Yangtze River Cruise Day 1

The Yangtze river cruise was one of the things I was most looking forward too when we booked this tour through China.

The first day of the cruise started at 7am, when we went up to the top deck to watch the ship enter the first gorge - Xiling (said shilling) gorge. We were offered green tea and coffee to help wake us up as it was so early.

At 8.30am it was time to go ashore for our first excursion - the three gorges dam. We got a very close view of the outside of the dam, unfortunately the turbines are now enclosed so we were unable to see any of the inner workings of the hydroelectric dam. The dam wasn't supposed to be finished for at least another 2/3 years, but the efficiency of the chinese workers means that the dam should be finished and fully operational by the end of 2008.

The three gorges dam is an amazing feat of engineering and it is huge. It encorporates a 5 step ship lock and very soon with have a working ship elevator. It takes on average 4hrs to pass through all 5 steps of the ship lock.

When we got back on the ship it was lunch time. The buffet style meals were fantastic, with a wide variety of chinese food. We ate a lot, trying everything that was on offer.

After lunch, we entered the ship lock and our cabin got quite dark because the walls of the lock were very high. I took this opportunity to catch up on my sleep and had a 4hr nap! I was very refreshed when I woke up later and ready for the afternoon lecture on the Yangtze river.

The lecture didn't really tell us anything interesting about the Yangtze, just that it was foreign explorers that named it the Yangtze and that local chinese people know it as the "long river".

The Captain held a welcome banquet before dinner which our tour went too. We were given champayne and there were some nibbles. Unfortunately the Americans, Dutch and Germans on the ship polished off the nibbles before we could even get close, so our tour just made do with the endless champayne refills - lovely jubbly!

There was some evening entertainment in the bar - a fashion show of all the lovely silk clothes that were sold in the lobby area. The clothes were fantastic but totally made in delicate, chinese lady style, not tall, western lady style.