I can’t think of a better way to experience the Yangtze River than on a “slow boat to China”. The Yangtze region is the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization. It starts in Tibet and flows the entire width of China until it empties into the East China Sea in Shanghai. At almost 4,000 miles, it’s Asias longest river and the third longest in the world, after the Nile and the Amazon.
I thought this would be a great way to relax after a very busy 10 days exploring China on land. We woke up in Shanghai this morning to cold dreary weather and had to catch a 7:30 AM flight to Yichang. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning was not fun but we were excited to start another new adventure. The flight was short, a little under two hours on an old Shanghai Airlines plane. We got into the town of Yichang and had some time before boarding the ship. Since it was still cold and rainy, we went to a pretty cool museum, had an amazing spicy Sichuan lunch and then had massages.
It was called a foot massage for an hour and a half, but it was way more than that. We started out in a private room for the four of us with amazing reclining chairs. They brought in wooden barrel buckets with hot water and all kinds of aromatics in the water. While we soaked our feet, we got a very good shoulder neck and arm massage. Then we sat back in the recliner‘s and they covered us with comforters, brought us hot green tea and a plate of snacks. They dried our feet and then proceeded to massage them for at least 45 minutes. We soaked them again then laid back in the recliner while we got a leg massage. This was one of the best massage experiences I’ve ever had, even better than in Thailand or Cambodia!
This is all the information about the cruise:
We made our way to the port, and boarded the ship. We are on the Victoria Jenna by Victoria Cruise Lines. There are a little under 200 cabins and it was very pretty. Nothing like ocean cruises and larger than European river cruises. There are 6 decks and it is laid out very nicely. Our cabins were perfect, not too small, great size balcony and bathroom with a big tub, desk and sitting area. Our two cabins were across the hall from each other so we just went back and forth between them and had a balcony on each side so whichever view was better was where we sat.
We were in the Executive Club called the Top of the Yangtze, similar to a club level category at a hotel. On the top deck, half of the ship was just for us. It is where we ate all three meals and had snacks available all day and happy hour before dinner plus a lot of other benefits. It was so much better than the main dining room which was a bit hectic, and all the meals there are buffet style. The food was good there too, mostly Chinese but a few Western choices as well. We just like how calm and quiet it was at the Top of the Yangtze and having table service with the same servers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It was an early night, we were so tired from getting up so early and excited for the next day!