Arose this morning to that damn alarm at 6.30 am, who the
hell kept topping up that glass last night; that’s right it was Pete from
Gympie. 😉 Oh well time to make the best of it. Dress
and up for breakfast and the lovely Jenny again. No need to pack as bags were
dropped downstairs last night; I think? The boat had moared at the Three Gorges
Dam town of Sandouping and it was then off the boat and on to the buses to the dam site. About a half hour trip
to get there (along with the other 50 buses) and then through security, back on the
bus on the other side and up to the bottom of dam site and a walk up the hill
to the observation and information area. OK now it is an impressive
construction and with its 32 turbines each producing 700KW of power supplies 3%
of China's power; however BORED. We ended spending nearly 3 hours here with our
guide Max, an absolute waste of time but you cannot get out of it, a cruise
requirement courtesy of the Chinese authorities I believe. A drive-by was
adequate in the scheme of things or maybe just a few more hours kip on the boat
would have been more beneficial.
Anyway it was then on the bus and on our way to Yichang
where hopefully our bags have been transferred and will be awaiting us. We
arrived at the depot to see our Wendy Wu guide Amber waiting for us and after
collecting the bags it was across the road for a meal as it was 1 pm. Amber
took us to a swell little place in a mall where we ordered fried dumplings and
spicy dumplings in soup and a sweet fried bread thing you dipped in a typre of molasses. Oh and a beer of course. The spicy dumplings
were great and we supplied great entertainment to the cooks who watched us eat
the whole meal, laughing to themselves about our use of chopsticks I think. We
then met up with Amber again ( who ate at KFC and not with us) before going for
a tour of the local fresh markets and the park area along the Yangtze river
which flows through the city of 8 million people. She advised us that other
than the river cargo trade ( there is another dam here and ship lock ) the
other industry of Yichang is Trumpchi car manufacturing.
After this she took us about 30 minutes outside the city to
the Sanyou Caves where three famous Tang dynasty poets visited and left inscriptions.
A pretty place and park area in a valley and small gorge that we spent some
time in wandering around in the cool of the shade as it was a hot and humid day
in Yichang and surrounds. Loved the rock part where they had made sculptures of
famous poets signature stamps. It was also a place of defense against the Japanese
a couple of times so quite an interesting area. Once this had concluded Amber
and the driver took us to Yichang airport for our flight back to Beijing and
who should meet us there but Wazza and Shazza. They had spent the day in
Yichang as well with another Wendy Wu guide and were being dropped off early for
the Air China CA1824 Flight also; about 5 pm for our 8.25 pm flight. Once
through security we settled with a coffee ( first non-alcoholic drink with
these two I think) and a chat about the cruise and all things in life
generally. A lovely few hours, extended further by the flight delay due to “airpockets”
( Sharon misunderstood the explanation from the information desk). Finally on
our way to Beijing around 9.30 pm and arrived to find our lift waiting for us
as required. No subway after 11 pm and Taxi’s not the most reliable we were
advised. It was then back to the same hotel as before for our third stay there and
a nicely turned down bed awaited our arrival. By now after 1 am so definitely
time for a good sleep.
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