Cruising up the Yangtze?

[Jordan]

I can't find any info regarding the feasibility of taking a sailboat up the Yangtze river.

Has anyone done it? Does anyone know if its definitively impossible?

Thanks!!

[bluenomads]

I'm interested too - we're power rather than sail, but I doubt much sailing would occur on the Yangtze anyway! You may need to takedown the mast though?

We had visions of an "Asian Great Loop" to complement the North American and European versions, but the canals between Shanghai and Beijing have not been kept clear and are filled with either silt or soil which mitigates against boats! A pity as it sounds a(nother) real experience.

[atoll]

yachts entering china are treated the same as cargo ships.
so apart from the expense of having to employ an agent for all communications with authoraties.
also not being able to use your own dinghy to land on shore as use of harbour crew transfer vessel is mandatory.
you would probably need to have a pilot on board for any ship movement on the river,and they would also probably also insist on having an advisor/guard onboard at all times.

so to answer your question ,yes possible,but probably very expensive.

friends stopped in china a few years back for about 10 days,the yacht had to sit in the exposed cargo ship anchorage,trips ashore were by bumboat,and it cost them in the region of $3000 for agent and clearance.

[Paul L]

From moonshine

Yangtze River Ports: The river has a total length of nearly 4000 miles (6300 km), of which more than 1600 miles (2600 km) are navigable. During the past few years certain ports have been opened to foreign vessels but access to them is strictly controlled. There are 28 ports along the river, of which the most important are Nanjing, Nantong and Zhangjiagang.

[JasonS]

We did a river cruise on Viking Cruise Lines in 2016. There is a large amount of barge traffic on the river. It's like 18 wheelers running up and down the interstates. There are a lot of bridges. I don't know heights. Many new ones with pretty significant clearances, but not sure what minimums are for all.

We did not see any sailboats during the several days we were on the river. I'd consider taking a commercial river cruise and leave your boat at one end of china and fly back after the cruise. Just a thought so you can really enjoy.

[friz]

Communist slave state. Try Cuba. Closer and the weather is better.

[Fine Tolerance]

There is a book concerning the freshwater dolphin whose sole habitat is the Yangtze river. While the book is about the near extinct dolphin much of the book is in dairy like from cruising the Yangtze giving a good idea of what it is like. The book is available from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Witness-Extin.../dp/0199549486 ) or maybe from your local library.

[peter57]

Originally Posted by Jordan

I can't find any info regarding the feasibility of taking a sailboat up the Yangtze river.

Has anyone done it? Does anyone know if its definitively impossible?

Thanks!!

If it is anything like the Hangpu that runs through Shanghai in to the Yangtze, forget it as it is chockers with barges and small ships with Police boats running constantly up and down the middle of the river to keep them apart. We had lunch in the park but stayed 4 hours just watching the boats down in front of the Oriental pearl broadcasting tower which is an amazing looking building. One thing about Shanghai is the architecture and of course the amount of people.

[AiniA]

I don't know if anything has changed in the last five years ago when we enquired about cruising in China, and I doubt it has, but your idea is not possible. We were told that foreign cruisers are only allowed to go to marinas along the coast. There are perhaps eight of these which are quite new and fancy but with very boats in them. You must enter and leave each using an agent and the cost of the bureaucracy (not the cost of the marina itself) is about US$2000 for each stop. You are also not allowed to anchor anywhere. Chinese sailors and sailing businesses have been pushing to get the country opened to cruisers but without success. It is a shame because it would be fascinating.

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by friz

Communist slave state. Try Cuba. Closer and the weather is better.

I agree that the weather in Cuba would be better, not to mention the air quality. "Communist slave state", lets not be silly.

