Rolling, Rolling on the River

We landed in Yichang and got on the bus.  It was, of course, about an hour drive to the river cruise on the Sanctuary Yangzi Explorer.  We were going up the Yangzi River for a four day cruise.  We arrived at the ship around 10:00 pm, and everyone was a bit bleary-eyed from the long day.  

Our room is great, and this is our sixth ever cruise (Athens-Istanbul, Alaska, Antarctica, Irrawaddy River cruise, the Arctic, and now the Yangzi.  It's our first ever cruise with our own balcony (small, but we've enjoyed it several times so far).  All of the rooms have a small balcony.

At 3,915 long, the Yangzi, or Yangtze in English, is one of the two main rivers in China (the Yellow being the other).  It is fabled in history, and our cruise was to take us from just above the controversial Three Gorges Dam through the Three Gorges, and further west.  Rivers in China run west to east, and that means, at this length, the Yangzi is fed by the melting snow of the Himalayas to start.

Breakfast was early, and we headed back off the ship and onto a bus.  Once again, our destination was an hour away.  In Hong Kong, every place was a 0.7 mile walk, in China, everything is an hour bus ride!  That’s not completely true, but it sure seemed that way. 

After a bit of a drive off the river, the road spent some time hugging the river along cliffs.  The driver would honk incessantly, as we were going around blind curves on what seemed only slightly larger than a one-way road.  When I had my eyes open, there were beautiful views across the river.  We survived the twisty drive, and I don’t think the bus actually forced any other vehicles off the road, over the cliff, and into the water.

We visited members of the Tujia Tribe to learn some about their culture.  It was a beautiful setting up a stream.  When the dam was built, their village was flooded, so they had to move.

It was a bit Disney-fied for my taste.  They were all in native costumes, some were singing into microphones, others were playing music.  There was a show in a small outdoor theater.  It was interesting, but only to a degree, as it was not authentic.  A bit to fake for my taste.

Pros of the onshore excursion: Beautiful scenery, the waterfalls, and seeing monkeys. 

Cons: It was a bit too Disney for me.  Nothing wrong with Disney, but not what I want to do on a Nat Geo tour.  As I told Leo, it was inauthentic, and we’re looking for authentic.
 

It was fine to go, but of all the things we’ve done on the trip thus far, it was by far the least appealing to me.