China Day 22

Last full day on the cruise today. We didn't do the extra excursion inthe morning but took a walk around the small village where we were stopped. They put on an early lunch as at about 1:00 we entered the second of the gorges through spectacular peaks. 

The river is a very busy thoroughfare with not only numerous cruises hips but also barges and cargo ships. At one port we passedwe counted about 100 ships tied up. Massive bridges span the wide river as well with smaller villages all along the banks.

This afternoon we reached the narrowest gorge where we transferred on to smaller boats as sections were extremely narrow but the cliffs towered 100+ metres above us.

Tonight we had the Captain's farewell dinner followed by a caberet put on by the ship staff with dancing, singing, magic show. The standard of all the performances was extremely high - they must do a fair bit of cultural activity at school as they were all very good dancers etc, Great show.

The cruise has been great - beautiful facilities, lovely crew and wonderful scenery along the way - could happily do another day or two.

Tomorrow we have another excursion to the three gorges dam and then catch the hs train to Shanghai (6hrs) for the last stage of the holiday. It has gone so quickly but has been a fabulous, mind blowing experience. We're so glad we decided to come on this trip after thinking we may not bother with China - it is by all measures, an extraordinary country.