Today we passed through the second and third of the Three Gorges - Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge.
Wu (or Witches) Gorge is said to be the most beautiful of the Three Gorges and is the home of the 12 famous peaks including "Goddess Peak". We entered Wu Gorge mid-morning and our river guide, Michael, was on hand to give us a detailed commentary as we stood on the decks of the Victoria Prince and viewed the fantastic scenery with cloud-encircled peaks, said to embody supernatural spirits. Still rather hazy/misty but brighter than yesterday and very atmospheric.
After an early lunch we disembarked at Wushan for a smaller ferry, complete with pagoda style roof, to enter the Lesser Three Gorges on the Daning River.
Wushan itself is quite a small town (about the size of East Grinstead with a population of 30,000) so very small compared with the large cities we are visiting on this trip (Shanghai has a population of approx. 18 million and Chongqing 30 million). The town is situated at the confluence of the Yangtze and Daning Rivers.
We spent about one and a half hours winding our way through these beautiful lesser gorges - the water is strikingly clear and green here compared to the muddy, turgid waters of the Yangtze and the river is much narrower (hence the smaller boat). The flooding as a result of the Dam (to date) has meant that the landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years - the bridge which once stood high above the mouth of the Daning River is now semi-submerged and will eventually be demolished once the new bridge further down-stream is finished.
We spent about one and a half hours winding our way through these beautiful lesser gorges - the water is strikingly clear and green here compared to the muddy, turgid waters of the Yangtze and the river is much narrower (hence the smaller boat). The flooding as a result of the Dam (to date) has meant that the landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years - the bridge which once stood high above the mouth of the Daning River is now semi-submerged and will eventually be demolished once the new bridge further down-stream is finished.
The first and most dramatic Lesser Gorge is known as Dragon Gate Gorge - the river here is only 10-30m wide with the cliffs soaring to 800-1000m on each side. The three gorges are separated by terraced fields - everything is very lush and green and many crops are grown including green beans (I've never tasted such delicious beans), egg-plants, cotton, wheat and tea.
The second Lesser Gorge is Misty Gorge (because it tends to be misty!) where we were shown one of the famous "hanging coffins" suspended high up on the cliff-face - a relic left from the Ba people who inhabited the gorge 3,500-1,800 years ago who believed that the higher up the dead body was 'buried' the more important that person was and the nearer to heaven - no-one knows how they managed to get the coffins up to seemingly inaccessible areas on the cliff-side!
Emerald Gorge is the third of the Lesser Gorges and is covered with bamboo groves and foliage and, having seen a few monkeys swinging from the trees or clinging to the rock-face on our way, we were pleased to see a whole colony of monkeys playing on the bank on our return journey.
Having navigated the Lesser Gorges we then transferred to Sampans to enter the Mini Gorges - much, much smaller and a lovely experience with a traditional pipe player and a local Chinese folk group performing to us as we passed by.
We returned to our cruise boat after 4 hours, then sailed onto Qutang - the final of the Three Gorges. We were all exhausted but exhilarated - definitely Carol's favourite day of our trip so far!
The crew put on an excellent and very colourful display of traditional Chinese dancing after dinner and we couldn't refuse when they encouraged us to join in (despite the aching legs from standing most of the day). A great end to a wonderful day.
The crew put on an excellent and very colourful display of traditional Chinese dancing after dinner and we couldn't refuse when they encouraged us to join in (despite the aching legs from standing most of the day). A great end to a wonderful day.
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