Xīlíng Gorge | BLEAKSTAR/SHUTTERSTOCK ©
Wū Gorge | CACAROOT/GETTY IMAGES ©
EFFECTS OF THE THREE GORGES DAM
The dwarfing chasms of rock, sculpted over aeons by the irresistible volume of water, are the Yangzi River’s most fabled stretch. Yet the construction of the controversial and record-breaking Three Gorges Dam (三峡大坝; Sānxiá Dàbà) cloaked the gorges in as much uncertainty as their famous mists: have the gorges been humbled or can they somehow shrug off the rising waters?
In brief, the gorges have been undoubtedly affected by the rising waters. The peaks are not as towering as they once were, nor are the flooded chasms through which boats travel as narrow and pinched. The effect is more evident to seasoned boat hands or repeat visitors. For first-timers the gorges still put on a dramatic show.
Boats
There are three categories of boats: luxury cruises, tourist boats and passenger ships.
Luxury Cruises 豪华游轮
The most luxurious passage is on international-standard cruise ships (豪华游轮; háohuá yóulún), where maximum comfort and visibility accompany a leisurely agenda. Trips normally depart Chóngqìng mid-evening and include shore visits to all the major sights (Three Gorges Dam, Little Three Gorges etc), allowing time to tour the attractions (often secondary to the scenery). Cabins have air-con, TV (perhaps satellite), fridge/minibar and sometimes more. These vessels are aimed at both Chinese and Western tourists and are ideal for travellers with time, money and negligible Chinese skills. The average duration for such a cruise is three nights and three to four days.
Top-end cruises feature daily buffet meals, generally including both Western and Chinese food. Seating is assigned, and meals are included in your ticket price. There will also be on-board bars and lounges, sometimes featuring cabaret shows and the like. Cabins are like comfy hotel rooms, complete with private balconies and daily maid service.
BEST TOP-END CRUISES
AViking River Cruises (www.vikingrivercruises.com; from US$3010) Very luxurious cruise, offering five-day cruises from Chóngqìng to Wǔhàn, as part of a larger 13-day tour of China.
ACentury Cruises (www.centuryrivercruises.com; from US$450) Claims to be the most luxurious cruise service on the Yangzi. Ships are new, service is first class and facilities are top notch.
AVictoria Cruises (www.victoriacruises.com; from US$550) Comfortable four-day trips between Chóngqìng and Yíchāng. Older boats than some other operators, but has excellent English-speaking guides.
Tourist Boats 普通游轮
Typically departing from Chóngqìng around 9pm, ordinary tourist cruise ships (普通游轮; pǔtōng yóulún) usually take just under 40 hours to reach Yíchāng (including three nights on board). Some boats stop at all the sights; others stop at just a few. They are less professional than the luxury tour cruises and are squarely aimed at domestic travellers (Chinese food, little English spoken).
Expect early starts: the public-address system starts going off after 6am. Cabins in all classes are fairly basic – hard beds in 2nd and 3rd class – but come with AC and a TV and usually have a small attached bathroom with a shower (although that doesn't mean hot water). Many travellers now book packages that take you first by bus from Chóngqìng to Wànzhōu, where you board a vessel for the rest of the trip. This reduces the journey by one night.
In theory, you can buy tickets on the day of travel, but booking one or two days in advance is recommended. Fares vary, although not by much, depending whether you buy your ticket from a hostel, agency or direct from the ticket hall, so it’s worth shopping around to check. If buying a ticket through an agent, ensure you know exactly what the price includes. Note that the following prices include admission to the most popular stops along the way (including the Little Three Gorges).
ASpecial class (特等; tèděng) ¥1780, two-bed cabin
A1st class (一等; yīděng) ¥1100, two-bed cabin
A2nd class (二等; èrděng) ¥900, four-bed cabin
A3rd class (三等; sānděng) ¥750, six-bed cabin
Tourist boats have restaurants serving standard Chinese fare, often not included in the ticket price.
Passenger Ships 客船
Straightforward passenger ships (客船; kè chuán) are cheap, but can be disappointing because you sail through two of the gorges in the dead of night. Stops are frequent, but hasty, and they pass by the tourist sights. Journeys between Chóngqìng and Yíchāng take around 36 hours; between Fèngjié and Yíchāng, around 12 hours. Toilets are shared, and soon get pretty grotty. There are no showers, but there are sinks and power sockets in the twin cabins (as well as TVs, which usually don’t work). Meals on board are decent and cheap but there is no choice of dishes, so take along your own food and drinks in case you don’t like what’s on offer.
Eastbound boats leave Chóngqìng at 10pm and Fèngjié at 9pm. For westbound journeys, shuttle buses, which connect with the boats, leave Yíchāng’s old ferry port at 7.30pm; the boat leaves at 9pm.
Tickets can usually be bought on the day of travel.
