Yichang, the freezing cruise begins

We boarded the boat in the evening at Yichang, for our cruise on the Yangtze river after seeing the 3 gorges dam construction site earlier in the day. That was a pretty boring waste of time, where we were subjected to a view of the dam from about seven thousand different 'viewing platforms'. If you ask me, a giant piece of concrete looks pretty similar whichever way you look at it. It was worthwhile going though, as it is an enormous project and we got to hear the official propaganda spiel of everyone is happy with the dam and its construction, everyone is happy with its effect on their surroundings etc ( including the thousands who have lost their livelihood as a result of it!).

All in front of the 3 gorges dam

        I have never been as cold as i was that first night on the boat, with no heating and out on the river i was literally wearing all the clothes i have brought and still cold! Made my backpack light on the plus side though. 

Coffin in the wall, on the Yangzte

       After miraculously surviving the first night on the boat the cruise continued the second day, a much better day. We took a detour off of the main gorges to go down the Shennong stream, a lesser tributary of the main gorges. It was a fantastic journey, and we later transferred onto small gondola style boats to continue further up the stream as it got shallower. The guys rowing these boats were soo strong its ridiculous. When the stream got too shallow to continue, they jumped out into the freezing knee high water and literally pulled these gondolas( still full of about 20 people) around over the rocks, turned us around and started sailing again, without breaking into a sweat! The total row was 3km each way. God i felt lazy sitting in that boat, it was really humbling seeing people work so hard, complaint free, something you'd never see 'back home!'

Me in restaurant

        In the evening of the second day we departed the boat (thank god!) for an overnight stay in a hotel. the third day was pretty much a day of travel, but we did have lunch in a restaurant with possibly the best location in the side of a cliff you'll ever see

(see pics). It even had a bungee platform outside where people were jumping to S club 7. Oh yeah, gotta get that cheese fix in there!

Me on the boat, 7:30 am

On a small raft(wasn't trying to look cool there!)

Three gorges dam

Tough guy's turning boats by hand!

View from my room!

View on the Yangzte

Where the restaurant was