Slow boat too... umm I'm in China? So Yichang?

Man fishing in river with faint
skyscrapers in background

Chongqing is the fastest growing city in the world,  its population and tourism boom in the last 10 years is largely due to the construction of the 3 gorges dam and the displacement of many towns and cities by the rising water.

The city towers and apartment blocks started some 30 min out of the city and just continued all the way in. Millions of people now live in this over night super city.

I had been travelling with Tom a guy from the UK since the train incident in Xi’an a week ago and we were both heading the same way to at least Yichang.  Its always a much more enjoyable trip when you have someone to talk.

We arrived in the city and headed to the docks, we were trying to find the ferry to Yichang before the evening so we didn’t have to stay in the city. Every 2 meters there was someone selling a tour on the river. It was like a pack of flies buzzing around you, “tour tour tour, englishy tour” *Zap* my imaginary fly zapper goes…

Police bikes in China

We found the ferry terminal and the price was double if not more than what we had read and expected. So we took our chances and headed to the hostel and checked in. The hostel was most helpful with booking things, mainly because they get a large cut of it as well but its understandable. The hostel didn’t have access to the ferry but could sell us a tour for 50 Yuan more than the ferry would cost us, and then we could get off and see some sights and the ferry is for workers not very nice.. ok we go the Chinese tour boat then. Ooops the 2 night one is sold out, we must go the 3 night one, add 100 more and we have to pay extra for the sights, so we bought a package. Before we knew what had hit us the fly zapper slapped me in the face, we had gone 4 times over the original price we thought we would spend on the river, and we were on a tour. OUCH!

Oh well it will be more interesting than sitting on a boat for 2 days we thought. I also booked my train, accommodation for the rest of china, Zhangjiajie and shanghai as the week coming up was a national holiday in China and getting it booked later would be difficult so the hostel was very helpful with this too.

That night we were on the way back from dinner when we were walking through a dark ally and passed a small shop. We were thinking of buying something to shot on the boat to pass time at night. The small shop had traditional Chinese drinks up on the shelf. I pointed at one bottle which looked like vodka in a small bottle. The alch was 60% wow!. We asked how much and the owner put up 7 fingers. 7? No that can not be correct, again we asked and again 7… ok it must be per shot.. lets try 1 and see what its like and we can buy a bottle later we thought. 2 please… out comes 2 bottles. So we bought both and headed off happy with out pickings. 7 Yuan is $1 Aus for a 300ml bottle of 60% moonshine.

Shopping Day

A round of cards with a few Germans and us 2 and a bottle was gone that night, it was extremely strong stuff that I would be happy to never see again.

Shopping Day Supplies

The next day we went shopping for supplies, the hostel had warned us that there was nothing on board and we should bring our own food. So what we need… 4 days worth, 10 cups of noodles each, some chips, bottle of whisky (we both agreed the Baijiu should be a last resort), some cookies, 12 Litters of drinking water, and 6 Banana’s  (must have “some” healthy food). We were set. 3 Super large bags of 2 minute noodles sat in prized spot in the hostel and the hostel owner just shook her head when she seen it. We had no idea…. J

That night we were off and racing the boat was a rust bucket, and we were the only 2 white people on the boat, and only ones speaking English. The boat left Chongqing after dark and the lights over the city was a nice way to say farewell and hello to a new section of the trip. It took about 20 min and we were into our first cup of 2 min noodles (9 more to go each).

The karaoke had started on the boat as well. Well one due started, and everyone left hahaha….

The accommodation on the boat was very very basic, and it looked like the bed had not been cleaned ever. The noodles down the side gave it away. First time the entire trip I was thankful I had my sleeping bag with me. Warm, clean sleeping bag ahhh…

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to see the temple of the dead. Downed a cup of noodles (2/10). Headed off the boat to a Temple.

The temple was nice and had a few small buildings but when you looked close it was very new, all reinforced concrete and ply board. There was a section that looked very original and the small models of people getting cut up and dissected and  boiled was totally gross.

