Night Lights: A Yangstze River Cruise

Lillian said she could not come with us this evening because she had prior commitments. However, Grace Sprite (see our Guiyang Adventures) and her German boyfriend had recently arrived and we would be joining them on the cruise.

Got a call from Grace and we met at the Victory Monument at around 1730 and then walked about a block to get a taxi to the Chaotianmen Docks. On the way, we got "touted" by a tiny little Chinese kid wanting to sell us a flower or two. She ended up being helpful by showing us where to catch a taxi.

A little tout who told us where we could catch a taxi

Here is our River Cruise ship waiting for us

Portrait of two Chinese ladies waiting for a cruise

Boarding our River Cruise ship

When does this thing get underway?

The following are some night scenes from the hour and a half cruise:

Hong Ya Dong is beautiful at night

Hong Ya Dong not far from Jie Fang Bei Plaza

A beautiful view of Red Rock Village (Hong Ya Dong)

The cable car across the Yangstze. We never got to take it

Grace's Little Honey from Germany. The name "Little Honey" is an inside joke

Just being Grace Sprite

Another cruise ship with a boat load of passengers

Ask Grace if she had a good time

This river cruise is one of those "must do" events while in Chongqing. I think it cost around 50 yuan a piece without dinner. It is around 90 yuan with dinner thrown in. Our experience has always told us to not do the dinner as it is usually mediocre at best but usually extremely bad. The dinner is where the money is.

We were a bit disappointed as the trip, we thought, was supposed to be two hours. It clocked in at less than an hour and a half. Oh well, once you've made a pass back and forth there is no more to see.

My camera, a Canon A640, is not supposed to do well at night shots and I am a bit disappointed at its lack of ability to do good night work. My backup camera (one I bought new a long time ago) is a Canon G2 and Sunee was using it. Unfortunately she is not used to taking night shots so hers did not come out very good.

Did we have a good time on the river? Hey, the complaint about the cruise was just providing information for those of you who get to take it. I would not take it again but would advise others to do it one time so they can check that "must do" box.

We, early on, decided not to take the cruise down the Yangstze River to Yichang as most people come to Chongqing to do. It was just too hot to be on a boat that long. Also we were not sure of the accomadation and we certainly were not going to pay big bucks to go first class with working AC guaranteed. We travel lie our fellow Chinese travel, cheap and fun.

Overall this river cruise was fun and especially with my student Grace making us all laugh. We did have a great time and look forward to more Chongqing over the next few days.