I took about a 2 hour nap during the night and Charlotte slept for about 3 hours before we had to catch a 4:50am train from Zhangjiajie(張家界) to Yichang(宜昌), where boats take off down the Yangtze river(長江) towards Chongqing(重慶). Our original plan was to take a 4 day cruise, however due to cutting our time slightly short we decided to go for the hydrofoil fast boat which would do the same journey in about 6 hours. We also would spend the night at a small town to go on a separate boat ride visiting the "little three gorges"(小三峽) that were created after China put the dam in the river. Before the dam was put up this was supposed to be one of the most beautiful cruises in the world, but due to the increase in water level, the height of the gorges is no longer what it once was. Taking the hydrofoil seemed like a good idea, we could stop over in one town, see what we want and continue the following day to the end of the boat trip, which ends about 3 hours from Chongqing. We then would take a bus the rest of the way.
Train
We got to the train station almost an hour and a half early. We left the hotel because we weren't sure how easy getting a cab at 3:30am would be, but there were 3 waiting for us when we got there. At the train station we found that the train was going to be an hour late, so we had 2:30 hours to wait. Finally it came and we got to our hard sleepers which were probably the dirtiest ones we had seen so far, plus no A/C. It turns out we werent sleeping in the same compartment, but were in the same train car. I took the worse of the two and we tried to get some sleep. Charlotte slept fine, but my bed was the first one of the car and had no air moving through it so it got very hot and it was also next to the bathroom where people smoke so it was full of smoke. I got about an hour or 2 of sleep, but then it was just too hot.
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
Our train bed
After everyone woke up around 8-9am, the wife of the guy sleeping next to me came over and then started to try and ask me questions, but she didn't speak English so I tried to respond to the few chinese words I know. She then got her daughter over who spoke English pretty well. She said they were from a small town, so I didnt pay attention to the name, until I asked how small and she said about 4 million people. It turns out they were from Yinchuan(銀川) where we had been earlier in the trip (Day 40). The mother also said she thinks she saw us in Xi'an(西安) earlier in the summer. Then Charlotte woke up and they had a long conversation. They told Charlotte that all the schools started their summer vacation on 7/15 and it ended on 9/1, during which all the students went home and their families would arrange trips with them. That explained why we had no problem getting train tickets in the beginning of the trip but since we hit Shangri-la (香格裡拉) we were having trouble all the time and had to get standing tickets sometimes. Also, since all the students went back to school on 9/1, all of a sudden we had no problem getting tickets again, and all the tourists spots were not packed with Chinese tours anymore after the summer vacation ended. They also said the worst time to catch a train is during Chinese year, when traditionally everyone needs to go home and be together with their family. Almost everyone in China tries to catch a train during those days, and there were news articles with pictures showing that the train conductor would shove people into the window of the train because too many people tried to get on the train and the train door is not enough for all the passengers to get on during the short time the train stops at certain stations.
Boat
Our train was even more delayed getting in and we were worried about getting our boat. We had decided to skip sleeping in a small town and just take the hydrofoil all the way to Chongqing. When we got in they assured us that there was no problem getting the boat, so we got to the ticketbooth who put us on a bus to the boat. We got there about an hour after we were supposed to leave and the boat hadn't shown up yet. The boat finally came around 1:30, but now we were worried about the bus from the Wanzhou(萬州) to Chongqing(重慶) as the last bus left at 8pm and the boat ride was 6 hours. The first part of the boat ride was fine, we were cruising down the river taking pictures. About 2 hours in we heard a loud THUD and the boat slowed down. He then put it in reverse before starting up again, however we didnt seem to be going as fast. He stopped a couple times, but we were making it down the river. Unfortunately we were now really unsure how we would make our bus. Finally at the 3rd stop they said everyone would have to get off because the boat was leaking oil. Supposedly since they flooded the area it is full of trash and it is pretty common for the boat to hit things and break. They refused to give us our money back and said they would drive us the rest of the way. We weren't too happy with this as we would still miss our bus and the boat was about 3 times more expensive than if we had just gotten a bus from the start. People started yelling at them and then Charlotte started yelling at them and eventually the police came over, but didn't really say anything. Finally after a long argument 2 other passengers heard we were going to Chongqing and wanted to take advantage of the foreigner and his screaming wife, knowing especially with the cops there that the company wouldn't want to screw the foreigner over. They proposed that the company pays for us to get to the end of the line and secures us a ride from there to Chongqing for the price the bus would normally take. The company agreed with this so the four of us got a car to Chongqing, about 7 hours away by car. So now a trip that was supposed to take about 14 hours total was going to be about 21 hours.
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
A Chinese cruise ship that passed while we were waiting, not as nice as normal international cruise ships
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
Our boat arriving
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
These cliffs were huge, hard to imagine it before the flooding of the river
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
Inside of the boat
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
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| From 77 Days in China part 2 |
Our now broken boat
Car
The first thing that almost went wrong was they wanted to separate the four of us going to Wanzhou(萬州) where we would meet for the other car. The two Chinese people started yelling and basically saying they were not going to leave the foreigner, knowing that increased the chance of the getting screwed over. Finally they got a car for all 4 of us. The first car ride was about 3 hours and the second driver seemed like it was his first time driving so it took longer, almost 4.5 hours. He even drove with the emergency brake on by accident for a while. At one point we stopped for food and the other 2 chinese passengers got some cakes that were individually wrapped and gave us some. There is now a trail you can follow of our car as the Chinese passengers would throw each individual wrapping out the window as they finished. Charlotte and I would secretly put the wrappers in our bag so we wouldn't get yelled at for not littering. Finally we got dropped off around 2am in Chongqing and one of the passengers helped us find our hotel.
Hotel
We got in a little after 2 and our hotel didn't have the room we wanted, we hadn't booked this night since we didn't think we would be there. They suggested using their computer to book another hotel of theirs a couple blocks away that did have that room. When we got to the 2nd hotel they said they did have that room but there was no A/C as it was broken and when Charlotte looked at it the room was damp and had a bad smell. They said they could give us the next room up, but we would have to pay the difference. Charlotte yelled again as we had reserved a room but didn't have it. Finally they agreed to give us a free breakfast, and it was now almost 3:30 (24 hours after leaving our last hotel) so we caved and took it.
Done
After today I told Charlotte I am done. We have 3 days left before leaving for Hong Kong and I am taking it easy the rest of the way. There is one more big tourist site we want to see, the Big Buddha outside of Chengdu(成都), but besides that its recovery time until we get to Hong Kong where things are a lot easier
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