Day 16 to Day 18- Three Gorges tour

Day 16- 19Mar, Friday

Today was the day of the released of results. Early in the morning, through the Singapore SIM card, we received the sms of it. Got out of bed immediately and log into NPal to check out my GPA.

Hi everyone, we set off at 1pm today. We went to duoloujie for lunch and board the bus together with the ECE. We were packing our stuffs the previous night.

In the bus; the start of the journey.

4 hours of bus ride from Wuhan（武汉）, Hubei to YiChang（宜昌）with stop-over in between for toilet breaks and then about 2 hours from宜昌 to the cruise terminal. We had dinner at a restaurant where coincidently, there’s a birthday party held for an elderly and then we continued our bus journey to the cruise terminal. The celebration was rather grand.

The restaurant we had dinner in.

By the time we reached there, it was already about 8pm. Due to misunderstanding between our tour guide and the in-charge at the counter about the number of people from the MDE and ECE group entering with the public, the 15 of us were kept behind the entrance of the boarding gate while the rest had went it. It was a shocking situation as if we were not able to manage to board the ship at 9pm, we would need to stay over and went for the next ship which is rather time-consuming. Luckily, everything was solved and we board the cruise safety.

Photo taken at the cruise terminal while waiting for the problem to be resolved.

Our cruise for this 3D2N trip was 金太阳. Taking about 7 hours of bus ride, it was a hectic yet long day for everyone. Paid 20rmb for the deposit of our keys and then settled into the room. The room and toilet were small as compared to the hostel, however, only the bed was thicker. I still prefer the rooms from our hostel. The dinner was not really suited to our taste, hence, we ate the Macaroni we bought on board.

At the fourth level deck of the cruise.
Everyone was hungry, hence we started our munching feast- Lays, 旺旺 and Cheese Macaroni.

Day 17- 20Mar, Saturday

Morning call was 6am and breakfast was at 6.30am. The breakfast was not bad but we still prefer to the breakfast we usually have at duoloujie. Alight the ship at 7am and we started our first tour trip. It was Temple of The White Emperor; BaiShiCheng (白帝城), one of China’s protected national park.
For more information of BaiShiCheng, click here.



Everyone boarded the ship at about 9.20am. For the next few hours, we stayed in the cruise, having the time to catch up on some shows on the television provided and also exploring and viewing the natural sceneries we were told to witness when we were there. We saw the三峡; first, second and third of the Yangtze River that was printed behind the 10yuan note.

10yuan note.

The view was splendid which gives us a real first-hand experience of seeing the scene directly. It was an up-and-down thing as when it came to a certain view, there will be an announcement for us to go to the ship deck.

Some sharing from the internet:
http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/special-topic-about-china/sceneries-on-rmb-banknotes.html

Yangtze River is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world that has rich and extensive hydroelectric resources. In 1995 construction began on the massive Three Gorges Dam and is scheduled for completion in 2009. The dam is expected to help control the flooding of the Yangtze River Valley. The Three Gorges (the Qutang Gorge, the Wuxia Gorge, and Xiling Gorge) will also be the largest electricity generating station in the world.

Lunch at the cruise.

Next, we went to the Shengnongxi stream for the boat ride, whereby there were a total of five people rowing and pulling the boat as we drift along those natural sites of it. We took a speed boat that could accommodate more people there.

Winnie, Ms Neo, Cynthia.

The boat tracker will leave home early in the morning and travel from their home to the station to wait for their customer everyday instead of customer waiting for them as their income per annum is only up to below 5000 Rmb. However, they are all willing to do their job properly and happily as they are. These boat tracker’s age are as young as 18 years old and can be as old as 80 years old where there is this old man who is still continuing his job as a boat tracker to provide all with this tedious service. Shengnongxi stream is 60km long, joining the Changjiang River at the entrance of the well know Wuxia Gorge. The elegant of the Three Gorges has four natural sections which includes Shennong Gorge, Mianzhu Gorge, Yingwu Gorge and Longchang Gorge, each showing their individual characteristics.

The long high bridge that was found in the middle of the tall mountains.

On the boat, the trip guide described to us some of the life of the boat trackers and also sang some local songs to entertain us. Although it is a one hour boat trip, I could deeply feel the hard work of the boat trackers and also appreciate their enthusiasm despite the income earned seemed to be a monthly income one can earned in Singapore.

We had our dinner on the cruise.
We were told that the ship will be crossing the first dam of the Three Gorges at around 10pm. Thus, everyone got ready by 10pm and went up the deck to witness the opening of the doors of the dam. However, to our disappointment after standing at the deck for almost an hour and that there were some problems as there were two other ships that wanted to go into the door at the same time as our ship. We all decided to gather at Fathullah’s room for a movie instead and also to start our Maggie feast as dinner was not as great as what we expected as we heard from the captain that the doors of the dam will only be opened after 3hours.

In the midst of waiting to view the opening of the dam's door.

Doors of the dam of the opposite side flow.

Going through the dam while waiting for the doors to be opened right at the end.

Day 18- 21Mar, Sunday

Although we did not manage to see the doors of the dam opening and the rise of the water level when the dam open, Lingli and I managed to witness the ship in between of the doors of the closed and open dam and then slowing moving out of the third yet last dam. It was a rather good experience as we seldom could see a huge ship inside the dam individually.

Back door of the dam.

The level markings inside the dam.

Had breakfast, return the keys and left the cruise at around 7am.

Breakfast.

Thus, we started our day journey to the Three Gorges Project sites before leaving 宜昌 to 武汉. The whole trip was about two hours and there were a total of three sites.
For extra information, click here.

The overall view of the Three gorges project.

The historic equipment that was used in the past for building the dam.

After that, we had lunch at one of the restaurant and then start our 4 hours journey bus ride back to Wuhan with stop-over in between. The bus journey was very bumpy. Reached Wuhan at 5.45pm and we had MacDonald for dinner. Stayed at the hostel throughout as everyone were already very exhausted by the long boat and bus rides for the whole three days.

The imitation of KFC. Haha!

Reflection:
I think that we Singaporeans should appreciate what we own especially the fortunate of having to just study at the young age till about 25 years old instead of having to come out and work to earn a living for the family just like the boat trackers and some other young people that we seen on the streets working hard. It is vital to know what we owned and also to be able to use it wisely in life. Having to experience the natural sceneries in the Three Gorges, out of sudden, I felt that in Singapore, we rarely find these kind of sites, instead, there were only man-made features which resulted in Singaporeans to have a faster pace in life, not knowing how to rest properly and devote their time into leisure entertainment, but just straight working hours in order to reach their earning money target as soon as possible. The stress being built up in the people have also resulted in lower birth rate, which ended up with decreasing population in Singapore.