Let's start with the positive: our cruise on the Victoria Anna downstream on the Yangtze River. First of all, to get to our ship we had to take a cable car down from the hills of Chongqing to the riverbank where our ship was anchored. We had quite a panoramic view of the area where the Jialing River joins the Yangtze. The Jialing River has green water and is relatively clear, while the Yangtze is a muddy brown. When you look back at the city, you can see how hilly Chongqing is. People do not ride bicycles there because it is too hard to get around the many hills with them.
When we checked in for the cruise, we were given the opportunity to upgrade our cabin. As tempting as it was to consider the Shangri-La suite, Ted decided that a Junior Suite would fit the bill, which it did nicely. We had two single beds but also two arm chairs and a desk, plus a balcony. It was just enough extra room to make it more comfortable. Along with that, we were able to have our breakfast and lunch in a special dining area called The Top of the Yangtze, on the 5th deck, which served only the suite occupants. Those two meals were served buffet style, not only for us, but also for those in the regular dining room on the 1st deck. Our cabin was on the 4th deck, just steps away from theYangtze Club (which included the bar).
Our first night was the only night that we sailed all night, and the motion was just gentle enough to rock us to sleep. Our beds were very comfortable, too.
The next morning we had our first shore excursion to Fengdu, the "Ghost City." The old town of Fengdu is located on the north bank of the Yangtze. Other than the tourist shops that are still located outside the entrance to the "Ghost City," the rest of Fengdu has been relocated to the south side of the river. More than 1.5 million people in the Yangtze River area will have been relocated to new towns by the time the Three Gorges Dam is completed in 2009 and the final flooding of this area occurs. We walked up a grand total of 628 steps to the top of Mt. Mingshan, passing along the way different temples and statues that reflect Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Also, the site reflects Chinese beliefs in the afterlife, or the "ghost" culture. It was quite a workout to climb up all those steps in the heat and humidity that day, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views from the top of the mountain.
Photos from Fengdu: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zszg
During the climb up, we began chatting with a British couple we had encountered when we checked in and were checking out the different suites available for upgrade. Alan and Helen hail from Manchester, England, and had taken the Shangri-La suite that we had seen. We were getting along well, so after our return to the ship we agreed to meet in their cabin for a drink and chat before lunch.
We had the afternoon free, so Ted opted to head up to the top deck and watch the scenery, while I finally located an outlet that I could use to plug my laptop in to transfer photos to my external hard drive and rename them, since I hadn't done so in a couple of days. It was a relaxing afternoon for both of us, a nice change from several days of touring nonstop.
That evening was the Captain's welcome reception and our first meal in the main dining room. We were pleased to discover that we were seated with Alan and Helen, as well as two couples from Bogota, Colombia. Only one of the women spoke any English, so I ended up speaking with them in Spanish during the meal. After dinner guests were invited to a "Fashion Show" of music, dance, and native dress from the different regions of China, performed by the crew. The native dress as well as the dances were very interesting and well done. We spent the night anchored in Fengdu.
The ship took off early in the morning, and around 6:45 we entered the first of the three gorges that make up this area of the Yangtze. The Qutang Gorge is the shortest of the three gorges at 8 km, and some say it is the most beautiful. Many people headed out to capture the views, but some of us (including yours truly) discovered the havoc that taking a camera from an air-conditioned room to a humid outdoor environment can wreak. In my case it was exaserbated by Ted's liking to turn the AC down as low as it can go during the night. My cameras (the digital SLR, the video, and even the point and shoot) all rebelled at the changed from the cool room to the warmer outside. On top of that, it began to rain, which added even more humidity. I had to wait over an hour for the two still cameras to cooperate, and the video camera took until later in the day to recover from the moisture.
Our shore excursion that day was to view the Lesser Three Gorges in the Daning River, a tributary of the Yangtze. It rained during most of the excursion. First we boarded a ferry that shuttled us from our ship down the first two gorges of the Daning River. The Daning River was surprisingly green after the brown Yangtze, and as we headed down the river, we were able to view close up the three different gorges: the Dragon Gate Gorge, the Misty Gorge, and finally the Emerald Gorge. Since this river is more narrow than the Yangtze, we were better able to appreciate the beauty of the sheer cliffs and the clouds hanging over them. It was a rainy day, so we had plenty of mist and clouds. Along the way we saw some hanging coffins, which were used by people living in the area during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th centuries). No one really knows why they decided to suspend coffins high up in small caves in the cliffs. 
In the third gorge, the Emerald Gorge, we were transferred to small sampans for our journey down this gorge. We didn't go all the way to the end, but we did get a better experience for travelling in these gorges. Before the Three Gorges Dam project, the Daning River wasn't deep enough to allow ferries like ours to travel far down, so the area is now enjoying increased tourism as a result of the higher water levels. We also saw monkeys in the trees near the docks where we transferred to the sampans.
Photos from the excursion: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zs0e
Once again we had a free afternoon to enjoy the views as we travelled through the second of the Three Gorges, the Wuxia Gorge, and then eventually into the third gorge, the Xiling Gorge. At 6:45 we finally approached the famous Three Gorges Dam, ready to begin our passage through the locks. Not only is the size and magnitude of the river truly hard to imagine without viewing it in person, the immensity of this dam almost defies description. The dam itself, including the locks, spans over a mile in width. It is the largest hydroelectric dam project in the world, although we were told that the Hoover Dam in AZ is taller. Our progress through four locks took a little over 3 hours. Normally there are five locks to pass through, but the river level is lower in summer to prevent flooding from the summer rains, so we were able to skip the first lock. We were able to watch our progress through the dining room windows as we ate our final dinner on board. As I had never before passed through ship locks, this process was fascinating.
