Day 8 - 21 Apr 2014

The first full day on the cruise. Woke early and went up to deck 6 for an early bird coffee. Don't think I will worry about early bird coffee on other days, China does not do coffee well.

The M.S.Yangtze2 set sail at 7.00am and enters the first gorge (Xi-Ling Gorge).


As we had booked onto the optional tour we had an early breakfast (7.30). There was a good selection of both Western and Chinese cuisine. Michael, as per normal, ate predominately Chinese, whilst I had an omelet to go with some Chinese dishes. The food was plentiful, varied, interesting and on the whole quite tasty.

Whilst waiting for the excursion to begin I took some photos of the gorge and its surroundings.

The optional tour was a tour of The Tribe of Three Gorges. The day was misty to rainy, mostly light showers.
It would have been a very pleasant walk if it had been less crowded and the weather had been better. For all this I thoroughly enjoyed the walk. It was a bit like attending a theme park where the surrounds were natural and they had added some touristy experiences and photo opportunities.

Hanging Coffins

The wedding ceremony.

There had been a fair amount of rain the last couple of days so we had to take a detour at one stage as the path was underwater.

Back on the boat for lunch and off to visit the three gorges dam.
Some photos on way to the Three Gorges Tour.

The beginning of the Three Gorges Tour

A series of photos of the locks.

Some scenery on bus drive to the dam.

A model of the three gorges dam.

The Dam complex

The town which had been built to accommodate the dam workers, and to house the displaced original residents.

Another view of the workers town.

The Symbol of the Dam

Some scenes of countryside from the Dam

And back to the boat.
Some scenes on our return journey.

The Captains Welcome Party. 
Reasonable wine was served and numerous glasses were consumed by most. The nibbles were descended on by the hordes. I could not be bothered fighting my way through the crowd as we were to have dinner straight after.

The crew put on a dance.

The captains welcoming speech in Chinese was interpreted by one of the ships director(Herbert) in English

After diner Michael and I headed up on deck to watch the vessel navigate the first lock.