul and Kiran, who I had been separated from earlier, in their nice luxury restaurant with large choice of menu. It was a very nice boat, with a nice bar to enjoy a beer and game of cards later and they even had some awful karaoke singers too, a truly typical Chinese evening experience!!!
At Wushan, we had a cultural show experience with locals providing entertainment in the form of dance and local rituals at a city theatre. That evening I also sneaked onto the nice big boat and had dinner with Paul and Kiran, who I had been separated from earlier, in their nice luxury restaurant with large choice of menu. It was a very nice boat, with a nice bar to enjoy a beer and game of cards later and they even had some awful karaoke singers too, a truly typical Chinese evening experience!!!
Left: Beautiful Wushan girls from the local cultural dance show.
Right: Mini-boat driver from the 'small three gorges' section.
The boat ended at the Three Gorges Dam which we could barely see due to the fog, but I was not too bothered about it, many people were taking a tour around the dam, but I decided it's just a big wall, some engineering and was not worth the large fee for a tour around, after all I already now how a dam works. Some Chinese I chatted a little with though seemed very proud of their marvellous engineering feat and were excited to visit. They also seemed curiously fascinated by the bridges regularly placed along the river, where many would jostle for position on the deck in order to have their photo taken with these large metal structures. Interesting to see how different things appeal to different people.
So, at this point I jumped on a bus to Yichang where I decided I would stay a night, found a nice hotel which I managed to negotiate a good price with the friendly manageress and spent one night in comparative luxury.
So, at this point I jumped on a bus to Yichang where I decided I would stay a night, found a nice hotel which I managed to negotiate a good price with the friendly manageress and spent one night in comparative luxury.
Left: Shoemaker at some stop on the "Small Three Gorges" section.
Centre: This is what the Yangtze river looks like, typically foggy.
Right: ...and one of the three gorges
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