Mighty Yangtzee and Beautiful Gorges

Entering the Gorges

Information from Steve Yu,
Victoria Selina Riverboat Guide

Steven started with Victoria Selina 10 years ago in housekeeping. Then graduated to bar waiter, tender supervisor and in 2010 attended a small vocational school to be a guide.  They taught him about tourism, English and his country’s geography, history and culture, the three Gorges and the Dam that created the form of the river we were sailing on.

There are two major rivers in China,,,, in the south the Yangtze - 3rd longest in the world, in the north the Yellow river. - 5th longest . Yangtze in Chinese is Chang Jiang which means Long River. 1/3 of China’s people - 400 million - live along the Yangtze. China has 1.3 billion people, 1/15th of the worlds population. The Yangtze is 4,400 kilometers - 2700 miles long, stretching from Chungquin to Shanghai.

The beginning of many photo ops

Quitang Gorge -Shengnong Tributory

toWe would be going as far as Wuhan, passing through the most beautiful part of the river with the 3 Gorges Dam.

The three Gorges are Quitang, 8 kilometers, Wu, 4 kilometers and Xiling 761 kilometers.

In the Old Days

Our Tracker Boat

Probably the worst job along the Yangtze disappeared in the 1960’s along with the creation of the dam. Before the dam the waters of the Yangtze were difficult to navigate. During parts of it boats were actually pulled upstream by a team of trackers hauling the boat. In some cases the trackers shed their clothes as they became an impediment to the back breaking work of lugging boats upstream.

Our trackers had clothes on.  At one point we steered toward the shore. 3 of the trackers exited the boat and with the use of a rope pulled the boat for a few hundred feet along a well worn path.  The ropes had cut a ridge through the mountain side. Although the fear was mostly self induced I did wonder if we were going to tip over and have to swim for it.  I kept an eye out for rocks that might be able to sustain life. One of our trackers was a senior citizen - 65 years old!  The oars were remarkably skinny...not necessary today but in the old days they were necessary because of the shallow water. Thanks to Terry for asking!

Although its pretty difficult, like impossible to see, there is a hanging coffin about half way down this crevice. It was the tradition to respect the dead by placing their coffins like this for the period of mourning.


Before the 50’s parts of the river consisted of roaring waters and huge rocks. Navigational conditions were very bad.  A winch station was used to pull the boat upstream.