After dinner, while finishing up our passage through the locks, we were presented with a cabaret show courtesy of the crew and some guests. Most people didn't stay up very late as we'd been up early to see the first gorge.
Our Fourth of July began with yet more rain, but we headed out for our last shore excursion to the Three Gorges Dam. Unfortunately our views of the dam were shrouded by the clouds and mist from the rain. Nevertheless, the project is still impressive. There is a model of the dam that made it easier to understand how the whole project is set up. We had our last lunch with Alan and Helen and then went to our room to await our call to meet our local guide once we'd docked in Yichang.
Photos from our last shore excursion plus the silk embroidery in Yichang: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zs08
We didn't have to wait very long to meet Helen, who arranged for a local porter to take a hefty stick and ropes to carry our two suitcases in the rain to our waiting car. We had time to stop in a local silk embroidery museum on the way to the airport. This type of embroidery is typical of the Chu style and can be quite detailed. From there we headed to the airport to have a soda while we waited to be able to check in for our flight to Beijing.
Yichang Airport is very small, only four gates. We waited in the waiting area and got to visit with others from our ship who were also waiting for flights. Our flight began to board a little bit late, but no problem. We got partway down the jetway when everyone was told to turn around and return to the building. We weren't sure whether the problem was mechanical or weather-related at that point. A while later, we were called to board again. Once we boarded, we ended up sitting there for about two hours with NO AC!!! Apparently there were bad storms in Beijing that were preventing us taking off. People were standing up in the aisles and talking when the plane began to move. No notice to the crew or the passengers that we were leaving!
Around 8:00 we finally left, and all seemed well. Another false illusion: we had just been served a dinner (rice, stir-fried cabbage, some hot dogs and pineapple in a sauce, and a small piece of sausage--not great!) when suddenly we noticed that the plane began to descend. The next thing we knew, we heard that we were being diverted to another city (turned out to be Zhengzhou). We landed, parked away from the terminal, and sat on board for over an hour before we were off-loaded to some buses and taken to the terminal. No word other than there was bad weather in Beijing. Eventually we saw about 8 planes lined up in a row and saw other passengers off-loaded from their planes.
We sat in the terminal and waited and waited for an announcement to tell us (in English) what was happening. There were announcements, but only in Chinese. Around 11:30 other flights began to be called to go back to their planes and continue their flights. We continued to wait and wait. Around 1:30 we finally found out that our flight had been cancelled because our crew had too much air time and couldn't fly any more that night. When we found out that the flight had been cancelled shortly after we arrived in Zhengzhou and we weren't told, everyone got very angry. We witnessed some heated arguments amongst the Chinese passengers, and the airport service people weren't being very helpful. About this time we were offered a hotel in town, but since it wasn't totally clear when the flight would go out in the morning, a group of 8 Americans and Brits elected to stay in the airport to make sure we didn't miss the flight when it went out.
Photos of the airport mess: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zs2W
In the meantime, a group of the Chinese passengers were trying to negotiate with an Air China representative for monetary compensation for the disruption of their travel plans. All we English speakers cared about was getting to Beijing! We tried to sleep as best as we could. Around 6:30 we were told that the flight should go out at 9:30 and had a woman there who explained to the Air China rep our concerns regarding the lack of communication for the foreigners. They gave us a breakfast (at least the rice was edible) and some tea while we waited.
9:30 rolled around, and we were still waiting to board. Finally at 10 there was a "last call" notice to board (we thought it ironic that there'd never been a FIRST call). Things are looking good. False illusion once again!! We waited on board over an hour and a half (at least the AC was on) to leave, all because there was still a group of Chinese passengers refusing to board unless Air China catered to their monetary demands. Knowing that this kind of a disturbance would result in people being hauled off by airport security, we were frustrated seeing that their airport security did absolutely NOTHING and the pilot and first officer let the female flight attendants deal with the male passengers who were getting increasingly upset about not departing.
The impasse finally came to an end and we departed Zhengzhou. The flight to Beijing was uneventful (although we couldn't use the back toilet) and our luggage arrived quickly. We were happy to see that our guide was waiting for us, although we found out that she and the driver had waited until 3:00 AM expecting our flight to arrive. Sally, the guide, had been equally frustrated with trying to get information from Air China.
We checked into our hotel, showered, and then went to a local restaurant in a hotel to have lunch. After that, we drove out to the Summer Palace, which was built by the emperors in the 12th century. It is the largest royal park and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We strolled around the park and learned about the different buildings in the park. The Summer Palace is known for having the longest covered corridor in the world (Guiness Book of World Records) and also has a marble boat in Kunming Lake, which abuts the park. Ted wasn't thrilled about visiting the Summer Palace, but, by the time we finished our visit, was sufficiently impressed with the scope and size of the park, as well as with the efforts made to maintain the buildings. It is truly a lovely place to meander on a summer day--no wonder the emperors went from using it as a hunting ground to establishing a summer residence there. We even saw some sun!! (Note: Beijing is notorious for being extremely smoggy as well as being cloudy during the summer rainy season)
Photos of the Summer Palace: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zs20
We returned to the hotel shortly after 6:00 and are going to make it an early night. Tomorrow: the Great Wall!!
86 °F
Nevertheless, what an experience to say that we've climbed the Great Wall! Part of our climb involved an incline without steps, other parts had many series of steps. Since it was so hot, we elected to stop at the first major tower, rest for a bit in the shade of the tower, and then head back down. At the bottom, we met up with our guide and had a cold drink. While resting, we watched a woman paint scenes with her hands, not using any brush, and ended up buying the obligatory "I climbed the Great Wall" shirt. 
25 °F
