Meng's Travels: Cruise on the Yangtze River

No one knows where the name Yangtze came from but the Chinese don't call it the Yangtze River. They call it Chángjiāng (in Chinese pinyin) or literally, Long River (长江, in Chinese characters). This is the longest river in China and the 3rd longest in the world. It is the lifeblood of China, just like the Mississippi is to America. Its headwaters is up in the Himalayas and like many big rivers, it is prone to flooding. So the Chinese government decided to build the humongous 3-Gorges Dam to control flooding as well as generate electricity and allow easier transportation up and down the river. But it did not come without controversy. In order the build the dams they have to flood many villages living on both sides of the river. Many of the villagers have lived there for many generations and it caused a lot of heartaches. The Chinese government being what it is, built it anyway.

Model of 3-Gorges Dam

Barges carrying sand, coal, etc on the river

Area around this pagoda was flooded
so they have to build a bridge to it

There are many companies cruising the river, including Viking River Cruise. There are also different lengths of cruises, the longest for about 9 nights from Shanghai to Chongqing. The shortest is a 3-day cruise from Chongqing to Shanghai. Usually the cruise upstream takes a day longer than the cruise downstream. I joined a Century Diamond cruise for 5 nights/4 days from Wuhan to Chongqing.

Our cruise ship is the one on the right

View of the Yangtze River, above the dam

One of the side gorges of the river

It was a nice relaxing cruise and most of the staff were well-trained and helpful. The food was served buffet style and it was very good. It was mostly Chinese food but they provide salad and western dessert as well. As in most cruises, you tend to each too much.

Buffet on the ship

Tai-chi lesson on the cruise

There were short shore excursions and they were very educational. All of them were included in the cruise. The highlight of the cruise was seeing the 3-Gorges Dam itself. First, in order to get up the dam, we had to go through a 5-lock system to go up the dam. If you are not familiar with the lock system, it allows a ship to go to a higher elevation by first entering a chamber. The water-level in the chamber is then raised so that the ship is raised as well. Then it enters the next chamber and the same process repeats itself until it gets to the water level upstream. The water is all raised and lowered through gravity. The process is reversed for ships going downstream.

We ended the cruise in Chongqing, a big city and port in Sichuan province.