Yangzi River Cruise, Hubei Province, China 04.05

We arrived late afternoon in Yichang, where we were to begin our river cruise on the Yangzi. We passed the time before dinner shopping in an enormous supermarket, and bought a tiny hairdryer from the electronics section for $10! Hairdryers are really portable clothes dryers when you're travelling.

We had dinner in a fancy hotel, banquet style. Most of our dinners in China were around round tables with glass turntables in the middle, like this one was. This made it easy for everyone to access the many dishes that filled the center of the table. There was always so much food left over, and we were all very full afterwards.

Aboard the Princess Sissi

At the port, we boarded our new home for the next 3 days - Princess Sissi. The entire crew was lined up on either side of the red carpet that led to the ship, waiting to welcome us on-board.. The carpet continued all the way through the ship, and up the stairs to the lobby. It was quite funny because they insisted on using the red carpet everywhere, even when it made it dangerous. The carpet was loose on the stairs, so climbing it with heavy luggage was precarious.
The cabins were very spacious, and there were two viewing decks. One at the front of the ship and the top deck. There was a huge dining room, an entertainment room with a bar, where you could sing karaoke, and another little bar. There were also two beauty and massage parlours. Well equipped!

The Three Gorges Dam
That evening they screened a movie for us about the 3 gorges dam. It was surprisingly critical of the dam. There are definitely two sides of opinion, but we would have expected China to air only the positive viewpoint.

Some of the positive aspects are that the power generated by the dam will lower the carbon emissions in China. The depth of the river will also enable shipping tankers to deliver goods by river, right to the center of China. The area was originally prone to flooding, and the dam was built to assist with this too.

Big ships passing through the lochs.

Some of the negatives are that they had to relocate 1.3 million people (2 million unofficially). Also, many archeological sites, historical villages and ancient homes are now covered in water. Some speculate that flooding is more likely now, because silt will build up near the dam, and the water won't have anywhere to go. I suppose only time will tell.

The next day, we left the ship on a bus to see the 3 gorges dam itself. We stopped to see the lochs that allow ships to move from one water level to another. We also visited two separate viewing points over the dam.

The biggest of the two, had a small museum, where we looked at a model of the entire structure. It was difficult to grasp the scale of the dam because of the fog, but the model helped us to understand just how big it really is. It's the biggest dam in the world, and the regulated water covers 660km of land. It took 10 years to complete and cost USD 24 billion.

When we returned to Princess Sissi, it was our ship's turn to pass through the 5 lochs, in order to proceed further upstream. Once the loch was full (7 ships), the huge doors closed (each was 230m x 35m). Then the water started to pour in and raise the ships to the next height. It only took 4 mins for the water to fill each loch. Overall, it was a slow process (3 hours), but by the end of it, our ship was raised 115m higher on the water level.

Evening Entertainment

That evening, the crew gave a dance performance for us. They performed some traditional dances, and were so sincere in their efforts. It was very sweet and fun to watch.

They also ran some games that involved members of the audience. Loren participated in the balloon game. In this game, you have 3 balloons tied to each foot, and you have to pop everyone elses' balloons without having your own popped. She won the game, and received a beer as a prize!

This started off a keen night of drinking, as the group taught each other many different drinking games. Karaoke was playing in the background, but it was a struggle for anyone to participate as they had so few songs.

One of the games we played was hilarious. Depending on what combination of dice you rolled, you either had to drink, fill up the glass, or make up a rule. Some of the rules included not being allowed to touch your face, having to touch your nose before drinking and pull your ear afterwards, talking without showing your teeth, and also taking the imaginary beer man out of the glass before drinking, then putting him back in afterwards. If you forgot the current rule, you had to drink. One girl in our group, Jessica, was a little tipsy, so she kept forgetting the rules, and just kept having to drink more. Very funny to watch!
Everyone ended up in our room by the end of night, playing more drinking games and listening to music. Most people from our group, along with 2 couples from New Zealand crowded into our room and partied. The main game we played was called 'Ring of Fire'. There was a rule for every card in the deck. The best was 'Medusa', where no one was allowed to look at the person who picked up a queen, until someoe else picked one up. It was a great evening, but everyone found it tough getting up in the morning.

