30th July 2026
Gosh, I’m so excited! (And I just can’t hide it!) I’m just about to start my first ever river cruise (or any cruise for that matter), a four-day three-nighter on board the four-star Victoria Katerina, setting evening sail in a thunderstorm from Chongqing downriver to Yichang on a very famous Three Gorges River Cruise. Cruises are normally out of my budget, but this one I think just has to be done, and along with Chongqing, has very much been at the back of my travel radar since first hearing about the stunning Three Gorges during my last trip to China in 2002. I splashed out even more in booking a single-cabin supplement, as I didn’t want to share my cabin with a stranger, and it was so worth it. I was about to be cruising down the world’s third longest river, and the longest in Asia, and thus as mentioned, I was excited!
My cruise didn’t set off until the late afternoon, so I had pretty much another day to spend in Chongqing. After a nice lie-in, and a visit to the Three Gorges Museum in the city to learn a bit more about this part of the country as well as some more interesting bits and bobs on Chinese history and culture, I returned to my hotel for another nice chill in my hotel again as check-out wasn’t until 2pm! After this, I stored my bags in reception, and went for a lovely Thai green curry with chicken lunch at a local international food mall, before heading to board my cruise ship for 5pm.
The taxi driver made a wrong turn on the way there, and I felt so bad for him as he felt so very bad about it – he said sorry (something which is very rare in Chinese culture, as it admits wrongdoing in a very proud society), and lightly slapped himself on the side of his head a few times. I told him it was absolutely fine and not to worry about it at all, we just did a bit of a loop around the roads and he then made the right turn again. It was an experience to see this, as throughout my whole summer in China, I don’t think I’d ever met anyone who said sorry (I come from a culture where sorry is pretty much every other word a British person utters).
After boarding and meeting the very polite welcoming committee, including a number of onboard crew dressed as Chinese super-heroes which I thought was pretty cool, I signed up for every single extra excursion that was on offer. While I was in it for a nice relaxing cruise, I also didn’t want to miss out on anything! I then spent the next couple of hours settling into my lovely and well-equipped cabin room with private balcony, and exploring every inch of every deck of the delightful little river cruise ship. It was only half-full apparently, and while there was no dinner on the first evening (and thus I had another delicious Master Kong Braised Beef Pot Noodle which I had brought on board), there was a safety meeting for the international travellers such as myself in the bar area. There I met with the lovely Cruise Director, a super-friendly lady from South Africa now living in China with her Mum and sister, and three separate travelling groups from the Czech Republic, Holland and Germany. We ended up doing our land-based tours in our own little English-speaking bubble over the next few days, and I got to know each of them to varying degrees during these excursions, along with several Chinese passengers in and around the ship. I found the whole thing to be a wonderful social occasion, with time also to myself in my cabin and on my balcony if needed.
After my pot noodle, I attended the 7.30pm “Sail Away Ceremony” in the bar with absolutely wonderful dancing and performances from the very talented crew members. We left the amazing city of Chongqing in serious style at sunset, as mentioned during a thunderstorm, gazing out at the awesome views of the city from the river, with all the skyscrapers lit up again at night, and the odd flash of lightning in the sky every now and then, accompanied by intermittent cracks of thunder. It was so atmospheric – did I mention I was excited…!
There was a slightly gentle rocking to sleep that night from the river flow, and also as the boat moved around the bends. There was also the odd creak and engine noise throughout the night, so I ended up sleeping with ear plugs during my three nights on-board, and quite lightly at that. The next morning we woke up to a whole new skyline, and since this was my first time doing a cruise, that was just awesome – we had of course left Chongqing far behind, and were now at the riverside city of Fengdu.
At breakfast I joined my table for the next three days. All the international passengers were put on the same one, I imagine for socialising purposes, and I also realised we just happened to all be at the end of the same deck corridor in our rooms as well. Some might call this “segregation”, but I did understand the purposes as to this. While the domestic Chinese passengers were super-friendly, the limited English and limited conversations that this might lead to could cause a bit of awkwardness in social situations. I also recall my two pretty unique and sometimes quite overwhelming experiences of joining a Chinese-speaking tour group during my time in China, and thus can also see the benefits of keeping us international travellers together for tour purposes as well.
I sat with the German travelling group – a mother with her adult son and her friend. They were just so cool! I really enjoyed spending time with them, the mother’s friend was just so funny and down-to-earth. The Dutch family were also on our table, though spent little time there as they preferred to spend time in their cabin (they had a “Presidential Room”) and went to this buffet restaurant for mostly takeaway only. The Czech group – a father with his adult son and his girlfriend – chose the five-star a-la-carte dining option on the top deck for an additional fee. I thus got to know the Germans quite well, and as mentioned, just loved their company.
