In
ancient time while emperors investigated the South China, they
traveled yangtze River by special five-floor wooden boats. The
boats may be the earliest tourist ship in China, sailed only by
wind power and labour power. Even 150 years ago, all the wooden
boas on yangtze River were sailing boats. When sailing against
the current, they were dragged by hundreds of trackers hardly
accompanying with wild songs. It would spend a month to sail from
Yichang to Chongqing. Not until the Opium War bursted out in 1842
had Chinese seen the ships sailed by the steam engine for the
first time, the British war ships.
Americans
are the first ones opened river transport business on Yangtze
river, taking advantages on their experience from transporting
on the Mississippi. They ranked the leading place on cargo transport,
1/5 cargoes from Shanghai to Wuhan were opium. British merchants
followed up and success fully opened passengers transport business
on the River. After Chongqing had been opened to be free-trading
port according to Peking Treaty in 1896, a British merchant Mr.
Leed build up 17-metre-long wooden-shell steamer in Shanghai,
Named "Lichuan". The steamer set out for Sichuan on
14th Feb, 1898, arrived at Chongqing 25 days later. It was the
first ship having passed through the Three Gorges. It transported
both cargoes and passengers in poor condition. The water transportation
by steamers on Yangtze River flourished in 1920s and 1930s. The
passengers from Shanghai to Chongqing have to transferred boats
in Wuhan to finish the journey. But once meeting shoals in the
gorges, the boats adventured to be dragged out by the capstains
laid along Yangtze River The upper reaches of Yichang is inland
rapids waterways, full of reefs and shoals, and is impossible
to navigate in dry season, more in night. Almost all the for eigners
travelling in China at the time were mer-chants. seldom were tourists.
After
the PRC build up in 1949, Yangtze water ways were dredged to be
navigatable all the year and then even in night. Gezhou Dam pertected
the navigation conditions further During 1950s to 1970s, there
have regular steamers among Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing already,
all were made in China, burdened with some cargo transport as
well as passengers transport. At that time, the main transport
from east to west in Central China depends on the River As the
transport is in a great need, ChanQiang Cruise Corp of China almost
monopolized all the transport business. The world was in the Cold
War by the time, China communicated with outside world scarcely,
very few out-sides tourists came to Yangtze Rive, if there had
been, they must had been invited officially. Since China began
to reform and open outsides in 1978, China began to reform and
open outsides in 1978, China economy has been developing rapidly.
The infrastrace on transportation kept on purifying and standardizing.
As the transport capacity c'high-ways getting stronger, the freight
volume of yangtze River descend. On the contrary, more and more
tourist ships appeared on the River. Lind Braid Travel Service
in U.S., the first one rented the Ship "Kunlun" having
been taken by Chairman Mao Zedong to open cruise market to American
tourists travelling yangtze. At the same time, most overseas tourists
traveled the Three Gorges of Yangtze River by registering 2nd
class staterooms of the regular Chongqing-Wuhan ships (there were
no 1st class staterooms then) while there were only several cruise
ships on the River.
Until
the cruise ships of M.V Yangtze Cruise were put into business
in 1983 symbolizing a multified structure of the travel service,
did the Yangtze travel service develop into a new stage. And only
in 1989 aboard tourists descented once. The construction of the
Three Gorges Project star-ting in 1992 spurred the business of
travelling yangtze developing rapidly. Today, there are nearly
100 cruise ships of all kinds on the River, almost all are made
in China except three belonged to Regal Cruises Ltd. were made
in Germany, among which there are more than 40 ones designated
to open business to overseas by the Ministry of Transportation.
In 1996 and 1997, China National Tourism Administration designated
the level of cruise ships on Yangtze River according to the quality
of the service, 17 ships have awarded corresponding certifications
from twostar level to five-star level. The aboard tourists on
yangtze River increased from several thousands persons per year
to over 200,000 persons in 1997, about 1/5 of which are from Japan,
Europe and America, Taiwan, South and East Asia and other area
respectively. This result may have slightly different in every
year.
Today,
the service capacity can be 400 to 500 thousand persons per year.
The domestic market of travelling Yangtze is developing with 2
million persons more in each year following the tendancy in the
overseas market. There are many routes can be chosen. Chongqing-Shangha
tour needs 10 days, Yichang-Chongqing tour need 3 days, Yichang-Fenjie-Yichang
need 2 or 3 days, and etc. But most cruise ships are on the regular
routes of Wuhan-Yichang, Yichang-Chongqing or Shashi-Chongqing.
Further more, tourists can rent ships themselves so that they
can decide the route and where to park from nearly 220 parkable
scenic spots along the sides.
Due
to the travelling yangtze popular, the cruise ship service has
been an industry great in number and wide in scope with nearly
10,000 employees. The service condition and scale on Yangtze River
are by no means inferior to those on other famous rivers in the
World including the Mississippi, the Nile, the Reine, the Danube.
To travel Yangtze River has been one of the most attractive journey
among any other never journey in the world. Here are 100 luxury
ships and service capacity has reached 500,000 overseas tourists
per year. As the service is purifying, the service should attract
more foreign tourists come to visit the long life great oriental
River.