Chóngqìng to Yíchāng fares:
A1st class (一等; yīděng) ¥884, twin cabin
A2nd class (二等; èrdēng) ¥534, twin cabin
A3rd class (三等; sānděng) ¥367, four- to six-bed dorm
A4th class (四等; sìděng) ¥224, eight-bed dorm
Fèngjié to Yíchāng fares:
A1st class ¥343
A2nd class ¥212
A3rd class ¥147
A4th class ¥119
Passenger boats have Chinese-style canteens onboard.
FAST FACTS
AThe Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest artificial generator of electric power from a renewable source.
AThe Three Gorges Dam is designed to withstand an earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale.
APlans for the Three Gorges Dam date from 1919, when Sun Yatsen (Sun Zhongshan) saw its huge potential for power generation.
AThe Yangzi River will deposit more than 500 million tonnes of silt every year into the reservoir behind the dam.
AAn estimated one-third of China's population live in the Yangzi River basin. The river delta generates not just electricity, but around 20% of China's GDP.
AHundreds of catastrophic floods have been caused by the Yangzi River, including the disastrous inundation of 1931, in which an estimated 145,000 people died.
Tickets
In Chóngqìng or Yíchāng, most hotels, hostels and travel agents can sell you a trip on either the luxury cruise ships or the ordinary tourist boats. In either city, passenger ferry tickets have to be bought at the ferry port ticket halls, which also sell ordinary tourist boat tickets.
The price of your ticket will include the one-hour shuttle bus ride to/from the old ferry port in the centre of Yíchāng from/to one of the two newer ferry ports, about 45km upstream, where almost all boats now leave from or terminate.
Chóngqìng
Travelling With Hostel mostly sells tickets for the ordinary tourist boats, but can arrange luxury cruises too. Helpful and excellent English skills.
Harbour Plaza Travel Centre (海逸旅游中心; Hǎiyì Lǚyóu Zhōngxīn MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %6373 5664; 3rd fl, Harbour Plaza, Wuyi Lu; h8am-10pm; mJiàochǎngkǒu) specialises in luxury cruises, but also sells ordinary tourist boat tickets. Staff are friendly and speak OK English.
Chóngqìng Ferry Port Ticket Hall is the cheapest place to buy ordinary tourist boat tickets, and the only place that sells passenger ferry tickets; no English is spoken.
Yíchāng
China International Travel Service
Three Gorges Tourist Centre
Yangtze River International Travel
Fèngjié
Fèngjié Ferry Port Ticket HallFERRY PORT
(奉节港售票厅, Fèngjié Gǎng Shòupiàotīng )
Sells passenger ferry tickets in either direction. Don’t expect to be able to board tourist boats from here because tickets usuall
y sell out in Chóngqìng or Yíchāng.
Regions at a Glance
The high-altitude, far west of China, including Tibet, Qīnghǎi and west Sìchuān, gradually and fitfully steps down to level out as it nears the prosperous and well-irrigated canal-town provinces of Jiāngsū and Zhèjiāng, and the dazzling metropolis of Shànghǎi in the east. The lion’s share of scenic marvels and hiking territory belongs to the mountainous interior of China, while in the mighty northwest, peaks and deserts meet in dramatic fashion. Minority culture is a speciality of the west and southwest, and of the remote border regions. Different cuisines range across the entire nation, from the hardy northeast to the warm jungles of the far southwest.
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Běijīng
Běijīng’s imperial pedigree (and the Great Wall) assures it a rich vein of dynastic history, balanced by splendid seams of temple and hútòng (narrow alleyway) architecture. Wining and dining is a further attraction as the capital is home to a resourceful restaurant scene.
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Tiānjīn & Héběi
Tiānjīn’s spruced-up foreign concession streetscapes echo stylish Shànghǎi, and some standout pagodas and temples can be found in Héběi, where the rural side of China – peppered with rustic village getaways – comes to the fore.
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Liáoníng
In history-rich Liáoníng, imperial relics contend with the legacy of Russian and Japanese colonialism. The North Korean border at Dāndōng is a sobering contrast to the wild beer festival at Dàlián.
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Jílín
Boasting China’s largest nature reserve, and a top ski destination, Jílín exerts a pull on the nature lover. On the trail of the exotic? Head to Jí’ān for the ruins of the ancient Korean Koguryo empire.
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Hēilóngjiāng
Fire and ice are the highlights in this province where volcanic explosions have left one of China’s most mesmerising landscapes, and the winter’s bitter climate provides the raw materials for a spectacular ice-sculpture festival.
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Shāndōng
Shāndōng groans under the weight of its historical heavy-hitters: Confucius' home and tomb at Qūfù and sacred Tài Shān. Then, of course, there's the home of Tsingtao beer, Qīngdǎo, a breezy, laid-back modern and sophisticated port city.
