Day 224 – Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Shennong

After breakfast, we went to the theater and watched a documentary on the Three Gorges Dam.  We didn’t get much out of it because they had the Chinese and English versions going at the same time, plus they had the reverberation on the sound.  A lot of people just got up and left. 

At 9:30, they had a free movie to watch and it was Ender’s Game, which I wanted to see, and since we didn’t go on the excursion today and we didn’t have anything else to do.  It was pretty good, but they had the same problem with the reverberation on the speakers and it was hard to hear. 

David decided to "tickle the ivories" on the piano in the lounge area.  It was sadly out of tune and needing repairs, but at least we got a picture of it.

Lunch was nice and then we started through the first gorge on the Yangtze River: Qutang Gorge.  It was beautiful, what we could see.  It was raining and misting, so it was hard to get good pictures. 

 

From the deck of the President 8 Cruise Ship entering the Qutang Gorge.

In the gorge.  Misty and narrow. 

There are farms along the way.  They call this the "orange belt" for all the orange trees along here.

This sign was warning you that when the whistle blew on the boat, it was really loud in this area of the (no) sun deck.

We assumed that this sign was a warning about the opening for the electrical was under the boards in this area.

This pagoda was only accessible by a very steep path that you could reach from a boat landing below.

This barge was carrying logs through the gorge.  

An interesting inlet that we saw in Wu Gorge.

The next gorge, Wu Gorge was right after that.  The rain stopped and it was a little clearer, but good pictures are still hard to take.  At four o’clock, we arrived at the spot where we were to go onto another transport that would take us to the Shennong River.  This part of the river was where the naked runners would take you in a sampan boat.  They pull the boats along the side of the river and they used to do it naked because their clothing was rough and it would chafe them as they ran.  Today’s runners were fully clothed, thank goodness! They only run a small part of the way now, just to show you what it was like.  Because the rising waters caused by the dam, they don’t have the sandy beaches to run on as they once did.  The row you down the gorge of the Shennong River for about 20 minutes and then row you back.  Our guide sang some traditional Chinese folk songs to us.  She has a nice voice.

As we traveled along the Shennong River, we were able to see this place where there were some ancient "hanging coffins."  Some of these are a thousand years old.  Not sure why they put them in coffins made of basswood and hung them in the crevice, but it was neat to see.

This is a cave that goes back into the mountain for 8 km (5 miles).  We didn't go it, we had another destination.

The man in the blue jacket on the mountain side was representative of the ancient sampan runners that used to pull the boats up the river.  Because of the rising waters of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the flat places where they used to do this are gone.  They have made this track along part of the mountain where they could at least demonstrate what it used to be like.  The people who were once fishermen and boatsmen, are now involved in the tourism industry for eight months of the year.

This was our guide on the Shennong River that sang for us.  She talked about the feelings of some of the people that live in the area.   There is sadness because of the river's rise and the loss of old jobs, but she is also grateful to be living in a modern house now that has electricity and some modern conveniences.  She still lives on the top of the mountain and goes up and down every day for her job as a river guide.

David and I doing a "selfie" while riding in the sampan.

This is what our boats looked like.  Three oarsmen in front and one in back, plus the "driver."

We got back on the shuttle boat that took us back to the ship and we had just enough time to put our coats away before dinner was served.  Then we went up to the lounge area where they had a talent night for the passengers.  We were going to skip it, but one of the BYU teachers was going to sing a song in it, so a lot of us wanted to go support him.  Rich Pinegar sang a song in Chinese and he was the hit of the night!  Little kids were bringing flowers to him, LOTS of photos and plenty of applause, not just from the BYU teachers, but everyone there.  It was a love song and he gave his wife a red rose at the end of the song.  We were very proud of him and the whole boat has heard of the BYU tour group that was on the boat.

We checked out tonight so that we can get an early start tomorrow.