Charm of China - Part 3: Chongqing and Yangtze River Cruise

We next traveled to Chongqing to board a boat for a four day river cruise experience.

We had a fairly early flight Tuesday morning so the hotel prepared a "breakfast box" to go since we were not able to partake in the giant breakfast buffet.  Bus #4 arrived at the Beijing airport where we followed Toby to check in and security.  This is where the TSA type guy scrutinized our battery packs to double check they fall within the standards.

At the gate, they gave us an odd boarding card to carry on the bus from the terminal to the plane.  Why our ticket wouldn't do the trick, I have no idea.  It's not like it would be easy to run across the tarmac to then figure out which plane (out of a ton) was yours.  Our plane was flown by Chongqing Airlines and I was amazed that such a large plane was used for a domestic flight going only about 2.5 hours.  To give you an idea of the size, in coach there were two aisles and each row had a total of roughly 10 seats across.

We landed and grabbed all the luggage to then hop on another bus.  Pretty much every bus had a convenient deal where you could purchase water bottles (like 3 for ¥10) from the driver.  The hotels gave us one bottle per day, but we needed more than that with all the walking we did!

The local guide told us about the city as we drove to lunch at a really pretty hotel space.  Chongqing is relatively large city [that I not heard about]: 18 million people live in the city and 30 mil in the municipality.  It was heavily bombed during WWII, but it was hard for the Japanese to see and do more damage because of the mountain and mist (100+ days of fog/year).

There was construction EVERYWHERE!  Most of the cities we visited were building condos/apartments and more in bulk.  When I say condos, imagine very tall cloned buildings [like in groups of 10 or more]....  I could not imagine that being in Austin.

I snapped this shot of a scooter with gloves attached.  Tons of people had these gloves and some had a blanket like thing attached as well to keep the chill off while scooting around town.

these almost look like fighting gloves

 After lunch, we went to the zoo to see... PANDAS!  [both regular and red (also called lesser pandas)]  They were oh so cute.  Enjoy the photos below.

eating some bamboo

looks like this little guy is waving at us

bamboo around the zoo

After a short visit to the zoo, we hopped back on the bus and were dropped off to board the river boat.  The "port" was not what I would have pictured.  We walked along the river area and had to go through a construction zone (building a pier?!) before we crossed through another boat to step onto Sinorama Gold 8.

lobby area

Two people on our bus had room 8888 (presidential suite).  Eight is a very lucky number in China and four is bad, so people try not to get license plates with 4's.  We were pretty lucky with room # 8308.  Our room was spacious for a boat and we LOVED our balcony.  Mom and Dad did not get to enjoy their balcony a few years ago when they toured China in October due to really bad pollution.  We spent quite a bit of time sitting on the balcony watching the sights glide by us.

We had time to hang out and enjoy the boat and skyline before we set sail.  The boat was docked near a neat bridge across the river and a tram that had a gondola like thing go back and forth transporting people from one side to the other.

tram

skyline at night

All meals were provided buffet style on the boat (minus the last night's farewell dinner).  The fresh bread was delicious, I ate it as my dessert!  Drink serving is very different compared to the US.  We are used to our drinks being refilled almost before we ask.  In China, we got to choose water, coke (warm...) or beer for your one small glass at the beginning of the meal.  The only multi-refill exception is hot tea!

Our first excursion was to Shibaozhai (Precious Stone Fortress) to see some neat architecture that was built during the Ming Dynasty (sometime between 1368 - 1644).  When the Three Gorges Dam was built, the Chinese had to take measures to protect the relic so they constructed a concrete ring around the base to keep fortress from flooding.

notice the concrete that was added around the base of the island on the left

You have to cross a very funny wobbly bridge to see the fortress in person.  The bridge swayed to and fro as you kept walking to your destination.  Made us look like we were drunk people trying to walk.

view from the top window

wobbly bridge

Our cruise ship

We tried out massages at the boat's spa.  It was slightly different than one at home, but my back was happy to get the knots out.

We gathered several times throughout the cruise with the family to play games.  I like to chat and watch and read my Kindle.  Don't worry, I did join in a handful of times.  One time I was out on the desk with the horn blew.  OUCH!!!  It was extremely loud and startled me - wonder if I jumped.

The next day we had a full itinerary.  First up was a ferry tour of one of the lesser gorges.  This allowed us to travel deeper into the Three Gorges region where we passed some more remote towns and saw a hanging coffin.  You can see from the first photo that it was a bit hazy that morning, but I think that made the area seem veiled and more interesting.

After the ferry tour, we had lunch back on the boat before reaching our next destination - the Three Gorges Dam Project.  The dam is the world's largest power station and was very impressive to see in person.  It is over a mile long!!  Around 1.45 miles to be a tad more exact.

funicular from the boat to the bus area

After a 30 minute or so bus ride to reach the project area, we stopped at a viewing spot that overlooked the 5 step lock system.  Our boat did go through these locks later that night after midnight, but I was so tired and did not step out on the balcony to watch as we progressed through.  I think it took about 3 or so hours from start to finish, maybe longer.  S's dad was the only one from our group that woke up to see what the fuss was all about.  We saw the lift they were building that is like an elevator for boats and will cut the travel time from one side of the dam to the other to only about 30 mins!

lock area

We then got a more up close and personal look at the dam itself. It is very massive.  Unfortunately we did not get to do a dam tour like at the Hoover Dam.  This was as close as we got:

The next day after passing through the locks, we embarked on a part of the trip that was optional and a surprise!  It was the Water Village.  It is not advertised on the itinerary because it is not open year round, but boy was it worth it!!  The village was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  It gives you a sense of what this area was like pre-dam (since we are below the big one).  It reminded me of hiking in the mountains in the States were you follow a pretty creek into a canyon.

walkway to the village is on the left along the cliff

beautiful area

apparently Apple featured a photo here for an ad

After a very lovely guided walk of the water village and a "wedding ceremony," we returned to the boat for lunch and continued down the Yangtze until we reached Yichang.  It was there we had to go through another dam (only one lock).  It was nice to be awake this time to see the process.

I literally touched the wall of the lock we were so close to the side

lowering (gate closed)

the parting of the gates

And we're off!

lock watching

Our time on the boat ended the next morning as we disembarked at Jingzhou.  After getting our land legs back, we had lunch and toured the Jingzhou museum.

"ear cups"

I apologize I do not remember what this neat fortress was called, but the part below was a trap for enemies.  They thought they broke in when they made it through the first gate.  Little did they know they were then surrounded!

Some tour companies continue down the river to Wuhan, but that takes another day and a half or so instead of a 3 hour bus ride.  It was neat to see the countryside scenery on that bus journey.  Halfway through we stopped at a gas station with very odd snacks.  I was not feeling like taking a food adventure that day, so passed up the snacks.

Next up on this Asian escapade is Wuhan and Shanghai!