We signed up for a tour of the yangzi river with our hostel but we had to go third class on a chinese boat as all the other tours (especially the english ones) were really really expensive. The Chinese government have built a massive dam at one end of the river and are planning to flood the entire area by 2009 to conserve water for the chinese people. The river has been rising for the past 10 years flooding many villages and farms and by 2009, the river will be so high that many of the gorges which ewxist now will have dissapeared, so we wanted to take a look while we still could.

We got the bus from our hostel to ChongQing, the start point our our boat cruise and we arrived to torrential rain! We had the afternoon to kill in Chongqing so spent most of our time in a massive Carrefour as Rachel really really loves supermarkets! We were told that the food on the boat was really gross so we stocked up with lots of supplies to keep us going for the next few days (including lots of diet coke and oero cookies - our favourites!) and then headed back to our tour centre through the pouring rain!

We eventually got taken to the boat around 7pm and were shown to our cabin. It wasnt too bad (better than we had been expecting) and we settled in ready for our 3day cruise! We were joined by a really sweet chinese family who never left the boat for the whole time and watched the tv really loudly (in chinese) the entire time! We set sail around 11pm as the first part of the river is realy industrial so they let you sleep through that bit! The yangzi river was so dirty it was horrible. When we first got on the boat it looked like the chocloate river in Charlie and the chocolate factory but not quite as nice! It was such a deep brown colour it was gross.

Our first full day on the baot included a very early start to see the Ghost City. we were woken up at 6.30 am and after a lot of struggle to understand our chinese tour guide and to get through the masses of chinese tourists we were evntually allowed to go off and explore on our own! The Ghost cityw was a really quirky place with some amazing temples and palaces and the strangest ghost tour ive ever been on - lets just say it was very chinese! We had about 3 hours exploring and really enjoyed looking round. The chinese continued their love of Rachel and Rrenny who both had blonde curly hair and they were like celebrities walking round. The chinese people either just stare at them, mouthes wide open or they rush over and ask for photos to be taken. it is hillarious! Ive told them to start charging fo the pictures as they would make a fortune but they are far too nice!

We got back on the boat around 10 am and then had the rest of the day to kill on the boringest boat ever to sail the sea. You had to pay to go and sit on the top deak and being the cheapskates that we are we didnt want to do that! So we could either sit in our room (which we did most of the time) or sirt on the benches in the corridors. It was so boring and the day dragged on and on. We tried to entertain ourselves but eventually got cabin fever from spendiong too much time in a tiny space!I had a shower which was not a pleasent experience as you had to shower over the squat toilet and the whole room stank of wee! I really needed to wash my hair though so endured the experience and came out alive! Eventually the nightime arrived and we could go to bed!

As we could only afford to go on the third class tour, our cabin was on the bottom deck with the door that opened directly onto the river. This meant that our cabin was full of mosquitos and i am now covered in blasted bites! My legs look horrible and they are so itchy! I did my best to cover up and used both my mozzie net and bug spray but they b*****s still got me! I hate them! Also in the middle of the night we could hear scurring adn scratching noises which we could only presume were rats as we were too scared to find out! Poor Renny had the bottom bunk and so scrambled up onto rachels top bunk every night to get away from the noises, needless to day niether of them slept very well!

The next day our trip didnt leave till about 1pm so we had a lesiruly morning, getting up and wathcing the gorges arrive. We found a part of the deck which you didnt have to pay to sit on so enjoyed watching the scenery go by until we moored up for our tour of the 3 gorges. There was a small group of english speaking tourists so they arranged for us to have our own guide who was a small chinese lady called julie!We got a boat though the gorges and she explined a lot to us about the river swellling andf the planned flooding that will be taking place over the next few years. It is amazing to see all the buildings that are going to be lost and also the new ones which the government are providing which dont include and doors, window or water pipes, its terrible.

The gorges weere really pretty and the scenery was a nice change from the industrial scenes we had been seeing along the way. When we arrived back to the main boat we wre allowed to get off and go into the town unitll 11pm so we jumped at the chace. We joined two girls we ahd made friends with Alice and Abby for dinner in WuHan and had a really lovely meal which made a nice change from cheese and crisp sandwiches we had been living on!

OUr last moring on the boat dragged on as ever but we eventually arrived at our final destination. WE had arranged for a bus to take us from Yichang to Wushan where we were staying the night to wait for our tain and all our connectionds and hostel worked out perfectly. WE arrived in Wushan at 9pm and had a quiet night ready toget our train to shanghai the next day. We ahve been killing time today in Wushan as our train doesnt leave till 9pm tonight (sat 21st) but i did manage to find the latest Harry Potter book so im really pleased and will probably not sleep on the train tonight as ill be reading it!

Next stop is Shanghai where we will meet up with naomi again and we are really looking forward to exploring the city! Not long left now, ill be home in 2w eeks time (eek!) but still a few places left to visit. Ill blog again soon and try to put up a few more pics once we get to Shanghai! Im also going to attempt to get my haircut so ill let you know how that goes - god help me!

lots of love Sarah x x x x x x