3 nights on the Yangtze

Arrived by train to Chonquing were the Yangtze cruise was to begin. The train was a double decker and everyone loved to stare as we got on! It was the first time we have ever seen the conductors selling toys and doing demos-the toys were the type we had in England in the 80's and 90's. Everywhere you looked there was new roads being built, elevated through the hills and across the valleys, with a random power station popping up here and there.
We had a pick up at the station with a car with blacked out windows and the driver wearing white wooly gloves like a chauffer. They took us to the cruiser/local ferry were we boarded to find we were sharing a cabin with a couple from Dublin (Dave and Holly-on there way to New Zealand to work). Other than one other Westerner (Glynn, a software contractor from the South West), the other 500 were Chinese tourists, who loved a good stare. A small proportion liked getting very drunk and singing karaoke ALL day long, VERY VERY loudly.
After getting our cabin, a chinese guy had been giving Holly and Dave's keys by mistake. He thought he was in luck for a free upgrade. It only took about 2 hours to sort out with everybody from the whole floor getting involved! This even included the ship's doctor and a guy who was dressed from cap to socks in England strip. Very odd. The highlight of the trip was the 3 mini gorges were we went on a water tuk tuk and getting a sing song by the captain. We joined in a little before the rain came down and silenced him. Loads of pretty water falls and the odd monkey. The lowlight of the trip-smog and fumes coming from the exhaust funnel of our ferry and millions upon millions of tower blocks in the cities on the river bank (even more than New York).
Finsihed the trip by singing karaoke, trying to teach the Chinese a lesson of how bad it is on the ears to listen to!
The 3 gorges dam is incredibly large, Rachel did not think so though. Although we never got very close as it was mist, you could not really get the full enormity of the scale of the project.
On the plus side, the Chinese are making a huge effort to re-landscape down stream as the dam solves all their centuries of flooding problems.
Just arrived in Wuhan (a stop over night before we head to Shanghai). The bus ride here was extremely smelly and Rachel is now full of cold from the petrol fumes. When we were put on to the local bus, it nearly tipped over as all the Chinese peered out of the same window to have a stare at us. As we got onto the bus they all quickly sat back down as if they hadn't been looking.
Rachel had a kip, while Craig got interragated by 2 iron stone engineers for 3 hours! Rachel only woke up when armed police officers stopped the bus and got on to inspect it. I think they must have been bored because I don't know what they were looking for. The Chinese certainly like keeping you awake by spitting regularly on the bus floor.

By the way- Congratulations Pash and Karen!

Thanks Tim for the comments. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a few unusual birds.