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Jiāngsū
Jiāngsū's awash with cute-as-pie canal towns – all reachable as day trips from neighbouring Shànghǎi. The provincial capital, Nánjīng, has history in spades, with its fabulous Ming wall and epic past as former national capital.
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Zhèjiāng
Flushed with water and vaulted with bridges, the canal town of Wūzhèn is full of traditional charm. Hángzhōu is one of China’s most appealing cities, while stunning pastoral escapes abound further south, including the gorgeous villages of Xīnyè and Zhūgě.
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Shànghǎi
Shànghǎi exudes a unique style unlike anywhere else in China. There’s plenty to do, from nonstop shopping and skyscraper-hopping to standout art, fantastic eats and touring the city’s elegant art-deco heritage.
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Fújiàn
Fújiàn is Hakka heartland and home to the intriguing tǔlóu – massive packed stone, wood and mud structures once housing hundreds of families. Gǔlàng Yǔ, a tiny, hilly island off Xiàmén, is decorated with crumbling colonial villas.
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Shānxī
Repository to the superlative Buddhist grottoes at Yúngāng, Shānxī also brings you the beautiful Buddhist mountain, Wǔtái Shān; the intact walled city of Píngyáo; the rebuilt city fortifications of Dàtóng; and time-worn sections of the Great Wall.
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Shaanxi
Archaeological sites lie scattered across the plains surrounding Shaanxi’s magnificent walled capital, Xī’ān, where museums galore await. Blow off all that ancient dust with a trip to Huá Shān, one of China’s five holy Taoist peaks.
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Ānhuī
The charming Unesco-listed Hui villages of Hóngcūn and Xīdì are some of China’s best preserved. But let’s not forget that astonishing mountain, Huáng Shān, whose soaring granite peaks and ethereal mist have inspired legions of poets and painters.
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Hénán
Hénán’s overture of dynastic antiquity is balanced by some excellent mountain escapes and the quirky allure of Nánjiēcūn, China’s last Maoist collective. The province’s wǔshù (martial arts) credentials come no better: the Shàolín Temple is here.
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Húběi
Slashed by the mighty Yangzi River, history-rich Húběi is one of the gateways to the Three Gorges, but Taoist martial artists may find themselves mustering on Wǔdāng Shān, home of taichi and scenic views.
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Jiāngxī
Communists herald it as the mythic starting point of the Long March, but it’s the spectacular mountain scenery and hiking trails past preserved villages and terraced fields that should pop Jiāngxī into your travel plans.
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Húnán
Home to one of China’s most enjoyable ancient towns, Fènghuáng – beautifully illuminated come nightfall – as well as the sacred mountain of Héng Shān, the other-worldly karst peaks of Zhāngjiājiè, and secluded Miao and Dong villages.
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Hong Kong
This culinary capital offers the best of China and beyond, while a seductive mix of vintage and cutting-edge fashion attracts armies of shoppers. Meanwhile, leafy mountains, shimmering waters, skyscrapers and tenements make an unlikely but poetic match.
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Macau
Marrying flavours from five continents, Macanese cooking is as unique as the cityscape, where Taoist temples meet baroque churches on cobbled streets with Chinese names. It’s also a billionaire’s playground where casino resorts and other luxuries vie for space.
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Guǎngdōng
A strong gastronomic culture offers travellers the chance to savour world-renowned Cantonese cuisine. Guǎngdōng’s seafaring temperament has brought the region diverse, exotic architectural styles, including the World Heritage–listed watchtowers of Kāipíng.
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Hǎinán
When it comes to golden-sand beaches and warm clear waters, this tropical island doesn’t disappoint. An ideal cycling destination, Hǎinán attracts in-the-know adventurers with its good roads, balmy winters and varied landscape.
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Guǎngxī
Famed for the dreamy karst landscapes of Yángshuò, Guǎngxī also offers lush green valleys, charming folksy villages and countless walking, cycling and rafting opportunities, as well as Wéizhōu Island, a short trip from sleepy Běihǎi.
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Guìzhōu
With more folk festivals than anywhere else in China, you can party here with the locals year-round. For nature lovers, there’s an abundance of waterfalls; for old-town watchers, there’s lovely Zhènyuǎn.
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Yúnnán
Yúnnán has it all: towering Himalayan mountains, tropical jungle, sublime rice terraces and over half of China’s minority groups; plus historic, little-visited villages including Nuòdèng and Hēijǐng, gorgeous and ancient Lìjiāng, fantastic trekking and great food.
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Sìchuān
One province; three regions. Stay in central or southern Sìchuān for steamy bamboo forests and Ming dynasty villages. Head north for stunning lakes among alpine-like mountain scenery. Venture west for remote Tibetan plateau grass
lands and towering peaks.
Lonely Planet China Page 7
