Overnight the ship moved to Fendji, the start of the 3 gorges dam cruise. 19th September 2018, after breakfast, we opted to get off the ship and walk. China is so very progressive, not yet ready to receive hoards of tourists but setting up to do so, the amount of building is extraordinary. Local people had not seen many whites, once again people stared openly. We saw museums and pagodas, temples and walked another wall, then back to the ship for, yes you guessed it, lunch....
Started the 3 gorges passage. Scenery different to what I have ever seen, high mountains. Steep and sheer cliff face for miles and miles, as Michael said, highest bunji 255 meters in SA... China can easily create one of 855 meters. Highlights were our included tour where we transferred to a smaller boat so we could get deeper into the gorge and then the optional tour which was transferring to an even smaller Saipan boat to view even further into the gorge.
In 1979 a basin was flooded to create the 3 gorges dam and 1.3 million people relocated at the government expense. The ship was sailing over these people’s original houses. My understanding is that the Yangtze River only became navigable after this was done and the ship lifts and lochs created. It starts in the mountains in Tibet all the way to the sea in Shanghai. Back to the boat to the continuation of our journey through the 3 gorges to Yichang city. This sailing rivals anything I have seen from the side of a cruise ship and more. Explanation was in English but the volume so loud that it hurt our ears, well when changed to Chinese it tripled in pitch. Perhaps my ear is just not used to this, it actually hurts.
Onto the Captains farewell dinner, a served meal. Well that means instead of getting your own food buffet style, all of the dishes are placed on a lazy Susan for you to dish up onto your own plate, so like tapas. Not as nice as all the other meals. Then onto the cabaret, the dancers doubled up as our waiters, house cleaner, even one of the chefs. Lovely dances relevant to the 3 gorges and hot pot cooking, famous in this area. We were pulled onto the dAnce floor to do the marakena and ymca, lots of fun.
Hotpot cooking is a boiling pot in the middle of the table filled with water and spices. Uncooked food is placed on different plates which you then pick up and cook by yourself. We did not try this. Too much hard work!!
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