Last 2 days of Yangtze River Cruise

The river cruise has been at a more relaxed pace. Each day had one included tour and one optional extra (if you desired). We did not do either of the last 2 days options because the weather wasn't the greatest for visibility, but the other included ones were fine.

We boarded smaller boats and cruised down the Shennong Stream to view the towering cliffs and some curiosities like the hanging coffins. As there is no written record about them, nobody knows how they got there, who was buried, or why they were not interred in the ground. The coffins are estimated to be 2000 years old and the timber used doesn't rot, so they are still in remarkably good condition. There were also monkeys around too.

The last full day was a visit to the Xiaoguanshan Folk Culture Park featuring historic homes from the Qin, Zhou, Wang and Lu families as well as the ancient Tianfo Temple and Huichuan Gate that were originally located in a now submerged area of the Thre Gorges Dam. The structure were carefully dismantled and reconstructed to preserve this part of history. It was also here that I managed to fall down a couple of steps and banged up my shin. Fortunately, nothing broken but I'm now sporting some rather colourful purple bruises.

Practically everywhere we go, they put on short little cultural dances or puppet shows so I have included small video clips of these as well.Read more