Guilin Day 39 27/10/2014

We had originally planned to go by train to Guilin but after further investigation realised that the journey would take 23 hours and decided to opt to fly.  The flight time was only 1 hour with the train taking a some what less direct route!  We set off for the airport via taxi early in the morning.  We tried and failed to hail a taxi outside the hostel (it's a really busy road full of lorries offloading and loading freight for the river) so we walked up to outside the Guild Hall where we were successful.  The taxi was small and it was a struggle to fit our luggage and us in.  We checked in and headed through security.  Simon got through but Diane was stopped and had to go off to open her hold luggage (which was actually Simon's).  Simon had already had a solar charger from hand luggage confiscated at Beijing airport so we put the remaining charger in the hold luggage.  Chongqing security didn't like this and we had to take it out and put in hand luggage.  We both agreed that it probably wasn't best to get split up either side of security in future.  The flight was delayed, no idea why, but other than that uneventful.  We'd arranged for a pick up from the hostel we were staying in, Riverside Hostel.  Just under 1m people live in Guilin.  It's next to the River Li with a backdrop of karst peaks.  After checking in we had a walk along the riverside passing Elephant Trunk Hill and then round Shan lake.  In the evening we went to a nearby restaurant recommended by the hostel.  It was very busy although again we were the only westerners there.  We planned to go the Dazhi tomorrow to visit the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces which rise up 1000m and are apparently an amazing feat of farm engineering on hills dotted with minority villages.

Chongqing Day 38 26/10/2014

We arrived in Chongqing in the early hours.  After an early breakfast we said our goodbyes and watched the various tour groups disembark to the sounds of the brass band.  We were the only people not being met on arrival and wandered off unescorted (although we did get the band!).  Whilst the boat trip wasn't the type of thing we would normally do it was a great way to see the Three Gorges and a nice break from the ongoing planning and preparation with everything taken care of.  Our hostel for the night, the Yantze River Hostel, was only 10 minutes walk along the quayside and easy to find.  The docks here are much more commercialised and it would have certainly been easier to find the boat here than it was in Yichang.  We checked in and enjoyed a western coffee and caught up on admin after being without wifi for a few days.  Later we headed into Chongqing climbing the many steps up through the alleyways that lead from the quayside to the city centre.  Chongqing is the third largest city in China with 7 million people living there and apparently the fastest growing city in the world.  After Beijing and Shanghai it's deemed to be the most important and is managed directly by the central government.  We visited the Arsht temple and stilt houses and couldn't resist a trip to Pizza Hut which we'd spotted on route.  There's only so much Chinese food you can eat and neither of us were feeling 100%.  We headed back to the hostel and spent the evening catching up with friends on Skype and preparing for the next leg of our journey.

Day 37 25/10/2014

We moored at Fenjie to visit the ghost city which is actually a cluster of new temples leading to one original temple at the top of the hill.  Simon had eaten something that disagreed with him so stayed on board whilst Diane headed off with our new friends.  It was good to stretch the legs but very touristy and less impressive than some of the other temples we've seen in Japan and China.  In the afternoon we sat up in the top deck reading and enjoying the sunshine.  The final part of the trip took us through some fairly ugly industrial areas.  Our farewell dinner was table service with a selection of traditional Chinese dishes.  Ironically it was probably the least enjoyable meal we'd had on board.  It was a nice reprieve from finding somewhere to eat each night.

Day 36 24/10/2014

The 20 minute tai chi lesson wasn't that appealing and Diane decided to give it a miss.  After breakfast we took a smaller ferry and headed off down a side tributary into Shennong Stream.  The scenery was stunning with sheer cliffs and towering peaks.  Along the way we passed a number of hanging coffins.  We stopped to see the customary local show and forced wander through the souvenir shops before heading back.  Back on board and after lunch we sailed through Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge and we spent the afternoon chilling out in the warm sunshine enjoying the amazing views.  The evening entertainment consisted of crew and guests performing a range of acts from singing to magic.  The crew were OK, the guests appalling!

