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The next portion of the trip was a river cruise on the Yangtze. Craig has wanted to cruise the Three Gorges area ever since he saw Michael Palin's visit in his Full Circle series almost 20 years ago (1997). At that time, the Three Gorges Dam project was four years in, with a projected completion date of 2009. Craig has been very curious to see the area himself; to see the scale of the project and how things have changed since its completion. So when we decided to return to China to visit some bucket-list places, a cruise through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze was a must-do!
This leg of our adventure involved a full day of travel involving planes, trains, and automobiles just to get to the boat! We woke up at 5 a.m. to give us time to enjoy the hotel breakfast before leaving for the Xi'an airport. We got packed, showered, and went down to breakfast at 6:30. We had omelets to order, bacon, chicken sausage, fruit, cinnamon sugar donuts, lemon pound cake, raisin muffins, round pastry with fruit inside, coffee, and pineapple juice. We collected our luggage from the room and checked out at 7:30. Athena was in the lobby and she escorted us out to the car. The car was there but we didn't see Mary. Athena asked what airport terminal we were going to, and if our guide was coming with us. We had no idea about the airport terminal. And we assumed that Mary was accompanying us, but... Kel walked by looking styling in his street clothes and said hello and we got a photo with him. Mary appeared and we left for the airport. There were no new water bottles in the car, and the empties from yesterday were still there. We hoped that our next destination would prove easier for water procurement. We are usually pretty easy to please. We had told the agency ahead of time that our only special requirement is water, since Craig is susceptible to deydration with his multiple sclerosis. Usually this is not a problem at all, and it usually goes without saying. But for some reason, Mary and the driver didn't seem to appreciate the importance of it, and it caused us to be on the wrong wavelength. We arrived at the Xi'an airport at 8:40. While I was getting a luggage cart, Craig gave the driver a tip. The driver kind of nodded, sneered, and walked away. Good riddance! Mary led us into the airport and got us checked in. She pointed us toward security, said goodbye, and left. She's a very intelligent woman and she taught us a lot about the sites we visited. But we didn't feel the personal connection with her that we often felt with other guides. Maybe it is a Xi'an thing. Looking back on it, our overall impression is that the vibe of the city and its people seemed rather uptight. While we waited in line at security, we saw an ad for a brand of bottled water called "Rare Water". We couldn't help but laugh. That seemed to be the theme of our Xi'an trip...water was elusive indeed! We waited at the gate and bought ourselves a cheap set of terra cotta warriors at the gift shop. They weren't as nice as the one we had bought at the site, but this set had a variety of different ranks of soldiers and also a horse. Twenty minutes before the flight, the gate changed. A nice employee informed us personally because we obviously hadn't understood the Chinese announcement. We had to hoof it to the other end of the terminal, go downstairs, and get on a bus to make our 10:10 flight to Wuhan. We were the penultimate people to board the plane (the last ones were delivered in a private van). The flight was quite short, but they still provided us with a meal. We had a "Chinese hamburger"-style chicken sandwich. (We never did get a chance to try Xi'an's famoud "Chinese hamburgers"). It was very spicy and tasty, and Craig ended up having a second one. We also each were given 320 ml of water - that was almost half a day's "ration" in Xi'an! Ha ha! We landed at around 11:40, collected our luggage, and were greeted by Sharp, who served as both driver and guide. He was immediately super frendly and attentive and led us to his white Peugeot (but what he really covets is a Ford F-150). He wore white gloves while he drove and spoke flawless English. He was quite friendly. We chatted and he told us all kinds of facts, making the 50 minute drive to the city center fly by. Wuhan is a city of 10 millions residents. Like the rest of China, it is undergoing massive development. There are 11,000 active construction sites within the city. Sharp joked that the yellow iron crane is China's national bird. He told us a bit about himself. He has worked in the travel industry for 17 years. He and his wife have an 8 year old daughter. And he has seen Forrest Gump 30 times. We ate lunch at a Tibetan restaurant which had beautiful decor. We had Chinese fare (apparently Tibetan cuisine is significantly more expensive): potatoes and chilies, black fungi, celery and meat, greens, and sweet and sour carp. The carp (a dish we have enjoyed on our prior trip as well) was a large whole fish, with its meat hanging off in little battered dreadlocks, swimming in a pool of bright orange sweet and sour sauce. Craig's chilis satisfied his craving for heat, and the fish satisfied my sweet tooth. Everything was delicious! Craig had beer and I had Sprite. We also had tea. Sharp ate with us and we chatted. We told him about Craig's MS and he mentioned a web site which might be