Weekend of travelling, Fengjie, Yichange and the Cruise down the Yangzte - 5th December 2011

Nihao from Yichang, Hubei province, in the middle of China! This city is the second largest city in the Hubei province, following Wuhan and with a population almost the size of New Zealand - 3.9 million - it is a small city per Chinese standards. It is on the banks of the Yangzte River and is 1h away from the massive Three Gorges Dam and is a very fashionable city according to our tour guide. However, it is very hard to find an internet cafe here! 1.5 hours of hunting for internet and asking locals for wangba (internet cafe), we have finally found one.

We departed Yangshuo at 10am on the Friday, following a very early (and very cold!) tai chi lesson in the town square. Kids on their way to school and adults walking past were stopping to stare at the big white unco people attempting tai chi and were taking photos. At 10am, we caught our 1.5h long private bus to the city Guilin, where we jumped on a 20h train to Chongqing. We arrived in Chongqing (biggest city in the world - 32million people - at 8.30am craving showers from the cold, dirty train. However, it was a 2h transit in a fast food restaurant next to the bus station then a 5h bus to Fengjie. The bus ride to Fengjie was beautiful, as we were travelling the mountainous Chongqing-Sichuan border, glimpsing small villages alongside the Yangzte. We arrived in Fengjie about 4pm, and straight away crammed onto a local bus. I don't think they see many westerners in this small city as we were stared at as though we were celebrities! Fengjie is a very new, relocated city. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, citizens living alongside the Yangzte were relocated to Fengjie as the river swelled. We finally arrived at our hotel after a final taxi ride, desperate for showers and to get out of our clothes we had been wearing for 26h. We then went down the street to a hotpot restaurant to sample the reknowned Chongqing hotpot.

The Chongqing hotpot consists of an array of meat, dumplings and veges cooked in a bubbling hotpot in the centre of the table, with a bigger outer pot of very spicy oil and a small inner pot of not so spicy oil. Once cooked, the morsels are dipped in your own seasoning, eaten with chopsticks and washed down with 'snow' (similar to a blonde) beer. Being the adventurous lot we are, our table decided to eat spicy (the other table were more sensible and went not so spicy). Once I left the restaurant, I immediately regretted my choice for spicy as my super reactive tummy did not appreciate the spice! The next morning when the group met in the lobby at 7am to board the hydrofoil boat down the Yangzte, the two English girls and I had dodgy tummies from the spice, and another girl who had been sitting at the other table had come down with food poisoning and was unfortunately spending her birthday very sick. Popping some abdominal cramp pills and skipping breakfast, I was ready for the four hour hydrofoil trip to the dock beside the dam.

At midday we arrived at the dock and caught a short private bus to a restaurant in town for lunch. This town was constructed purposely to house workers on the dam and was now a desolate almost shanty town. The others feasted on chinese food for lunch while I restricted myself to plain rice. We then boarded the tourist cruise boat to Yichang. This boat was reasonably flash and western style, so it gave the group a chance to relax while taking photos of the cute townships alongside the Yangzte. At about 4.30pm we arrived in Yichang. Catching taxis to our hotel, we arrived and checked for passports when one of the Australian boys realised he had left his day pack in the taxi. Thinking we would never see his day pack again - this is Asia - we were surprised to discover that his pack had been handed in untouched to the police station. With everyone back in a good mood, we headed down to the local chinese barbeque restaurant. You choose kebabs of veges and meat and they are covered with some mild spice and barbequed. My favourites were the red bean sesame balls, coriander wrapped in tofu, mushrooms and leeks. My dinner and beer cost only 28yuan (approx $6NZ) - so cheap! After dinner we went to the square and watched the local boys street dance, then hit the vibrant night markets. I purchased a chunky knit scarf (19yuan) and a cable knit fur lined cardigan for 100yuan ($20NZ) to both keep me warm, as well as letting me fit in with the locals more than i can wearing my kathmandu and icebreaker gears.

This afternoon we catch an overnight train to Xi'an, where we can finally stay put for a couple of nights and explore. I am looking forward to the Terracotta warriors, Islamic food in the muslim quarter (craving lamb/beef kebabs!) as Xi'an - the old capital of China - was the beginning of the silk road to central asia, thus the muslim influence; and biking the city walls.