Mucking around in boats...
24/08/09 12:00 Filed in: 2009 China
We transferred from the Yangtze Princess to a smaller boat, which took us into a tributary of the Yangtze, where we transferred to sampans. There was a dramatic change in the colour of the water, from the brown of the Yangtze to a deep oily green.
The sampan trip was made especially interesting by our crew, who were determined to overtake the other sampans on the river. Luckily our crew had relatively new, and therefore robust, oars and poles; one of the other sampans (full of Chinese tourists) had an oar snap mid-stroke, resulting in a little kid getting a very heavy blow in the face. There was quite a lot of blood and he may have needed to have stitches or perhaps even had concussion.
After this excitement we returned to the YP, sailed on a bit, then disembarked to visit the 2000 year old White Emperor City. This is reached by going up a few hundred steps which, in 100 degF temperatures, does bring you out in a bit of a sweat. Very much worth the effort though, not only for the buildings, but for the excellent views of the gorge.
Pictures are here: Monday 24
Ian