September 20 (Sunday) – Yangtze River

First activity of the day (after breakfast) was a shore excursion to the White Emperor City. It was build a thousand years ago but destroyed in a war and rebuilt about 300 years ago so it is considered “new” (time is relative in China). The city was built high on a hill overlooking the Yangtze River and is accessed via a bridge. The bridge is currently about 50 or 60 meters above the water level but once the lake is full it will have only be about 10 meters clearance.

Then we hit the first of the three gorges…Qutang Gorge. It is the shortest of the three and very pretty. The heavy rains last night cleared out the worst of the haze but the skies remain.   




















 

















We hit the Wu Gorge right at lunch time. We delayed lunch for a while then grabbed a real quick bite. By the time we got back to our cabin (did most of our viewing from our front deck) the rains had started again. Fortunately the rain let up by the time we got to Ba Dong where we transferred to a tour boat to go to a small river (Shen Nong Stream).




































When we arrived at the stream we transferred to small boats rowed by a crew of five or six. At the point where the stream became rapids the rowers got out and pulled the boat, as was done in the old days. It was a fun, jolly trip with our local guide singing some traditional songs. These tourist excursions provide badly needed jobs in the area since many farmers were displaced from their lands by the rising waters. These jobs allow them to stay in the area they had always called home.












Video in a new window, Song, Shennong Stream


Video in a new window, Tourist Boat, Shennong Stream


We sailed through the third gorge after dark…sorry to have missed it but apparently the waters have risen the most here and the gorge is no longer quite the site it used to be. We arrived at the set of five locks around 10:30 at night.


Yangtze River Album