Yangtse River cruise

Our ship, the Century Paragon, was brand new and this was only it's third trip on the river.  Our room was delightful, with it's own small deck.  We were in #318, on the third floor, which was perfect.  The dining room was on the fourth floor, lounge on the fifth and the sun deck was on the sixth.  It could accommodate 400 passengers but this trip there were only about 200 of us.  Most of the passengers were Chinese but there was another tour group made up of British citizens, Aussies, Canadians etc.  The ship offered a buffet for breakfast and lunch but both dinners on board, other than the first night, were served.  The buffets offered about half Western food choices and half Chinese choices.  We never lacked for good options!

Unfortunately Jon had developed quite a cold by this time and after breakfast I tried to find a source of cold capsules on the ship.  There were none to be found.  There was a doctor and an infirmary but no over the counter sort of place.  By lunch time he was not feeling well at all so he made an appointment to see the doctor.  The doctor detected a small infection in one lung as well as a slight fever.  He set up an IV for Jon with antibiotics for the infection and herbal medications to work on the congestion.

Meanwhile I toured the boat.  There was a pool, a spa and a small theatre.  The sun deck had a covered area in case of too much sun as well as a large open area with a bar.  The photo below is the view from the fifth floor of the ship looking down through the center of the ship - the lotus is on the first floor.

The other photos, in order, are:  a pagoda on the hillside, the sister ship to our vessel, Beth at the Red Pagoda, the Red Pagoda, a pagoda on the shore.

We spent hours just cruising the river and enjoying the scenery.  Happily the weather cooperated; although we only had one day that was sunny, there was no rain or cold weather.  We could be outside on the sun deck watching or in our rooms on our small decks seeing what the river had to offer.  There were other ships on the river - some were tourists cruising like us and others carried cargo of all kinds.  Occasionally along the river we would see supply depots with coal, rock, sand or other similar materials waiting in sectioned storage areas for a ship to come.  Because the land is so steep, long shoots were necessary to move the materials from storage to the deck of the ships.

We were in a long parade of vessels, moving at various rates of speed, some down river toward Shanghai like us, some up river toward Chongqing.  And every once in a while we would see fishermen or farmers who worked the area we passed and never traveled very far.  Here is some of scenery along the way.

In the afternoon of our second full day of cruising, our cruise ship docked and we transferred to a smaller boat so we could explore one of the side streams that are tributaries of the Yangtse.  That boat took us upstream for an hour.  The area's residents have felt the effects of the Three Gorges Dam and the government encourages ships to stop and travel upstream, employing the locals as guides and boat operators.  They knew where to find caves, even smaller side streams, houses high on the surrounding hilltops, paths along the river used by the men who used to haul boats against the current with ropes, and even a "hanging casket" left midway up the steep hillside by ancient people.  After an hour, we docked at a floating pier and transferred into even smaller, canoe-like boats to continue upstream.  All of us were looking forward to this excursion; unfortunately, there were so many tourists there with us that the magic of the place was lost.  Still it was interesting and enjoyable.

Jon was feeling well enough to go on this trip up the Shennong river and we both enjoyed the trip.  However, by the time we were on our way back to the cruise ship, I was not doing well.  Jon summoned the doctor for me and it was my turn to have the IV treatment.  Jon enjoyed the Captain's Farewell dinner and brought me a tray.  I really just wanted to sleep - I had a fever and cough with congestion but no lung infection yet.  Happily, I was able to get a good night's sleep and then sleep in the next morning since I was not allowed to go on the dam tour that was scheduled.  Jon brought me a breakfast tray and then was able to go with the group, taking along the camera.  Here are some pictures that he took of the dam.

When the group got back from the dam tour, we needed to quickly pack our bags and get them out for pick up.  Then we were able to go up to the sun deck and watch our progress through the beautiful Xiling Gorge.  This area was not flooded when the dam was built because it is below the dam.  It was beautifully untouched.

We were due to leave the ship prior to lunch, which we did, but docking at Yichang took place an hour later than planned.  Our flight to Shanghai was due to leave before we would be able to finish lunch so we went to the airport and got a quick lunch there.  That worked out well since our "included" lunch was traded for an "included" dinner in Shanghai that night.

Our flight on Shanghai Airlines took off on time and actually landed a few minutes early.  We met our final local guide, John, whose English was excellent and did a little sightseeing on the way into Shanghai from the airport.  We got to the hotel, the Sheraton Shanghai, and couldn't have been more pleased with our room!  Our view looked across the river at the Bund area and we were high enough that there was no street noise.  It was well appointed and almost brand new.  We decided that it was our best lodging yet!  We are both feeling much better and with the early (8 pm) arrival at the hotel and the good night's sleep that that promised, things were looking up!