My Grand Tour of China – Yangtze River , Three Gorges and War of the Three Kingdoms

Thank you everyone for following me on my amazing journey through China. If you have missed my previous blogs you can visit them by clicking here.

So the next 3 days of the journey took us down a part of the Yangzte River. Starting and Chongqing and we finished at Yichang. During our time on board the captain gave us a rather interesting talk about spot and attractions we may come across during our sailing. This was on our Daily Letter in the cabin.

Many guests took the opportunity to relax on the first day after our long time travelling the day before. I don’t blame them but myself and Jon decided to join the Jade Emperor Scenic Area trip which was included as part of the trip.

It was a few hours but gave us a great insight into the real traditional Taoist culture and the religious culture of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. On one of my photos below you will notice i am entering one of the temples with my right leg first. It was traditional for women to enter through the right entrance with their right leg first and the left entrance with left leg first for the men.

Later in the evening we chose to book the optional excursion to the ‘War Fire of the Three Kingdoms’. This was a fantastic show with brilliant effects. As well as the staging area moving around the seating area also moved around.

It absolutely belted it down but this just added to the enjoyment of the show. As the show involves water anyway so it was better for the performers. The staff hand out free rain macks to keep you dry and they give you plenty until every inch of you is covered. They are so attentive one the tour guides gave me here cardigan as she thought i was cold. She put it on me so i couldn’t refuse.

On day 2 the Captain did a great job of narrating our passage through the Gorges. We also spent the morning playing Mahjong with a lesson from the Captain and our tour guide Mark. It got rather addictive we could have played it most of the day.

After lunch we had a shore excursion to the Goddess Stream. I learnt quite a bit about the locals on this tour such as our tour guide on the trip taught herself English and it was a 4 hour journey for her to come to work everyday through the mountains.

After the evening meal we joined the staff in the lounge to enjoy a show organised by the on board staff portraying music, local dances and magic shows. They are a very fun and friendly young bunch.

On the last morning we checked off the boat to join our trip up to the Three Gorges Damn, which is the largest water conservancy project ever undertaken by man.

We collected our luggage after this excursion which had been delivered to the coach station during our time at the Damn and on we went to Wuhan Airport to fly on to Hong Kong.

As for the Victoria River ship she was very clean. The food was lovely and plenty of choice. All served buffet style. Drinks on board were the cheapest we had had in China. She had a great size open deck area. There was a small exercise area. The main cabins had a good balcony but they did feel a little small, particularly in the bathroom. Good storage space. A friend i made on the tour was very kind enough to show me around her Deluxe cabin which she paid a supplement for locally. These were much bigger and had the double bed and a lounge area. The balcony was huge.

China is still as popular as ever and we have some cracking packages for 2019 and 2020. For more information or if you have any questions please call me on 0333 300 2656 or email [email protected].