We arrive at the first of the Three Gorges, Qutang Xia, at around 9 am. The mist is still very heavy and so we don’t get clear views of the river and surrounding mountains. Five miles long, this is the shortest of the three gorges on the Yangtze, but according to the guide book, the most fascinating. Huge mountains rise up from the river creating a dramatic gorge reducing the width of the river considerably. Before the Three Gorges dam caused a massive rise in the water level, the river narrowed here to a one-way passage 100m wide and the gorge was some 135m deeper. It’s hard, looking at the river now, to imagine just how impressive and dramatic this gorge must have been then. At around 11am we reach the second gorge, Wu Xia. This gorge is 28 miles long and equally impressive to my mind, surrounded as it is by 12 soaring peaks. After lunch we transfer to a smaller boat to take an excursion up the Shen Nong stream a tributary which flows into the Yangtze at Bedong. This turns out to be the highlight of the cruise so far as we make our way up the narrow stream transferring to a sampan on the way.
In the late evening the cruise boat reaches the Three Gorges dam and the five-step two-way ship locks. This enormous construction of five consecutive locks lowers the cruise boat in stages by some 135m to the level downstream of the dam. It is quite an undertaking as we and other five other large boats are squeezed into each lock, so close that we are almost touching, and then rapidly descending as if in an lift!
Unfortunately, because of the heavy mist none of our photos of the first two gorges come out very well; everything looks so grey! But by lunchtime, the haze has lifted and we have a lovely warm sunny afternoon. The sampans take about 14 people plus four oarsmen and a helmsman. The men do the rowing standing up and never break sweat the whole hour-long journey. Part of the way involved three oarsmen jumping ashore and pulling the sampan along with a bamboo rope. Not strictly necessary given the depth of the water, but a throwback to when the stream was considerably shallower and faster flowing. The scenery here is breathtakingly beautiful and the water invitingly warm. As we reach our return point we are greeted by a man blowing a horn and wending our way back the helmsman sings a traditional song. All very touristy, of course – much to our chagrin we have joined the flag followers!