a useful resource. He was very sweet and we enjoyed our lunch together. There was a beautiful large gold-colored Tibetan Sakyamuni (Buddha) statue at the bottom of the stairs, and we spun prayer wheels before getting into the car in hopes of a safe and healthy remainder of the trip. We drove to the train station, which was huge and impressive. Our bags went through a scanner and we were scanned with wands. Sharp helped to carry our bags and brought us up to the waiting lounge. He waited with us for the bullet train to arrive. Sharp looked up the train info on his phone and told us how many stops we had to pass to get to our destination of Yi Chang. We appreciated his support, as this was our first time at a Chinese train station and we didn't really know what to expect. Craig was sitting next to a young woman who wanted to practice her English. When she found out we were from the U.S., she said she had a friend in Arkansas who was teaching her about Jesus and the Bible. He wanted her to convert from Buddhism to Christianity. He had been in China doing "volunteer work." We had just learned that promoting religion is illegal China, which we thought was refreshing. People have the choice to practice any or no religion in China, but they can't be recruited or strong-armed. Yet here was a foreigner doing it anyway. Really?! Another example of the "ugly American" abroad. Craig gently reminded this young lady that this type of missionary-style recruitment is not permitted, and that this man would probably get in trouble if he was discovered. Sharp waited with us until it was time to board the train, and he helped us to get seated in our very comfortable 2nd class seats in car 11. The train was very clean and modern. We left on time at 3:16 p.m. The train reached a maximum speed of 199 km/hr (though we hear it makes 450 on other routes), and the ride was very smooth and quiet. I had ridden the commuter rail in Boston a week prior, and the difference was astounding. As we got further away from the city, we enjoyed the rural scenery - rice paddies and farmland. Every station was announced several times in English and Chinese, and there was a sign which told speed, indoor and outdoor temperature, restroom availability, and the name of the next station. We arrived at Yi Chang at 5:17 p.m. We were picked up by Wen, a cheerful 32-year-old who had spent 5 years working in tourism in Taiwan, but came home to Yi Chang a year ago. He was very friendly. We drove about 25 minutes to a restaurant called Yansha Recipes. We were seated in a small private room. Wen ordered us beer, Sprite, rice, beef and onions, chicken with celery, and potatoes. We had watermelon, oranges, and cherry tomatoes for dessert. It was an enjoyable dinner. Wen was very professional and got annoyed when an employee gave him the bill in front of us. He shooed her away and took care of it in private. He just laughed because it didn't bother us one bit one way or the other. We are easygoing travelers. After dinner, we drove around 30 minutes to the boat: Victoria Jenna. It was getting dark and we saw the lights of a 6-deck river cruise ship with capacity for just under 400 guests. We embarked through the lobby on deck 2. The lobby was quite stylish, and we could tell that this was going to be a very comfortable few days. As we checked in, the cheerful staff offered us an upgrade from our standard cabin to a junior suite. We are always wary of the upsell, but we decided to take a look at the two cabins and then decide. We took the glass elevators to each cabin. Both had twin beds, a balcony, and an en suite bathroom, and would have fit our needs fine. But the junior suite was amazing. It had high ceilings, 2 beds, a love seat, desk and chair, large flat screen TV, and plenty of closet / storage space for luggage. It was the same size as a normal hotel room, and even had a full-sized bathtub in the bathroom. Not what I would normally expect on a ship! We decided to upgrade, as the price was very reasonable, especially given that we would be spending four nights on the boat. We were on the 5th deck of the 6 deck ship in room 504, down the hall from the bar and lounge. We were quite happy with our new space, and it was nice that we would be in one place long enough to spread out a bit. The boat was not setting sail until the next morning. We got settled and I went to the bar to purchase wi-fi access for 150 yuan. The Mandarin-language orientation session was going on in the bar and I was surprised to see that the vast majority of the tourists on the boat were actually Chinese. It was a pleasant surprise, as we had been expecting mainly westerners. It was nice to see the Chinese exploring and enjoying their own country. When I got back to the room, I used the wi-fi and Craig flipped through the TV channels. Today had been a very tiring day with planes, trains, automobiles just to get to the boat! We went to sleep at 10:30. |
 Corner room 1402, Shangri La Hotel  Never has there been such truth in advertising!  Flight fron Xi'an to Wuhan  Sharp at the Tibetan restaurant  Sweet and sour carp at the Tibetan restaurant  Train station in Wuhan  Bullet train from Wuhan to Yi Chang  Bullet train from Wuhan to Yi Chang  Embarking on a Yangtze River cruise on the Victoria Jenna  Two photos side-by-side taken from the balcony of our cabin (#504) on the Victoria Jenna 
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