Day 35 23/10/2014

The Yangzi is China's longest and most scenically impressive river and the third longest in the world at 6300km.  The Three Gorges Dam, commissioned by Mao, is the world's largest at 2.3km and 101m high.  It has transformed the stretch of river through the Three Gorges as a result of significantly increasing water levels, flooding thousands of homes and displacing over 13 million people.  It is however an important source of power, although no where near the forecast level due to the ever increasing population, and has protected the downstream areas which are critically important agriculture lands providing 30% of China's food supplies, from flooding.  We both got up early, Diane to join a very short tai chi lesson and Simon to go to the gym although wasn't able to use the running machine in case it woke people up in the cabins below.  Afterwards we headed down to the restaurant and met our fellow table guests, a couple from near Hove, the couple we'd seen the night before who were from north London and an Austrian couple.  They had all booked independent trips with tour companies therefore only semi lonely people!  Over the course of the trip we got to know the English couples quite well and they proved to be good entertainment at meal times.  The Austrian couple had limited English and it was a struggle to bring them into the conversation.  We had the boat almost to ourselves in the morning as most passengers went offshore to meet a local tribe.  We watched a video on the history of the Gangzi including the building of the dam and the impact it had. When the others returned and after a large lunch the boat, Victoria Lianna, set sail through the first of the three gorges, Xiling.  The local tour host, Stephen, a rather jolly guy who spoke excellent English, gave commentary whilst we sailed through laughing at his own gorgeous gorges jokes.  Later in the afternoon we got off the boat to visit the dam.  The weather was hazy and limited the views but from what you could see it was certainly impressive.  It was interesting to hear how it was built.  The locks along side provide passage for the mass of river traffic and were probably more impressive than the dam itself.  There are two sets of five locks in all raising nearly 100m and holding up to four freight ships or cruise boats plus smaller vessels at any one time.  Later in the evening we sailed through the locks.  Watching the lock gates closing behind us was a bit unnerving knowing you were trapped inside (Simon's vivid imagination resulted in lots of references to the Gates of Mordor).  Whilst passage through each lock seemed relatively quick it took nearly four hours to go through all five.  We had a good view of the floodlight dam from the upstream side as we sailed away from the last lock.  After dinner we were given s glimpse of traditional Chinese dress through the ages by the crew.  In all the time we've been in China we've not seen one person in traditional dress excluding Mao suits.

Yangzi River Day 34 22/10/2014

After attempting to eat a traditional Chinese breakfast (definitely not something we're getting accustomed too) we headed out to complete our task for the morning - finding out where on earth the boat was docked!  We went to the local China International Travel office and established what bus we needed to get but were really unsure of how we'd work out where to get off.  However visions of something on the scale of Southampton dock gave us some comfort that we'd be able to find it.  Thinking the task was complete we popped into a coffee shop where we fortuitously met Steven, an English language teacher, and after chatting to him about where we were heading it become evident that it wasn't going to be easy after all.  He phoned a friend who was a tour operator and then another who was a taxi driver, arranging for them to collect us later in the day.  What a helpful guy.  When we  got back to the shop later there was clearly a conversation about the size of our bags and in the end his friend gave us a lift in his own car.  We were really glad of Steven's help.  The 'dock' was miles out of town along a pot holed road and was basically a bit of tarmac down a very steep road, hidden from the main road above, that the boat could moor against.  So much for Diane's grand visions of it being like Southampton!  We boarded the boat early and were pleased to get a cabin upgrade (we mustn't be looking too scruffy yet!). We settled in for our trip through the Three Gorges to Chongqing.  From our balcony we watched with 'interest' as our fellow passengers arrived on mass greeted by a brass band as they boarded the boat.  Apart from two other couples everybody else was part of a tour group and were stereotypically large, overweight Brits and Australian's with a few American's thrown in for good measure.  Dinner wasn't included on the first night however we were offered the option at cost to eat at the same time as one of the tour groups which we took advantage of.  Another couple also ate near us, the guy in particular looked unhappy about something.  As we were eating the boat tour guide (a rather scary, peroxide blond Bulgarian) came over and commented that we were the sad, lonely people travelling on our own.  What have we let ourselves in for!!??

Yichang Day 33 21/10/2014

We left early to get the 8.35am train to Yichang, the start point for our trip on the Yangzi river.  The station was very busy even at this time in the morning and we were treated to numerous renditions of Auld Lang Syne over the tannoy.  We didn't see any other westerners at the station but were joined by two in our compartment.  Mum from Manhattan on a two week vacation visiting son who is living in China for a year studying Tai Chi.  Mum was a little in shock having never seen a squat toilet before.  I guess they don't have many in Manhattan.  It was good to have their company until they departed at Wudang Shan, home of Tai Chi.  Unlike the Trans Mongolian train the lower seats were fixed and we couldn't fit our bags underneath.  Luckily we were able to put them on the top bunk but did wondered how we were going to manage on the overnight train to Hong Kong that we are planning to take.  Our train was K class which stands for kuaisu in pinyin and means fast.  It was anything but and infact there are five classes of trains that are faster!  The total journey took over 13 hours.  The scenery was green and mountainous although as a result we spent a large part of the journey in tunnels!  Despite travelling through more rural areas there was still a huge amount of construction going on which we could only assume was replacement accommodation for more traditional housing which we sure some evidence of.  We arrived in Yichang just after 9.30pm and planned to catch the local bus  - which came through the bus station but didn't pick anybody up! Instead we jumped in a taxi and arrived at our hotel.  The road outside was being dug up and work was still ongoing even this late time of night.  The hotel was OK (especially given it was only £15 per night) although the seedy call girl cards pushed under the bedroom door was a bit off putting!