2010-06-22 China - Lesser Three Gorges

Today was scenic cruising through the Qutang Gorge. We saw the original inspiration of the sumi-e paintings of the mountains mysteriously shrouded in fog and clouds (still shrouded in fog and smog), which were later copied by Japanese artists. That misty foggy look is what it really looks like.

Later we got off the big ship at Wushan and got on smaller ships for a cruise on the Daning River through the Lesser Three Gorges (Dragon Gate Gorge, Misty Gorge and Emerald Gorge). We could almost see blue sky occasionally, and the Gorges' scenery was awesome. The Daning was a more blue color, and looks much cleaner than the Yangtze. This is a river where fish are "farmed", and bring a premium price, being from clean water. This is the site of the "Hanging Coffins of the Ba people" that were subject of a Discovery Channel program. Personally, I could not make out the coffins that the guides pointed to, but others apparently did, and photographed them.

After lunch on the ship, we could enjoy more cruising through the Wu (Witches) Gorge, which runs between Sichuan and Hubei Provinces. There are some awesome photos here.

There was another excellent dinner, climaxed by a Happy Birthday cake for Kiyomi, since today is her birthday. Our tour leader, Simon, must have found her birthday on her passport, and asked the chef to make a white cake with white frosting (which was delicious). Later that evening the ship went through the 5-stage Three Gorges Dam ship locks, but it started from 11 PM, and we were in bed by then.