Luoyang Departure: Three Gorges, Wu Gorge and Baidi City, 5 Days 4 Nights

We take the morning train from Luoyang Longmen, change at Zhengzhou East, and arrive at Yichang East in the afternoon. A walk along the embankment afterwards, where you can watch ships heading for Gezhouba pass one after another. Dinner is Yichang's cold shrimp and radish dumplings; the shrimp are rice starch dropped through a sieve, not shellfish.

Attraction introduction: Yichang sits where the middle Yangtze becomes the upper, gorges above and the Jianghan plain below. Gezhouba and the Three Gorges Dam both stand inside the city limits, and the place reshaped itself around them, with wharves, shipyards and navigation offices all facing the water.

Tips: The river wind is cooler than the streets, so take a jacket out at night. Guests generally find breakfast more interesting than dinner here, chilli oil noodles with a bowl of fermented rice drink. In practice we sleep early; the boat leaves in the morning.

Morning at the Three Gorges Dam: the panorama from Tanziling first, then the 185 platform level with the crest, and finally the closure memorial with the concrete tetrahedrons tipped into the river. Lunch, then we board. The ship enters the five-step lock and rises chamber by chamber; while you wait, the water marks left on the lock walls show as a ladder of lines.

Attraction introduction: The dam is a concrete gravity structure whose axis is long enough that you cannot see one end from the other. Tanziling is the highest viewpoint in the dam area and the 185 platform stands level with the crest. The lock lifts vessels more than a hundred metres in five stages, the ship rising inside the chamber like a lift car.

Tips: Wind in the dam area is strong, so hold onto your hat. Guests generally find the hull pressing against the lock wall as it rises is the best sensation of the day. In practice there is nothing scheduled on board tonight and an early night is easy.

The ship enters Wu Gorge early. Mist has not lifted, and the ridges step away in paler and paler layers, near ones almost black, far ones only a shadow. Goddess Peak stands on the north bank, a stone column on the summit that reads like a figure standing. In the morning we transfer to a small boat into the Goddess Stream, where the channel narrows and the sky becomes a strip. Back aboard in the afternoon to continue upstream.

Attraction introduction: Wu Gorge runs from the Daning river mouth at Wushan east to Badong, walls of limestone on both sides and mist inside for much of the year, which is where the phrase Wu mountain rain comes from. Goddess Peak is the best known of the twelve, a column on the summit that shows only a profile from the river and stops resembling anything as the angle shifts.

Tips: Steps down to the small boat are wet and slippery, so keep a hand on the rail. Guests generally find the mist clears around ten, after which only the ridges are left. In practice we go into the stream before it lifts and come out to see the gorge.

The ship reaches Fengjie in the morning and we climb to Baidi City. The hill is low but the steps are many, and the temple keeps statues of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. From the terrace at the gate the mouth of Qutang Gorge is directly ahead, two mountains holding a seam with the river squeezed through it. In the afternoon the ship enters Qutang, short enough to pass in minutes, and looking back the gate takes another shape.

Attraction introduction: Baidi City stands on the north bank east of Fengjie with water on three sides. Gongsun Shu built a town here at the end of the Han and called himself White Emperor; in the Three Kingdoms period Liu Bei retreated here after his defeat and entrusted his son to Zhuge Liang. Qutang is the shortest and narrowest of the three gorges, and its Kuimen gate is the view printed on the ten yuan note.

Tips: The steps at Baidi are stone and slick in wet weather. Guests generally find that fog at the gate leaves Kuimen as a bare outline and hides the rest. In practice the uphill shuttle is not included in the ticket and anyone with sore knees should take it.

We leave the ship early as it berths at Yichang, transfer to Yichang East, and take the train home via Zhengzhou East, arriving at night. Pack the last night on board so the morning stays calm.

Attraction introduction: Once out of the gorges the river widens at once and the ridges retreat far to either side. Below Yichang the land flattens into the Jianghan plain, the current slows, and cargo ships follow one another, a middle Yangtze scene with nothing of the gorge about it.

Tips: Disembarkation is early, so eat breakfast on board. Guests generally find taxis scarce at Yichang East in the morning peak. In practice we book cars ahead and set departure by the sailing schedule.