Yangtze River Cruise

After our bike "trek" through part of rural China, we were picked up by our guide once again and taken to the Guilin airport. A short one hour flight later, we were picked up by yet another guide and taken to the dock of the cruise ship (after a short stop at a liquor store for wine, beer and snacks). See what I said about Chinese guides? Indispensible!

Before I begin the "story" of the cruise and the sights, I would like to describe our ship. In 1993, the princess Elaine and many other ships were part of a Russian commission for a German boat building company. When all of the ships were finished, the Russians were unable to pay for three of them, and so the Chinese bought them. I'm sure they bargained hard and got a good deal. We sailed on the Princess Elaine with about 200 other passengers. Equipped with five decks, 124 cabins, staffed by 150 staff crew and complete with two bars and two dining rooms, one small spa and tiny gym, and many gift shops. It was a comfortable ride, and yet nothing like the over opulent ride we had last Christmas. At 424 feet in length, its top speed was 22 knots upstream and 30 knots downstream (our trip). Our room was small but comfortable. We had two really narrow and short bunks, but a private bathroom with shower. For me, the highlight of the room was the Russian refrigerator bolted to the wall- 15 years later, the thing still works very well.

So we loaded up on Wednesday night but we actually set sail early the next morning. The first day is a bit of a blur both literally and figuratively. The weather was mostly overcast and it rained a bit- I just reviewed my photos and so I know that we stopped the boat for an excursion to an out of the way temple (Fengdu Ghost City), but I really don't have any good shots of it. There were activities on the boat like Tai Chi, Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture/acupressure lectures, and pearl and silk embroidery seminars. I also had one trusty book stashed in my suitcase, so the day passed easily.

Second day started as moodily- misty mountains and rain hitting against the deck of the ship. The air however, was so fresh, that it was a pleasure to be outside. Armed with my camera and iPod I went out. I have very few photos of this part of the day- except for the bridge. The following was on my playlist:

1. Pie Jesu- Origen from Andrew Lloyd Weber (chilling and reverent)
2. The Message- Hugh Fraser Quintet from In the Meantime (moody and my Canadian content)
3. Lay it on the Line - Triumph (had to bang my head a little)
4. Still Loving You- Scorpions (heard someone while on the streets in Guilin trying their best to hammer this really tough song- no one but Klaus Meine is Klaus Meine- and could not get it out of my head)
5. Me, Myself and I- Joan Armatrading
6. Hide and Seek- Imogen Heap from Speak for Yourself

They are all a bit dark and broody songs, but it was a good reflection of the day. I would have listened to more, but we had to prepare for a shore excursion. We loaded a smaller boat, much like the one we took on the Li river, and sailed to Shennong Inlet. There we broke into smaller groups and loaded on smaller boats that were paddled by about 5 men. At one point the river gets to shallow to paddle, and so the men get out and pull the boat up the stream. This apparently is sort of a re-enaction of historical days when they lived at the head of the inlet, but traveled to the mouth for economic purposes. Now it is strictly done for tourism. Frankly a little embarrassing to have these very lean men pull these boats full of less than lean people from all over the world. We went up the river to the shallow part just so that they could pull us, and then returned back to our starting point. The entire excursion took 4 hours.

Certainly the highlight of that day was the entrance to the Three Gorges for which the Yangtze is famous. While the first gorge was shrouded in mist and rain, the other two ( the last one is segmented into two parts by the locks), the other two were much easier to see and photograph. They are every bit as amazing as you thing that they would be. The photos do not necessarily do them justice. Passing through all three gorges is a three hour affair.

Just before dinner, we entered the first set of locks on the river. While this particular technological feat is quite amazing and certainly useful, it really did not hold my interest. This is an opinion that I was soon to revise. I grew up near some locks, and have visited the ones near Ottawa. These are much greater in size and importance. It was quite stunning to sail up the the gate, wait for the other ships to join us, and then watch the side walls go higher, and higher and higher. The schedule said that it would take about 2.5 hours to pass through the locks, but I think it might have taken a little longer.

On our last full day of the cruise, we stopped and had a tour of the Three Gorges Dam Site. It unfortunately was very foggy that morning; taking photos was nearly useless. There is a good interpretive site and there were tons of visitors. Although the dam is functioning, they expect it to work at full capacity later this year. We witnessed many of the new towns that have been constructed to replace the old towns and villages that have been flooded in early phases of the dam's operation. We then re-embarked, finished the last gorge and passed through another, much smaller, set of locks.

We had lots of lovely evenings with new friends and old. We drank smuggled in beer and wine on the top deck while waiting for dinner. We learned how to play mah jong and played it very late one night. The beds were even soft by Chinese standards.

We sailed all night and finally arrived in Wuhan, slightly later than scheduled. We met yet another guide, who took us to the airport and helped us catch our flight to Beijing.