We did arrive a bit too late last night to update, so to close last night’s entry: All good. We arrived almost on time in Yichang, our new guide, Yao, was there to pick us up and drive with us (+ driver) to the harbour. We got our cabin on the ship and had a short, uneventful evening. The ship itself is not the youngest anymore, but well maintained with really friendly staff. 

I have to be a bit cautious with posting pics for the next few days as there’s no wifi on the boat (OK, there is a small internet café where you can buy a few MB for an outraging price, but that’s it) so I am relying on my rented Chinese SIM in my MiFi….as data volume on this is limited I can’t send all the pictures I’d like to – but will post more when in a hotel a few days from now.

Anyway: We started quite early this morning with a slow cruise of about an hour heading east from where we boarded. Stayed there for a few hours and then headed back to the original place close to the 3 gorges project. Along this route we really did enjoy the great scenery:

The picture above and the next few show parts of an artificial ancient city built for tourist, but still a nice view, right? 

Definitely built in a nice area of the river:

…and partially with a real authentic touch…

We also had a little guest during our stay on the sun deck:

Some views were just awesome:

…guess the tree is not recently built….same for the eagles…

While driving towards 3 gorges project, we really found some nice spots:

Oh, and in case you didn’t believe the village is recently built: Here’s the proof it’s still being extended:

Nature along the Yangtze (Ok, the few kilometres we’ve seen so far) is really fantastic. We really love the scenery:

The next picture shows the temple close to where we boarded our buses to the 3 gorges tour. In older times (so we were told) the traveler who had to do the dangerous trip through the 3 gorges did the prayer for safe travels in here:

The dam itself, spanning more than 2.3km, is extremely impressive. I assume most of us have mixed feelings about relocation of 1+ million people but this is (sorry – repeat) an extremely impressive piece of work. See yourself:

Right now we’re in the first of five ship locks we have to pass in order to continue our journey on the long river:

 

 

Next update tomorrow – stay tuned

/Chris