My Yichang Chongqing Yangtze Cruise ( The Fourth Day )
( Shore Excursion - Lesser Three Gorges )
( Shore Excursion - Lesser Three Gorges )
December 29, 2005
9:00-15:00 Shore Excursion - Lesser Three Gorges
16:00-17:00 Passing Qutang Gorge
We walk through the reception to board our river craft for a morning cruise into the Lesser Three Gorges at Daning River. The Daning River is about 60km long. It is quite hard if not impossible to explain how impressive the Lesser Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
To visit the Little Three Gorges, we have to sail upstream of Daning River. We board a local small boat for day trip through the Lesser Three Gorges. The Little Three Gorges stretch for 50km up the Daning River, one of the Yangtze tributaries.
The the three little gorgs are the Dragon Gate Gorge, the Misty Gorge, and the Emerald Gorge. The Daning is now deep enough for much larger vessels to sail through the lesser three gorges, and all 230 of us are on the same ship sailing up the river. The Little Three Gorges Excursion is a popular activity on most of the cruises, we see other ships of all sizes coming and going.
We are very lucky to have a fine day for the side trip and for seeing the lesser three gorges. The green cliffs are covered sometimes in the mist that is normal to the Yangtze, but the sun gives us the sunshine most of the day, so we can even see monkeys in the trees along the river. The scenery is just beautiful with many terraced fields, caves, and rocky outcrops high on the cliffs.
One very interesting place high on the cliffs are ancient coffins put there by tribes whose custom was to put the dead in coffins high in mountain caves. Archaeologists have found swords, armour, and other artifacts stretching back to the Bronze Age in the coffins.
At the end of the last gorge - Emerald Gorge, we board a small sampan to drift on the "Mini Three Gorges"!
Before turning around and sailing back to Wushan, our ship stop at a pavilion where we have a nice barbeque picnic that has been prepared by the chefs on M.S.Century and delivered to the picnic stop.
We return to M.S. Century Sky in the mid-afternoon and sail for the last gorge - Qutong Gorge.
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