Having heard about the Three Gorges Dam project, that when complete in about 15 years, would forever change the landscape around the river, we knew that we couldn't miss this opportunity to take a cruise down the river before all the changes.
As I mentioned in the intro. section, the cruises do not run during the winter because the river gets too low. However, I thought they ran through December. As it turned out we were able to get on the last "luxury" cruise ship for the year. The cruise was to start in Chonquin and end four days later in Wuhan.
We flew from Xian to Chonquin - about a three hour flight - and arrived there two days before the cruise. Not that there was anything to do there. We just wanted a little bit of a buffer to make sure we got there in time for the cruise. Our hotel reservations here were made by the Beijing travel agent, so we stayed in the "Chonquin Guest House". It was actually pretty nice. It was the largest hotel in the city, and it was in the center of the city.
Chonquin, being a river town, is a pretty muddy place. It also has a lot of very steep hills. No bikes here. All the men walk around with bamboo sticks that have a rope on both ends that they use to transport just about anything - across their shoulders.
There where no tours in Chonquin. Nothing much to see. So we spent the day just wandering around, looking at the river and taking the cable cars back and forth across the river. Chonquin was the only place that we felt a little unsafe at times. We didn't go out at night there. We ate in the hotel.
There was a nice restaurant in the hotel that had an interesting floor show. We were the only tourists there, and everyone made a lot of us (although no one really spoke English there)
Finally the day came for the cruise. We were to be picked up at the hotel by someone associated with the travel agency we used in Beijing, at 6:30 a.m. Fortunately, two men did show up to take us to the ship. It actually turned out to be a little frightening boarding the ship. I soon knew why two men came to take us to the boat. When the car stopped we were literally surrounded by dozens of men carrying those bamboo poles wanting to carry our luggage to the ship. I though that we would be best carrying it ourselves (we each had a small bag on wheels, and a smaller shoulder bag), but our guide pointed out that it was not going to be easy getting to the ship. He said we just needed to make sure that only one man took our luggage, versus trying to keep track of, and pay, four different men. Well, when we finally braved getting out of the car (keep in mind it was still dark out, and we were being swarmed by at least thirty men) and opening the trunk, my husband and I quickly grabbed our suitcases before anyone else could. One prospective luggage carrier was so aggressive that he literally peeled my fingers off of my suitcase and started tying it to his bamboo pole. The driver had already selected someone to carry out luggage. He had to pretty forcefully get my bag back from this guy.
We had to walk down many, many muddy, steep and
broken steps to get to the river. I had all I could do to make
it down. I would never have made it if I was carrying
anything. Then, because the river was so low, we had to
walk across a bunch of shaky planks to get to the ship.
They were just tied together, with spaces in between.
There were no handrails. I felt sure that I was going to fall
into the muddy river before I reached the ship. But I didn't.
(this is a picture taken right after we boarded the ship
showing the trek from the riverbank to the ship)
And it turned out to be 4 of the best days we've ever had.
Our guide brought us right on to the ship and made sure we got registered (again, I was so thankful to Cherry, our Chinese travel agent). Of course, the first thing the ship person did was offer us an upgrade to the top deck, where we would have a private balcony. We took it. It was worth the extra $200 or so. The ship was the "Yangzi Paradise", and it turned out to be an absolutely wonderful cruise.
The ship held about 120 people. The passengers consisted of mainly two tour groups: one of about 35 Chinese people from Singapore; and one of about 40 senior citizens from the US. My husband and I were the only ones on our own. The ship hostess was wonderful. She really took us under her wing. Of course, for all the side/shore excursions, we were grouped with the American senior citizens. They were a great bunch of people, and we really enjoyed them. They were glad to have someone under 65 to talk to. We left the ship with many new friends.
The food on the ship was OK. Fortunately the company, scenery, and excursions were great. There was one particular shore excursion, that was an all day event, that was absolutely the best. We took a long bus ride up into the mountains, where people were still living like you would imagine living hundreds of years ago. The bus took us to a small river, way up the mountain, where we boarded very small boats to go down this river through a number of breathtaking small gorges and views. It was probably the best experience of the trip.
When we reached the bottom, where the small river met the Yangzi, because the river was so low, we had to be carried (piggy back) by the boat men through the mud to the river bank. And, yes, one poor lady was dropped in the mud. We then walked through lots more (but less deep) mud to get another small boat that took us back to our cruise ship. It was the best day.
On another shore excursion we went to a place that had a huge (size of a small house) model of the Three Gorges Dam project. There was a very informative and interesting display and tour of it.
On the third day of the cruise the ship had to pass
through the world's largest boat lock. It took about 2
hours, and it was fascinating.
All through the process someone on the ship was explaining all about the lock, and how it worked.
(this picture shows one of four large ships - behind ours - that entered the boat lock, along with about a dozen smaller boats)
The ship passed through three beautiful gorges, and as we went through each one someone on the ship would explain a little about the area.
There were many other great things and events on the ship. It is definitely a cruise to take.
Fortunately, our ship hostess who was taking such good care of us (she was quite surprised to find someone traveling on their own), made a few phone calls for us to confirm our hotel reservations upon arrival in Wuhan, and to make sure that we would be picked up in the a.m.. Again, we only had hand written itineraries from our Chinese travel agent, and we were supposed to catch an early flight the next morning to Hong Kong. But we didn't know what time the flight was - they weren't able to book it before we left on the cruise (of course, we had already paid for it but we didn't have the tickets yet). Our hostess found out that our flight was at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, and that there would be someone to pick us up at the hotel (Wuhan Asia Hotel - nice hotel) at 7:00 that morning, with our plane tickets. Again, everything worked out perfectly.