Cruise Ships on Yangtze River

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.