Day 49 - Cruising the Yangzi

Today's the day we get to cruise down the Mighty Yangzi River - China's biggest river and the world's third longest, the Yangzi stretches for 6,300km from Tibet to the East China sea, north of Shanghai.

We awoke to the same Chinese recording at 5.30am, and speedily got ready, as it had been drummed into us that we must be at the terminal by 7am, and not wanting to be late we planned on getting there at 6.30am. Waiting for the bus we met another tourist, Helen, who spending the next 24 hours travelling and chilling with. Eventually the bus driver herded us to the bus, which didn't leave until after 8am - we could have been sleeping!!!

The bus ride to Wanzhou was great - the scenery turned out to be fantastic and we were glad not to be on the boat passing through boring industrial towns. Arriving in Wanzhou 3 and a half hours later, we made our way by taxi to the hydrofoil dock (only the second taxi we've caught in China - the first being on the very first day in China) - we had specifically asked how we would get to the dock and were told someone would be there to meet us, which they weren't!

Scrambling across fishing boats lining the shore, we boarded our hydrofoil boat - our transport for the next 6 hours - which was like a plane on water, quite small, flat but aerodynamic and filled with aisles of seating. Luckily for us our hydrofoil had an outside area above the extremely noisy engine, which gave us a viewing platform for during the trip. By the way, the "engine room is a very serious place" - good thing Ross wasn't here to get us in trouble!! We spent the next 6 hours completely amazed by the scenery, lost in our own thoughts (mainly because we couldn't talk through the engine noise!) - our only communication was when one of us decided to move from their viewing position allowing one of the others to take it up and vacate theirs! The hydrofoils are predominantly a local transport method, so we were the only ones out enjoying the view, and everyone else was inside watching t.v.
The highlights were travelling through each of the Three Gorges - we knew when the next gorge was coming by reference to the towns along the way. The first gorge was Qutang Gorge, an 8km long gorge (the shortest), which arrives dramtically, and we were suddenly engulfed by towering rock cliffs. This gorge is also the narrowest point along the way - shrinking to only 100m and causes the river flow to speed up significantly. After a short break from towering cliffs we got to enjoy the scenery of the low-lying lands. The next gorge, Wu Gorge (nick-named the Gorge of Witches), began shortly after our stop at Wushan town - Wu Gorge is 40km long and consists of 12 major peaks which rise almost 1km high on both sides of the river, including the Goddess Peak. The difference from Qutang gorge is that Wu Gorge is much greener - a nice change from the brown water of the Yangzi (the Lonely Planet refers to the Yangzi as the world's longest sceptic tank - though we prefered not to think about that!). After a total of 5 hours on the boat we came to Xiling Gorge, the longest of the three at 80km - the differentiating factor of this gorge were the mist-covered peaks. This gorge leads to the final destination of Yichang - where the monumental and controversial Three Gorges Dam rests. Since 1919 people have tried to figure out how to utilise the river's power, but it wasn't until 2006 that the US$75 Billion Dam (the world's largest) was completed, amongst much controversy: the dam will back up the Yangzi river and flood more than 2 million peoples' homes resulting in mass relocation - that's half the population of NZ - and more than 8,000 important archeological sites will be lost. However, on the other side, China is in the middle of a power crisis and the dam will provide up to a tenth of China's power needs. The dam is built to withstand an earthquake measuring 7 on the richter scale, although we were slightly distressed to learn the dam already has 100 cracks running from top to bottom - if it collapses Yichang (where we're sleeping tonight) will be wiped out within an hour - awesome. Despite the size and expectations, when we arrived the dam was clouded in fog and pollution and we were less than impressed - especially after our trip through the very impressive gorges.

We arrived in Yichang and the three of us set out about finding a place to rest our heads, in this over-priced town. We eventually found a cheapish triple room and headed out for dinner - which was unfortunately less than pleasant (in fact the worst we've had so far). The atmosphere inside the street kitchen also made the meal less enjoyable, with about 5 men determined to speak to Adam - getting closer and louder at each "ting bu dong" (I don't understand) Adam said. It wasn't until a slightly grumpy Liv turned around and stated "we don't speak Chinese, we don't read Chinese, we want to eat our dinner. Thankyou" that they left us alone - partially confused that the people who don't speak Chinese had pretty much told them where to go, in Chinese.

After a long day we headed back to bed ...

Adlibing the Yangzi through the Three Gorges.