During the October Holiday in China, we took a 4 day cruise on the Yangtze River. We had a great time. We saw a very beautiful part of China. We went thru the Three Gorges and took some excrusions and finally saw the Three Gorges Dam.
I was worried that the girls would be bored on the boat. But they found plenty to keep themselves busy. Here they are the first night before we set sail. We were lucky enough to get upgraded into two huge deluxe rooms. So, penty of room to color.
We went to the top deck when we finally set sail at 9 PM. We watched the view of Chongquing, China. We were told this is the LARGEST city in the WORLD!!! Even bigger than Tokyo. Need to check that statistic out. It is a very large city though...
A view during day 2...
The water was fairly dirty/muddy. They said it was because of all the rain they had gotten. Much of the year the water is very clear...at least in this part of the Yangtze.
I am not sure exactly what this boat was doing...I just found it interesting.
Our first excursion. You will notice a grey hair gentelman in many of the pictures....and often holding the hand of Lindsay or Claire. No, it is not Grandpa. Actually, he sat at our dinner table during the cruise. There were many people on travel from USA. This is one part of their travel around China. This particuar gentlemen the twins became very fond of.
Lots and lots of Budda's...
This was the cruise ship we were on...Victoria Jenna. It is the biggest ship on the Yangtze.
Every night the crew put on a shop for the passengers. The girls loved it. Very colorful costumes and dancing.
Day 2 as we start our passage thru the 1st of 3 Gorges.
It was alittle chilly and foggy. But it was a short passage, only 20 minutes so the girls were getting ready and stayed out to watch.
This is the scene from the 10 RMB note. If you can look close, you can see it looks very much the same.
The scenry was awsome...not great for pictures with the moist air.
Day 2 we went on another excusion to the "lesser Gorges". We had to take a smaller boat and still another smaller boat to make our way down the gorges.
This is a picture of a very famous bridge, Dragon Gate Bridge. THis is the new bridge. The old bridge would be far under the water level. The town is Wushan. The entire town was flooded when the dam was built and had to be relocated in much higher land. Millions of people were relocated with this project. It was odd to thing that not many years ago, these views would have been much different.
So sweet...you coundn't image what is really in their minds!!!
We saw hanging coffins. If you look closely in the picture below, you will see a coffin in the hole.
You can see it even closer in this zoomed up picture. These have been found all over the gorges area. They have been found to contain all types of stuff including dishes and pottery...weighing 1000's of lbs. Nobody knows how they got them up there so many years ago. Of course, we are even 100 meters higher then ancient times since the dam was put in place a few years ago.
Lots of waterfalls.
This was the smallest of the boats that we took.
The girls got their chance at being a fisherman.
On our way back, the local crew (on one of the smaller boats) deceided to buy a fish from a passing fisherman. He started cleaning it on the bottom deck. Abby had to go take a look at get a picture before he shooed her off. About 20 minutes later he delivered fresh cooked fish to the captain.
Wild monkey's we spoted...
Getting ready for the captain's fairwell banquet...
Another friend the girls made...
The captain, guide and cruise director (Dick from the USA)
Claire falling asleepduring a show.
Meanwhile...Lindsay and Abby having fun on stage.
On the final night, we approached the Dam about midnight. The lights are the dam. We took a strong left to go to the locks.
Picture of the locks as we approach. We are in the downstream line waiting our turn. The other side is boats coming upstream.
In the first lock. Our boat took about half the space of the lock lenghwise. The lock is so large that ~4 ships our size could fit (and they would be touching). We went down 100 meters over the course of 5 locks and 4 hours....all night long.
The next day...ships inside the first lock going up stream.
Upstream side of the dam. The Dam is not completly finished. They are still working on a ship elevator that should take another 5 years.
Overlooking the locks part of the dam.
Right before we disembarked the ship for the last time. This is the eating hall manager. Our kids look to him. He helped them with their food each day.
We ended our trip in Yichang City. However, we could have taken a 7 day cruise and finished at Shanghai. Maybe next time!
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