China Spring 2016 Part 8

After climbing the wall at Jingzhou on Day 6, it was a short drive to the port, where we boarded our ship to begin our 4 day cruise. We could hardly believe we were sailing on the Yangtze River!!!! All rooms had balconies and king beds, more luxurious than we are used to, and the food served as a buffet offered more variety than the usual lunches and dinners we had had. 

Our Ship: Yangtze Gold 8

Our room from the doorway

Very comfy!

We sailed from East to West

We boarded at Jingzhou on the map above

Cloudy and misty most of the way

Day 7 (morning) of our China trip. The weather the entire time we were sailing was overcast and misty, or, the first day, darn right rainy. We stopped at a Tujia Minority Culture Water Village, a place showing the river culture that existed before the 3 Gorges Dam was built. The little village shows the essence of old Chinese life, art, painting and poetry. With the building of dam and the flooding of the valley most of the communities were lost. Fishing (with typical boats) was and still remains a major income source along with agriculture. This water village has in essence become a living museum and tourist attraction. It was very crowded with the members of many cruise ships, and there was a cacophony of languages being spoken. CinoRama doesn’t use Whisper Boxes, like we have had on two other cruises, and so hearing Geoff, and keeping with him, was impossible in the crowds. It is still beautiful though very wet when we were there. One of the photos shows the spot high on the cliff where rest two coffins. The name of the hanging coffins varies from place to place in the Three Gorges area. It is also called Chuanguan (Ship Coffin/船棺) or Yanguan (Rock Coffin) in some places. In ancient times, in order to create a heaven for the ancestors to rest, people buried their bodies in coffins hanging on the cliffs so as to keep the body from the wind and rain, and to prevent erosion from being underwater. Some hanging coffins were put at a height of more than 500 meters. People would somehow climb steep cliffs and leave coffins of their family members or lower them from above. Experts can’t really agree how it was done. There are only a few of these left along the Yangzte River.

The Water Village buildings along the river. 

These statues honor and remember the boat men who used to pull boats
up the wild rushing Yangtze River against the current.

Longjin Brook, which runs to the Yangzte,  is lined with walkways on each side.
We walked up one side, crossed over the brook and returned on the other side. 

Traditional river boats

A Villager playing his flute to attract his love.

A lovely maiden, hoping to meet a young man.

The villagers acted out a traditional wedding, with a member of
the audience playing the role of the bridegroom.

A water wheel built in the traditional way from bamboo.