The Beautiful Gorges

After an early breakfast, we took a little boat to explore one of the 3 gorges. It was absolutely freezing, and we were not prepared with enough warm clothing. Despite this, it was one of the most beautiful places we had seen.

Loren needs little to entertain herself - life-jacket + scarf.

Artur thought it looked a lot like New Zealand, but the mountains on either side were even bigger and more beautiful.

We saw some caves along the way, where locals used to live, and the most exciting of all was the hanging coffins on the walls of the gorge. The walls used to be cliff faces, and the coffins were precariously hung there centuries ago. Now that the water is higher, we were able to see them up close.

Hard to see, but here is one of the ancient coffins, hidden in the cliff-face.

After a while, we took some tiny, traditional boats to explore the shallower waters. These traditional boats were very different to the western style boats. The people rowing face forward instead of backwards, which really makes more sense. The water becomes so shallow at one point, that the rowers get off the boat, and pull the boat along with a rope. Two men run along the bank with the rope, and the third man pulls trees and branches out of the way of the rope.

On the way back, our boat guide sang some traditional folk songs for us. He said that boys and girls sing to one another when they want to court them. It was so hauntingly beautiful, floating quietly along the river, and then having folk love songs sung to us, acapella. We liked it so much, we bought his CD, that he conveniently had in his bag ready to sell. We got his autograph too, high five!

On-Board Games

After thawing ourselves out back on Princess Sissi, we learnt how to play a Chinese game called Mahjong. There are lots of little tiles that you have to match into pairs and triplets and runs, like in rummy. There are lots of rules, and the Chinese play it a lot in teahouses for money.

That evening, we played even more new games. Artur played his first game of Texas Hold-em Poker. He did very well, and might have won if we had more time to finish the game properly.

The next morning, the usual wake-up call wasn't working, so we missed breakfast. We managed to wake up in time to leave the boat with the others. We headed off to Fengdu, where we reached the Ghost City.

The Ghost City

The Ghost City was a huge complex of temples and statues all over a mountain. We took a cable car to the top, as it was a steep climb.The first section had two temples and 3 bridges. One temple for health and one for wealth. If you wanted health, you crossed the first bridge, if you wanted happiness you crossed the second bridge, and if you wanted wealth you crossed the third. We had the chance to cross again on the way back too. We chose the middle one, and if couples crossed this one and took 9 steps, you were promised happiness in your relationship. Fingers crossed!

One section of the mountain represented heaven with the colour red, and another represented hell with the colour blue. If you wanted to come back in the next life as a female you had to climb the steps to heaven on the right hand side, for a male it was the left hand side. The same applied for stepping over the temple thresholds. If you are female you use your right foot, if you're male you use your left.
There was an ancient stone with commandments on them. If you walk towards it blindfolded, it tells you what kind of person you are. Loren tried it, and it said she is a brave person. Someone in the group was told they were a playboy!

Before entering the temple of heaven, you have to balance on a tiny smooth stone with one foot for 3 seconds. This was the final test before entering. The temple to heaven had a statue of a man with a list of names. Your name gets crossed off when you go to heaven. If you go to hell, there is a room with figurines showing the tortures that are inflicted on people for various sins. Playboys were cut into pieces, and adultresses were turned into snakes.

There was a stone weighing 108kg, that men were supposed to be able to balance on top of a smooth curved point. Women would require their partners to prove themselves this way. It wasn't about strength, there was a skill to it. If you rocked the stone from side to side and spun it around the point, you were able to move it onto the top. This said, it is still very difficult to actually achieve.

One of the protective statues on the way to the 'hell' section.

After our mountain explorations, we took a bus through Chongqing. At one point this city was the capital of China. It was absolutely enormous! The city was filled with tower blocks and the bridge across the river was huge! We had never heard of this city before, but it was bigger than many that we had been to.

Finally we arrived at the train station where we took another long train journey. This time we were headed for Chengdu.