I'm shocked to see nobody has written something about the Three Gorges before now. After trying to read the official description I'm confused about what they deem special about the place - and that taking a cruise onboard the Changjiang (Long river) one would hardly be exposed to any of these. Anyhow, here is my travel report.

The cruise started from Chongqing and stops at the dam. From there you can take a plane out. Before the connections were very bad but I think it has been improved since then. The cruise takes 2 nights and 3 days. On the way you have optional excursions and one only pays for entrance tickets the temples etc, not for taking part in anything - of course each cruise is different but my point is that you get to see some cultural parts on the trip but apart from "beautiful scenery" there isn't much of animals or plants you can identify on the journey. My cruise ship also usually offers an extra boat trip to a smaller gorge but the weather conditions were not favorable enough. Sad. What I'm saying is that when you find a cruise operator you should check into side activities and see if they have something interesting.

The Three Gorges scenic spot is easily the best part of the trip. Even with the "controversial" damn having raised the water levels it still looks spectacular. The lookout point can get crowded. As you can see from my picture …