This was a long day.
We left the hotel at 6am ( way too early but we did not want to miss our train) and eventually boarded the boat at 9pm. We’d been on foot, on the metro, on a train, in a car, on a bus, and in a fenicular / trolley car before we got to the boat!
Our first trip on a long distance Chinese train had us gob-smacked. We were booked on a D-class train from Shanghai to Yichang. These trains are pretty fancy and pretty fast (195Km/hr). There are better ones and I am pretty sure we will get to try out one of those later on our trip.
The railway station was a 40-minute ride on the metro from our hotel. At around $1.25 each, it was an easy, clean and fast way to get to the station. The most surprising thing about the railway station was there were NO TRAINS (that we could see anyway). The station was set out more like an airport terminal.
Our ticket displayed the gate / platform we would leave from and the carriage and seat number. When we were advised to board (well we saw people lining up at the gate and we guessed we should join them too) we passed through a set of gates and caught an escalator to the platform. That’s when we saw our train and noticed all the other platforms were empty of people, of rubbish and of trains. The floor was covered in beautiful tiles. Amazing!
We were the only non-Asians on the train but the announcements were made in English as well as Chinese so we were not worried about missing our stop. We had packed some lunch and something to read and we readied ourselves for the 8 hour trip. The lady behind us was not too happy about us being there I think.
The countryside was certainly not beautiful, picturesque or colourful. Think of the antonyms to these adjectives and you’d be closer to the truth. It was however interesting to us. The smog was thick for the whole journey, so photos were a waste of time. As were came closer to Yichang (our destination) the plots of land became larger and the crops of canola and wheat thicker.
I was very grateful that the D class train had a western-style toilet and a traditional toilet on each carriage. There was also a boiling water dispenser which people used for their tea and bowl of instant noodles for lunch. We will be better prepared for our next trip
We were met at the station by a guide who was to take us to the bus to get us to the boat. Sounds complicated? Yes it was, hence our decision to get a guide. We chose to take our boat trip UP the Yangtze River as it was longer and Mick was very keen to travel through the biggest lock in the world, consisting of five steps, just to compare it with our lock at Pelican Waters. Unfortunately, the lock was closed this month for annual maintenance and so we had to meet the boat above the lock.
We eventually made it to our boat, the Victoria Anna, in the dark and were grouped with two other English-speaking couples who like us were travelling independently. We all received an upgrade to Junior Suites. The boat is not full, so this was our lucky day.
We had packed some instant noodles which we enjoyed for dinner before we enjoyed a hot bath.
We are looking forward to this trip very much.
This is a photo of the trolley car thingo we rode to get to the boat. These photos were taken the next morning.
Our boat is on the left, and yes, we were surprised at how badly finished off this ?port , if you could call it that, was.
Jane and Mick's Holiday Adventures 