Along the River

The river Yangtze is known for its flooding but has also become famous because of its huge dam, it's also popular for cruises. The dam has meant millions of people have to move and whole towns need to be rebuilt to raise them above the new height of the river 175m. In some cases the towns have saved some cultural relics, but in most cases (at least where we stopped) they've been lost. In terms of cruising or even sailing it's quite expensive so we managed to get cheap seats (i.e. none) on the floor under the smoking chimney and the other half journey we took a bus, getting covered with road (if you can call it one) dust.

Wanzhou in the Hills

Our trip took as from Wanzhou to Yichang on various boats and buses, with the boat being the preferred and more rapid choice. The views along and above the river are amazing, almost sheer cliffs reach 600m into the sky from the 170m (ish) deep water. Temples, terraces of rice and other comestibles somehow perch along these cliffs lending a wide range of different patchwork colours to the slopes. On the eastern end of our trip (Badong) there are a large number of mandarins in the trees which resemble christmas baubles from a distance. At Wushan we took a taxi over the lesser 3 gorges and a boat back, of course the taxi driver was trying to rip us off but a lovely photo of him and his car deterred him. In fact it seems that the police also take photos of people's cars when they've infringed the law (not that there are many road rules) which may be why the taxi driver changed his mind.

Wanzhou to Wushan

For the first time we ate "ge ge", a steamed meatball not a baby's first words, pretty spicy too. Of course Sichuan is well known for its spicy dishes but in fact the only thing to avoid is a horrible pepper which numbs the tongue and lips probably meaning you cannot taste the real chillies in the dish.

Simon au soleil

Sun Setting over the River

First Great Gorge

Above Wushan

Lesser Gorge

Colours of the Lesser Gorge

Simple Boat

View over Wushan