Last Monday, I took a train from Wuhan to Yi Chang, because this is where most ships depart from. The more popular route is going the other way, so there wasn't much choice. I checked into a cheap hotel next to the railway station, and quickly booked the cruise, because I had only 1 day there.
As I was walking around the city, I met some Chinese school kids who wanted to practice their English and they took me for a tour around the city and we had a nice dinner. As usual, crowds gathered everywhere around us, but I am getting used to that now.
The next morning they took me up to a mountain on the other side of the river, between mandarin trees. Again here, crowds of people followed us.
My tour began at 17:00 but it took quite a while before we reached the ship. We first took a bus ride to the 3 Gorge Dam, which is like a huge wall in the middle of the river (I believe it is 3km long). I couldn't take any photos unfortunately because it was dark. We boarded our ship, which was a Chinese cruise ship and so no one spoke any English, including our 'guide'. Fortunately, I met two Korean girls, of which one spoke English, so I had someone to talk to.
The next morning we were cruedely awakened at 6:30 by our 'guide' and she said "follow me" so we got up and went outside. We had no itenary and no idea of what was going to happen during this tour, which made it quite fun actually. We were shoved into a smaller boat and took a 3-hour tour through the Lesser Three Gorges. At one point, where the water became shallow, the boatmen jumped out and pulled the boat by a rope (see photo).
"This is how it should have looked like, but I don't know which one I prefer :)
Later on, we went to a temple, and a place where they had discovered a coffin full of bones that was burried there nearly 2500 years ago by an ancient tribe.
Most of the toursity sights were not that nice actually, and were really crowded and prices were high, but they were included in our ticket, so we did them anyways.
The third day was more relaxed. The girls taught me a Korean card game, which we playen nearly all day long. It was good that we had some supplies with us, because the restaurant on the ship was expensive, smoky and full of drunk Chinese. The karaoke bar wasn't my idea of having a good time either.
"This was our toilet/shower, quite a good invention actually, as everything stays clean."
We arrived in Chongqing at 6:00 and I checked into a cheap hotel downtown. Most roads in this city are one-way traffic only, so it takes ages to get anywhere. I met a Chinese guy called Jimmy, who showed me around a little and he took me to a restaurant where we had the famous 'hot pot'. It was really spicy, even though it was the 'mild' one... Later that night I went to anoter restaurant, and since no one spoke English, when the waitress pointed at a painting with a sheep, I said OK. A little while later they brougt me a pot full of... Nearly all parts of the sheep except the meat! From what I could make up I ate: intestines, stomach, some weird piece of bone, and what could have been bladder. It wasn't that bad actually...
The rest of my 2-day stay I spent with searching for busses and trying to buy a train ticket out of there. It is very easy to get lost, as most buildings look alike. This city has almost triled its population in the past 10 years, so you can imagine what the traffic etc. looks like.
Yesterday I finally got on the train to Chengdu, which is where I am now. It is a bit rainy outside, but the temperature is still ok.
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