Yangtze River Cruise

If ever a cruise had a sell-by date, it’s the legendary trip down the Yangtze, whose scenic reaches are set to change forever over the next few years.

Ancient villages, spectacular gorges and some of China’s most important provincial towns line the banks of the “great river” whose exploration is one of the world’s most rewarding trips afloat. But many highlights will vanish forever when water levels are raised still higher by the new Three Gorges Dam, which has already consigned many riverside settlements to the deep.

All the major attractions along the navigable 1,650 miles from Chongqing to Shanghai are still intact, though when the water rises again it could be the end of the Yangtze cruising era. The time to go is now.

Chongqing - the Launching Point

Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, is a fascinating destination as well as starting point for the slightly shorter - and cheaper - downstream voyage. It’s lit by more neon than Las Vegas and has fascinating museums, but the unmissable sight is the view from the pagoda-style town hall, below which hundreds of people dance the night away on People’s Square to a ballet of coloured fountains.

The Sichuan crew manning the fleet of Yangtze market leaders Victoria Cruises have been fast to learn four-star service from their American employers - cheerful and thoroughly efficient at everything from pouring Champagne to cabin swabbing. Facilities, like the food, are adequate if not exciting - bar, reading-room, observation deck, Oriental massage and medicine, craft boutiques and lessons in Mahjong and Mandarin, plus improved entertainment schedules on newer vessels - but on this trip the river, not the boat, is the star.

Shore Excursions

While the first shore excursion to the lurid demon statues of Fengdu, City of Ghosts - is of limited interest to foreigners, every other outing is unmissable. On Day Two, after sailing through the spectacular Qutang Gorge, we were offloaded into sampans affording passage down staggeringly beautiful narrow mountain streams, pausing to picnic beneath a cave on a river-pebble beach. The following day started dramatically with dawn passage through Xilling Gorge, once so treacherous, junks only made it through with the help of trackers fielding long poles hundreds of feet from the cliff-top to keep vessels clear of the rapids.

A highlight is the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest and most ambitious hydro-electric project, its twin aims to produce cheaper, cleaner power and control the floods which have killed tens of thousands over the past 50 years. The opportunity to witness history in the making is awesome.

Many visitors leave the boat at Wuhan, a mid-way metropolis boasting two unforgettable sights - the towering Yellow Crane pagoda atop Snake Hill and the 2400-year-old tomb of Marquis Yi discovered complete with furniture, household implements and a magnificent bronze chime bell orchestra housed in its own burial chamber, a concert hall for the afterlife. The excellent Hubei Provincial Museum, where these bronzes are on show, offers concerts performed on replicas of the ancient instruments, another highlight.

Nature and History

Only connoisseurs tend to continue all the way down-river to Shanghai, but although the easternmost attractions are mainly inland, they are well worth the haul from the boat. The most rewarding excursion of all was the drive through Anhui province, famous for its traditional white houses with black horse-head gables straddling emerald rice paddies and lotus-lined rivers dotted with grazing water-buffaloes. Floating above the sea of bamboo over which the fighters flew so balletically in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we climbed into Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain which inspires all those craggy peaks peeking out of swirling clouds characterising Chinese art. Another day was spent atop Lu Shan, another lovely mountain beloved of poets and politicians, with a chance to visit Chiang Kai Shek’s villa.....on both days a good hour is allowed for trekking.

Next stop Nanjing, China’s ancient capital and most poignant symbol of its holocaust at the hands of the Japanese in World War II. The grim but highly affecting museum documenting the massacre is not on the official tour, but there is time for a private outing following a visit to the stunning hilltop mausoleum of Sun Yat Sen, father of the republic, and the nearby site of 14th century Ming tomb with its avenue of mythical stone animals. While little English is spoken in China, it was possible with sign language to get a fine lunch at Xiao Ren Ren, a charming tea-house-style restaurant on Fuzi Miao, the jolly pedestrianised riverside drag.

Shanghai - the Return to Mod Cons

Alas, Victoria no longer moors right up to Shanghai’s historic Bund, though cruises which go all the way there do anchor within easy transfer distance of this fabulous city, where a couple of days’ post-cruise retail therapy is a must. Xien Ten Di, a renovated cluster of traditional 19th century houses on the edge of the French Concession, is possibly the most exciting and attractive shopping and dining complex on the planet. Here are the X boutique where Australian designer Anthony Xavier tailors exquisite Chinese silks at half western prices, Q&W, which fashions witty jewellery from industrial materials, and trendy fusion restaurant T8. Five minutes away by taxi lies the Face Bar, set in a lovely colonial house and terrace packed with a new generation of ex-pat merchant adventurers enjoying pre-prandials.

Shanghai boasts two of the world’s best hotels, very different in style. The Portman Ritz-Carlton is a thoroughly westernised, central enclave five minutes down Nanjing Road from Meilongzhen, Shanghai’s most historic and colourful Chinese restaurant. The hotel itself is notable for a buzzy jazz bar and superlative Italian restaurant.

Must-see sights include the world-class Shanghai Museum, the atmosphere-loaded, art deco French Concession and the riverfront, where past faces future, the colonial Bund looking across the river at the pink onion of the Oriental Pearl TV tower and other futuristic buildings including the elegant Jin Man Tower. The top third of this 89-storey edifice houses the other of Shanghai's grand hotels, the Grand Hyatt, whose rooms offer unparalleled luxury and the finest views in town, although service can be cool and uneven.

One of Shanghai’s newest and most fun attractions is the tunnel ride beneath the river offering a three-minute microcosm of the fantastic light show the entire city puts on at night, the only public transport likely to be of interest when you can reach most places by taxi for £1.