After breakfast came the first of my optional tours – a visit to the Fengdu Ghost City, and then the Shuanggui Mountain which was an included tour just next door. The former is actually more of a temple dedicated to the Chinese King of the Underworld, rather than a deserted haunted city as I had imagined! I must admit that after a while, Chinese Temples tend to just all blend in with one another, and after seeing my first, second and third, they do start to become a bit same-same-but-different. This one had a particularly unique highlight though – a 182kg metal block lifted up onto a pedestal by a 60-year-old resident of the village. It is said that great fortune is bestowed upon he who can achieve this, so this guy must be the most fortune-filled person in the neighbourhood as he does it for tourists every hour or so. Needless to say, I couldn’t even lift it myself.
The latter Shuanggui Mountain was a pretty little forested hill next door, dedicated to a Confucian poet who once lived there in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty, called Su Dongpo. It was an interesting tour, though really quite hot, and we were all grateful to return to the boat for lunch and air-conditioned bliss afterwards.
We departed Fengdu and cruised on, and after a short rest in my cabin came the “Captain’s Welcome” in the bar later that afternoon. After the welcoming speech, translated into English once more by the Captain’s right-hand man, the ship’s crew gave a wonderful dance performance which I was so impressed with. They dressed in the traditional clothes of a number of China’s ethnic minorities, and danced their dances – particularly impressive, as the announcements said they are only crew members and not professional performers. I thought they did so well – such talented people!
There was an optional land excursion that evening, which of course I signed up to, in the riverside town of Dongxi, to watch the fantastical performance of “War Fire of Three Kingdoms”. This was a powerful presentation of the story of the 3rd century AD Chinese War of the Three Kingdoms, as three rival states competed for power after the fall of the Han Dynasty – the Wei, the Shu and the Wu Kingdoms. The war, which created one of the greatest amounts of deaths and devastation in Chinese history, was finally ended after a 60 year power struggle, when following the Shu defeat by the Wei, a military clan within the latter staged a coup and seized the Wei throne, before finally defeating the Wu in 280 AD. This military clan called the Sima renamed itself the Jin Dynasty, which brought a short-lived peace to the devastated country at the time until 420 AD, when the country was further divided again into the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Chinese history is complex but fascinating.
Although I had pretty much no idea what was going on, and only got to know this story doing a bit of post-trip reading, the performance I saw that night was just incredible. It involved fire, water, soldiers, battles, dancing, and even horses and a rotating audience seating area! Every time I saw something in China, I realised they do things 100 times better than most of the rest of us do. This country feels like the future, as I felt both at this performance, and during many other times throughout this incredible journey. I must say I found the show a bit too incredible, even overwhelming, at times, and enjoyed finding my peace again back in my cosy cabin on board the Victoria Katerina as we set sail once more upon our return around 11pm that evening.
The next day was again brilliant, with two more shore excursions based out of the riverside city of Fengjie, featured in the internationally-acclaimed film “Still Life” (2006) which highlights the effects of the rising waters following the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The first one was optional, and probably my favourite of the whole cruise. It was much quieter than the others, and our select group of 19 people including myself and the Czech group were the only ones doing it. The rest of the ship, along with three other boats which had docked, visited the much more popular, and I imagine really very crowded, White Emperor City – a fort dating back 2000 years on a strategic river island position at the entrance to the first of the famed Three Gorges. My little tour was instead heading to a place called “The Top of the Three Gorges”, literally driving up to the highest point 1,200 metres above this first gorge, the Qutang Gorge, for absolutely incredible views all around. Back on the ship, excitement set in the whole passenger body as we began to glide through this very same gorge – I was particularly interested to gaze up 1,200 metres to where I’d just been standing shortly before, looking down.
So the Three Gorges are so-called as from here until the Three Gorges Dam, the mighty Yangtze River flows through, you guessed it, three beautiful gorges – the Qutang, the Wu and the Xiling. The first one is the shortest at only five miles, but is the most dramatic, with steep-sided cliffs reaching up vertically over a thousand metres in height on each side. The second is around 30 miles long, and is home to the famous, often mist-shrouded Goddess Peak. The third is the longest at 40 miles long, and was once home to turbulent waters, until the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam, was built in the middle of it which calmed the river there. The construction of this very famous dam, completed in 2012, not only brought huge hydroelectric benefits to the middle of China, supplying energy from Shanghai to Guangzhou, it also notoriously led to the upstream water levels rising around 100m, and the complete submersion of hundreds of settlements of various sizes up and down the river banks. More on this most amazing, though rather infamous, Chinese engineering marvel below.
