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Sailing through the magnificent three gorges of the Yangtze River and the lesser three gorges of the Daning River was a highlight of our Yangtze River cruise on the Viking Century Star. The three gorges stretch for about 200 kilometers (125 miles)along the Yangtze from Fengjie to the dam near Yichang.

Leaving Fengjie and sailing downriver, the Qu Tang Gorge is the first of the three gorges of the Yangtze.


At five miles long (eight kilometers), it is the shortest of the gorges, but has the highest peaks. It took us about three hours to cruise through the Qu Tang Gorge before arriving at Wushan.

The Viking Century Star docked in Wushan, and we boarded a smaller ship for our day trip through the Lesser Three Gorges. These "lesser" gorges stretch for 20 miles up the Daning River, one of the Yangtze tributaries. Since the Daning River is narrower, the cliffs overhead appear to be much more dramatic. Before the dam was completed and the water started backing up, visitors had to ride in small sampans up the Daning to see these three magnificent gorges--the Dragon Gate Gorge, the Misty Gorge, and the Emerald Gorge. The Daning is now deep enough for much larger vessels to sail through the lesser three gorges, and all 120+ of us were on the same ship. Since a side trip up the Daning is a very popular cruise activity, we saw many other boats of all sizes on the Daning.

We were very lucky and had a beautiful day for cruising and for viewing the lesser three gorges.

The green cliffs were shrouded sometimes in the mist that is common to the Yangtze, but the sun shone most of the day and we could see monkeys in the trees along the river and many terraced fields, caves, and rocky outcrops high on the cliffs. One very interesting site high on the cliffs (that could barely be seen without binoculars) were ancient coffins put there by tribes whose custom was to put the dead in coffins high in mountain caves. Archaeologists have found swords, armour, and other artifacts stretching back to the Bronze Age in the coffins. Before turning around and sailing back to Wushan, our ship stopped at a pavilion where we had a nice barbeque picnic that had been prepared by the chefs on the Viking Century Star and delivered to the picnic stop.

We returned to the Viking Century Star in the mid-afternoon and sailed for the dam. Our beautiful ship passed through the Wu Gorge and the Xiling Gorge before arriving at the new Three Gorges dam (Gezhou Dam). We enjoyed the scenery while sipping tea and getting ready for dinner. It was really the experience of a lifetime to see this ancient river from the deck (and balcony) of a fine river ship like the Viking Century Star. Of the nearly 4,000 miles of the Yangtze, we only saw about 400, but it was truly a remarkable voyage. The new Three Gorges Dam, which will control this long river when it is completed, capped off our river cruise.

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Author's Note: Viking River Cruises no longer operates the Viking Century Star river ship. However, Viking's other ships sail similar itineraries and offer the same great river cruise experience.