We spent about 2 hours walking around this park, on the way back to the boat we passed a Ute with a bunch of pigs in it.. the shop next to the Ute was selling pork. Nice to know it was fresh, the pigs didn’t look to happy about it though.

We spent that afternoon chilling and doing nothing on the boat, mainly because there was nothing to do. You can only play “shithead” (a card game) so many times before it gets boring. The Chinese on the boat on the other hand used the time to create the perfect picture… standing in front of a green screen and having there photo taken in various poses. It was pure comedy. The photo’s they were going to be super imposed on didn’t even look that good and the scale to the person to the background made it look so fake! Lunch time again cup of noodles (4/10 now, had a snack earlier) They all started to taste the same and the stomach didn’t like it very much.

That night we stopped at another temple. It was to a local hero. As we were on a Chinese tour we missed most of the explanation and it really wasn’t that “amazing” I’ve seen better temples in Korea. The only authentic part of the day truly was the meal after the temple at night, each place seemed to have 100’s of stops leading up to the “attraction”. I picked one that looked nice and ordered food, at the time I didn’t care what it cost I didn’t want noodles, but when the bill came I wished I had asked. It was more expensive than a nice restaurant in the city. It tasted “nice” though.

Salute

We spent the rest of the drinking the local beer on the boat till we got ticked off the top deck at midnight, then continued at the back of the boat with the Chinese flag as our companion.

The next day we woke up to the first of the 3 gorges, it was a nice site to see. The cliffs were super high and straight down.

The rain had started to come in as well which closed off much of our freedom to get away from the loud karaoke that seemed to go 24 hours on the boat.

Im going to skip over the noodles now, it was making us both sick and we still had 2 days supplies of the little cups. Backpacking on a budget never tasted so bad. (5/10)

At lunchtime we arrived at the little 3 gorges, the last of our prepaid attractions, the first 2 were bitter disappointments but hopeful as this was nature it couldn’t be refurbished into something it wasn’t, or at least we thought.

Lol! its upside down.

We got shuttled onto a smaller boat and practically ordered to sit. Every time we stood up someone would come and tell us to sit, it wasn’t until they had finished selling the roof top tickets and “professional” photos that we were permitted to move.  The little gorges were quite amazing and it was a real shame it was raining.

After about 2 hours we arrived at this pontoon and transferred to a smaller craft again, these looked like traditional boats you would see in movies. The ride was actually fun the host on the boat started of a song and everyone on the boat chanted in time. Everyone except Tom and I had life jackets on, it was a follow the leader moment. One person did so everyone follows. There was no reason and we were not asked to. One of the Chinese guys had his upside down, it wasn’t till he stood up to have a picture taken and seen me on the floor laughing at him that he realized and took it off. Sorry dude! But it was too funny.

Once the chant finished the host pulled out the key chains, to sell as souvenirs. Can not have 1 ride without someone wanting to make a extra buck.

The ride was short but nice.

Again we transferred into the previous boat and onwards again. This time we arrived at a small town with lots of apartment blocks. It was very strange when we got shuttled into these golf buggies to take a trip around the town, up to a small shrine (2 min walk) then back down. It was more like they were showing off the town then the shrine. I later found out that’s exactly what was happening. The city was built for the displaced people and it was being shown off. So sad.

We missed the 2^nd and 3^rd gorges as it was night. The tour guides still gathered everyone up on the top deck and talked for 2 hours in pitch black, and everyone still took pictures of the black abyss.

The next morning we arrived at the docks of Yichang and not fast enough! The boat although was a “experience” really wasn’t fun and was a waste of valuable time in china.

Yichang I said farewell to Tom, he was taking a bus towards Hong Kong and skipping Zhangjiajie, and I was taking a mild 5 hours ride to Zhangjiajie by train. It worked out that both our transportation left 1 hour after docking and we both just made the connections.

See how Zhangjiajie also known as the Avatar mountains is.