After lunch on board, we passed through the second gorge, the Wu, and at the foot of the afore-mentioned Goddess Mountain, I took my second excursion for the day. This one was included, so everyone was out there. Still, it was a quiet experience, as only our cruise boat had docked, with only around 120 people out of the boat’s capacity of 240. Us international tourists were put together on one of the many smaller boats, and we headed up the gorgeous little Goddess Tributary, learning about the local people and how they manage to live high up the gorge sides and still farm up there. Our very friendly English-speaking tour guide told us more about the impacts of the rising waters which followed the completion of the Three Gorges Dam – apparently, this river cruise was even more spectacular back then, with of course the gorges being even deeper. She told us of the many people who were either moved into new cities which were purposely-built above the new water line, or moved elsewhere. Apparently they were well-compensated, but sad to move after many of their families had inhabited the area for over two thousand years!
That evening was the “Captain’s Farewell Banquet”, with more amazing food and a final speech from the Captain, translated once more by his right-hand man. This was followed by “The Crew Cabaret” talent show, which after umming and arring about, I decided to miss. I was a bit sad about this, but after doing every single activity on offer up to this point, I wanted to have a more chilled final evening on this cruise just watching the world go by from my balcony, with a drop or two of whisky. All had been amazing, but going for the included excursions as well as the four optional ones, aiming as I usually do to fit in to my travels pretty much all I can, I felt the need to just chill and appreciate my wonderful balcony on my final evening. This was a nice change of pace, as I often think as I travel that I’m only in such places once, so I aim to pack it all in. The next morning was an early start too, as my final optional excursion involved checking out with my bags at 7.30am after breakfast. I loved this last evening, just appreciating the calmness of the still waters and huge gorge sides going by, contemplating what a wonderful time I’d had on the Yangtze River, and the amazing people I had met.
The next day was my final one on the Yangtze River, and included my final additional shore excursion of the cruise. This was the Three Gorges Dam ship lift. As well as being the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges also has the world’s largest ship lift. It was just incredible, and I was so glad I did it in order to get a real insider’s glimpse of this most marvellous of modern Chinese engineering feats. It is the world’s largest dam, generating 250 GWh of electricity per day, enough to power 31 million Chinese homes. This is compared to America’s Hoover Dam producing just 11 GWh per day, and up until 2022 the world’s second largest dam, the Itaipu Dam of Brazil and Paraguay producing 200 GWh per day. Not surprisingly, the Itaipu Dam was pipped to second position by another Chinese dam, the Beihetan Dam in the south-west of the country.
During these last three days of river cruising, I’d always had in mind this final end point of the journey. This time I was the only international traveller, and I joined my cruise’s group of around 30 of us signed up for this tour. We met at reception with our bags, and hopped on another cruise ship nearby. This one had no cabins, and was purely for day trip purposes only. It was harder to follow along with things without any English-speaking guide this time, and as we joined around 200 other tourists on the ship lift itself, it became rather overwhelming for me.
Fortunately I found the “VIP Floor” on the top floor of the ship, paying a small fee for the privilege of having a much more peaceful place to hang around, with the best views on the ship. We set off, first cruising along the massive Three Gorges Reservoir created by the concrete colossus of the 2,335m wide and 185m high structure of the dam in the far distance. While most ships heading downstream take several hours to pass through the complex lock system through the Dam, we took the speedy “Ship Lift” option, which as the name suggests, is quite simply a lift for ships. This was just incredible, as we entered the lock-type lift and descended the equivalent of a 40-storey building before making it out at the bottom within around half-an-hour.
At the bottom, I joined my fellow Victoria Katerina cruise’s passengers again, and tagged along with a lovely Chinese family I’d met a few times over the previous few days. This was with the fantastic young man called Ling, and his father and mother. Dad used to be in the army, and I wasn’t sure about Mum as she was so quiet. I really enjoyed spending time with Ling, and found that despite the really quite vast differences in our background and culture, we had such a lot in common – similar tastes in music and films, and a similar outlook in life. It’s fair to say I may have found a new BFF in Ling! We are still in touch by email.
Next up, we toured around the Visitor Centre of the Three Gorges Dam itself, involving a seriously hot walk around the various viewing points, broken up by short stints in the several air-conditioned souvenir shops dotted mercifully around. A short coach trip later through the final stages of the last of the Three Gorges, the Xiling, we arrived at the final point of call for this whole Yangtze River Cruise – the well-sited and rather provincial Yangtze Riverside city of Yichang.
After saying a final goodbye to the fantastic Ling and his family, I had a few hours to kill in town before my onward train would take me on to nearby Wuhan for the night. I left my bags in a central hotel where I had lunch, before wandering around the shopping mall next door for more air-conditioned chilling time. It was quite clear from the responses of many locals to my wandering, that this city surprisingly saw very few foreign faces. They were interested looks, nothing negative, and it was as I say surprising, considering the many international tourists that must start off or end their Yangtze River Cruises here. I imagine most international travellers head directly to and from the city’s High Speed Railway Station and not stop off in town as I did.
Taxi to the station, and then Wuhan, famous for many things especially around six years ago (!), here I come! I was strangely really excited to be visiting this place that so hit the headlines back then…!
