We are told today that we are having a traditional Chinese breakfast so we all need to go down together. At 7.30 we get the call to breakfast:
"Good morning ladies gennlemen, breakfast served, please go restaurant"
Chinese/western breakfast served up - loads of dishes put on revolving table, and everyone gets a double fried egg plonked in front of them - like it or not, even the empty chairs get the eggs.
We have our first port of call today, and that is the Yueyang Tower, which we get to by a 20 minute bus ride over dirt track and through the city of Yueyang, passing by the Dong Ting lake.
The tower is described as one of three great towers south of the Yangste and is situated in its own little park. The tower was erected in 716, and is alleged to be made entirely of wood (no metal bits at all, such as nails).
What do I remember about it? Well there was a poem written on the wall, and upstairs there was a copy of the same poem. One of these versions had been recovered out of the lake, and salvaged from being firewood, there was some writing on the wall in Chairman Mao’s hand, we wore plastic overshoes (presumably so we didn’t get our shoes dirty). There was another piece of writing (in Chinese) which said - sky sea one colour - meaning that mostly the join between the Dong Ting lake and sky is, in general, indistinguishable. Also in the park was lots of pagoda type buildings, a long barrow and a gift shop (fancy that!).
Everybody back on the bus, and back to the boat. We buy some beer in the local shop before getting back on the boat, then it is lunch:
"Good affernoon ladies gennlemen, lunch served, please go restaurant".
During the afternoon we watch a demonstration of Chinese finger painting, calligraphy and seal carving, then we return to our cabin for a video of the 3 gorges. We can’t find the channel for the video, so I check at reception and I’m told it’s channel 6, which is a pity ‘cos our telly only goes up to 5, so we go to the coffee lounge to watch it.
Afterwards its back to the cabin to park ourselves on the balcony to watch the banks of the Yangste pass by - well one of them anyway.
At 7.30 sharp guess what:
"Good evening ladies gennlemen, dinner served, please go restaurant".
Dinner is a welcome banquet organised by the captain and ship’s manager. The menu includes: vegetable salads, four cold dishes, fried fish slices, beancurd toast, fried chicken slices, celery with shrimp meat, steamed fish, chicken soup, sweet bread and fruit.
After dinner we retire to the coffee bar and, as the boat rolls down the river, you won’t believe this because I’m not sure I do, a group of us have a game of snooker! Periodically all the balls would roll to the cushion - what may have been a straight ball suddenly becomes snookered behind 10 others against the side cushion. A somewhat surreal game.
Go to Gezhouba Dam and Xiling Gorge
Copyright © 1997 Andrew J White