Friday, April 28th… we’re thoroughly enjoying the Yangtze River cruise.  Today we woke up early at 5:00 am, dressed into our yoga clothing, and went to the 5th floor lounge for early bird coffee and Tai Chi practice from 6:15 am to 6:45 am.

As we finished our Tai Chi session, we looked out the large picture windows to a beautiful site… the ship was sailing through the 1st of the 3 Gorges on the Yangtze River.

The magnificent Qutang Gorge is the shortest and most spectacular of the Three Gorges.  The River passes between the Chijia Mountain on the north and the Baiyan Mountain on the south.  The point where the river passes between these mountains is called the Kuimen Gate and it’s the entrance to the Qutang Gorge – the first of the three Yangtze gorges.  The Qutang Gorge is only 5 miles long, but it’s also the narrowest of the Three Gorges.  The widest point measures only 500 feet wide.  The mountains on either side reach as high as 4,000 feet.  This combination of narrow canyons among high mountains with several switchbacks in only 5 miles creates spectacular vistas, and the Qutang Gorge is often considered the most beautiful of all the Three Gorges.

After a yummy breakfast buffet, we cruised through the elegant Wu Gorge, sometimes called Great Gorge.  Formed by the Wu River, it stretches 28 miles.  The mountains on both sides of the Wu Gorge are known as the Wu Mountains.

Our cruise ship docked and we disembarked for another adventure.

We boarded a small river boat (holding only 30 passengers, driver and guide) and then headed into the Goddess Stream, which is 19 miles long.

This was a truly special, beautiful and intimate boat trip that lasted 2.5 hours.

The day started out foggy and cool but the sun started to shine as we cruised into the Goddess Stream.  We were blessed with lovely weather!

The views were extraordinary with thousands of feet of steep cliffs on either side of the stream.

NOTE FROM DIANA:  I believe the Goddess Stream is quite magical.  The day before, my phone camera mysteriously stopped focusing!  I took it with me up the Goddess Stream, but didn’t use it.  When we got back to the ship, my camera worked properly again. Thank you, Goddess Stream!

Back at the ship, we freshened up before the buffet lunch opened at noon.  Here’s a view of the inside of the ship which holds 403 passengers and 110 crew.  Three of the six levels include staterooms with a private balcony.

Sinorama Holidays completely booked the entire ship with travelers and guides.  There were 13 different Sinorama travel groups of 30 passengers plus 1 national guide for each group.

After lunch we were treated to the final gorge, Xiling Gorge.  It’s the largest and most downstream of the famous Three Gorges.  The area is named after Mt. Xiling, a peak at the eastern end of the gorge, and has been so named since at least the Three Kingdoms Period.  The Three Kingdoms (AD 220–280) was the division of China between the states of Wei, Shu and Wu following the Han Dynasty and preceding the Jin Dynasty.

Hey… today is NOT over yet!  Our cruise ship docked once more at 5:00 pm and we boarded a bus for a 3 hour tour of the famous Three Gorges Dam.  As you can see from the pic… we weren’t the only cruise ship sending travelers to visit the dam!  The road, outside of the port, had HUGE potholes and at times we wondered if the bus would make it through!  We could see the dam from the port, but it was still a 40 minute drive winding through the town.

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam and is the world’s largest power station. It truly is like everything else in China …. BIG!

As well as producing electricity, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze River’s shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space.  China regards the project as monumental as well as a success socially and economically with the design of state-of-the-art large turbines.  However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced over 1.3 million people.  The dam has caused significant ecological changes, and it has been controversial both domestically and abroad.

The ship locks are MASSIVE.  Now that we’ve been here, the Panama Canal is off of our Bucket List.

We saw our first sunset of the trip, and as darkness approached, we drove the 40 minutes back to our ship.

We didn’t have much time to prep for the 8:30 pm dinner buffet.  By now you get the drift… EVERY meal was a Chinese buffet!  Yes, the “same-same” Chinese food did get boring after 5 days and 4 nights on the ship.

After completing dinner with our fellow travelers, we changed clothes and visited Dr. Ryan Wang for our 1st Chinese medicine session (acupuncture, acupressure and cupping).  Please read our blog post entitled “Opening a new meridian window in China” about our Eastern Medicine consultation and 2 Chinese treatment sessions.  Quite unusual for us, to say the least, especially since we began sailing through the 5 different ship locks during our first treatment!

We returned to our cabin at 11:00 pm after our 1 hour treatment. Traveling through the five ship locks takes 3-4 hours, and we watched the ship SLOWLY move through 2 of the locks.  Very interesting to experience the sights and sounds.  Eventually we pooped out and went to bed.

It’s time for me to wrap up this LONG DAY that was filled with MANY unique activities. Tomorrow promises to bring MORE adventures!  Good night.       Dennis