Day 9

Yangtze River Cruise

Date - 11 May

Weather - Rain

Accommodation - "Yangtze Gold Three"


This was our last full day on the Yangtze River and most of us woke up feeling quite tired after a broken night's sleep. Overnight there was heavy rain and a storm with persistent lightening and loud thunder which lasted for about two hours. The Chinese can also do huge storms! 


Before breakfast our boat had moored near the 12-story 18th century Shibaozhoi Temple and the accompanying Red Pavilion. Both structures sit on a 200m craggy hill. The pavilion has 9 floors of covered wooden steps that hug the hill and lead to the temple which sits high on the hill. The higher one climbs in the temple the more likely your wishes and dreams will come true. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam the base of the Red Pavilion would have been under water. A dam construction surrounds the base of the hill to keep out the water. 




It was raining when we went ashore at 8.30am and it persisted throughout our walk to the temple passing hundreds of market stalls and onto a long, wide red suspension bridge. The bridge came as a complete surprise and with at least a hundred people on it at the one time it was difficult to keep balance as it bounced up and down. 




I lost "Mike's Group" amongst the sea of umbrellas and ponchos and became subsumed into a German group as the tide of tourists shuffled their way to the Red Pavilion to climb its stairs to the temple. 




It was a relief to get inside the Red Pavilion out of the rain but there was no going back and hundreds and hundreds of tourists slowly climbed the increasingly steep and narrowing wooden stairs to the top to the temple. 




Carol and Henk decided not to climb the pavilion before stepping inside it and I met Henk when I descended a different outside set of stairs to recross the bridge. 


For those who like shopping and bargaining then this was the place to be. All the little, individual stalls were selling a huge array of items at reasonable prices. I think the sales would have been down today as the rain began pelting down and many were keen to get back onto the dry boat. 



We set sail again at 11.00am with the rain continuing and very low-lying cloud surrounding us. Water was flowing quickly down small streams from the hillsides into the Yangtze. 


It was fortunate that we didn't have any tours planned for the afternoon as the rain settled in for the rest of the day. We passed high wooded mountains, many small towns and sparse farm houses with garden plots. We also underwent a number of high bridges which span the wide Yangtze River. It was a relaxing afternoon. 


It was the Captain's Farewell Dinner and we had a tasty round-table Chinese banquet. This was followed by a concert given by some of the passengers. 


We had to have our bags outside our cabin tonight for collection at 10.30pm. We have had a wonderful time on the amazing, wide, busy and fast-flowing Yangtze River. It also has been good to be in one place for four nights. 


We will be disembarking at 8.30am tomorrow and we get to see pandas. We are excited about that! 



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