Wanzhou Hotel

Boarding the Yangzte River Boat

by al2401

After an afternoon visiting Chongqing it was time to board the boat for the Yangtze River cruise. The river was a long way down from the street level and you had to go down a lot of stairs along a steep wall. There I found that the boat is moored along way out in the river which was shallow at this time of year (April) and was approached over a series of decks joined by floating pontoons - just like a Bailey Bridge.

There were porters everywhere and the going rate was 10 CNY per bag. They slung the bags onto a pole which they then hoisted onto their shoulder and off they went. I had trouble keeping up with them. Nearly all of the stores for the voyage were brought aboard the same way.

On the main pontoon there was a brass band playing to welcome you aboard.

Then you had to find your boat - not as easy as you would think. They moore side by side sometimes 3 deep and you had to go through one or two other boats to get to yours. The same system used by the Nile boats in Egypt.