[grahamb]

did a Yangtze trip on a Chinese long distance ferry vessel...…..including the 5 Gorges...….I found it all fascinating......never saw a fuel dock....or marina or moorings....or what we would call a yacht or powerboat...….in some 500 miles......river remarkably clean of rubbish...but of course there was some.....considering the population on its banks....but the river has spots with a really fast current......as a guess past the ability of any yacht I have seen to power through it...….ferry vessel skipper relied on memory alone to navigate.....did not understand the concept of charts......imagine it may prove extremely difficult/impossible to obtain charts......particularly by a 'loweye' (can only spell it as it is pronounced.....which I understand means 'westerner/foreigner'.....but no disrespect intended by the Chinese.).....and all invariably welcoming...…..refilling water tanks with drinkable fresh water and obtaining diesel would be a major problem I suspect...….and taking a local to translate in would be mandatory in my view......….

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by grahamb

did a Yangtze trip on a Chinese long distance ferry vessel...…..including the 5 Gorges...….I found it all fascinating......never saw a fuel dock....or marina or moorings....or what we would call a yacht or powerboat...….in some 500 miles

The marina open to non-Chinese recreational vessels is in the Huangpu Jiang, not the Chang Jiang (aka Yangzi, aka Yangtze Kiang). The Huangpu is a tributary of the Chang that joins the Chang not far from the ocean mouth of the Chang.

Originally Posted by grahamb

ferry vessel skipper relied on memory alone to navigate.....did not understand the concept of charts......imagine it may prove extremely difficult/impossible to obtain charts

Not so. Any vessel with a worldwide set of ENCs or an ECDIS carries charts for the Chang jiang and the Huangpu jiang.

I've attached two quick screen captures from a recent CMAP93 v3 chart.

The first, Metropolitan Marina Huangpu Jiang.jpg (about 122 KB) is almost centred on the Metropolitan Marina (see 上海大都会游艇有�公�).

The second, Chang jiang showing mouth of Huangpu jiang.jpg (about 205 KB) shows the VSS in the Chang jiang with the Huangpu jiang mouth shown on the S bank.

Originally Posted by grahamb

particularly by a 'loweye' (can only spell it as it is pronounced.....which I understand means 'westerner/foreigner'.....but no disrespect intended by the Chinese.)

lao wai 老外, literally the ''old/familiar" "outsider/foreigner".

Hmm ... in 1989, an expert commissioned by the Aus govt uttered a report - published as "Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy" - that among other things recommended a boost to teaching Chinese and other languages in Aus schools. Big nuggets of taxpayer money was spent teaching Chinese, Korean, Japanese etc to Aussie kids.

Sad you missed out on learning a language that big mobs of people can read, write, and speak.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

Hmm ... in 1989, an expert commissioned by the Aus govt uttered a report - published as "Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy" - that among other things recommended a boost to teaching Chinese and other languages in Aus schools. Big nuggets of taxpayer money was spent teaching Chinese, Korean, Japanese etc to Aussie kids.

That Aus govt report was of course better known as 'The Garnaut Report'. Until Ross Garnaut authored other reports!

In 2014 Cabinet papers from 1988-89 were released, leading to some further media coverage of "Aus and the NE Asian Ascendancy". For example, see: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fede...18-129vs1.html

In about 1990 or 1991, Geoff Raby (later ambo to Beijing and now principal of a business consultancy based in Beijing) organised another report from Aus Dept of Foreign Affairs & Trade that looked at the impact of The Garnaut Report and the changes since (Raby was particularly wanting to look at the changes in NE Asia since the US/Japan Plaza Accord). Raby called that report "Accelerating Change".

Two reports a few years apart. Both valuable additions to their times.

[waterman46]

Its expensive, but if you want to see the river, take a cruise boat. Fantastic scenery and mostly friendly people (but I got a few hostile looks, and I suppose they teach them there to hate the round eyes, and some still believe the leaders).

Even if you could get permission, it is physically not possible, with a sailboat, to go very far into the center of the country on the river. I remember incredibly strong current, must have been about 8 knots and more in places. Current might be less on lower section of river. Water so muddy I think you could almost walk on it.

They put floating docks out on the river perpendicular to the current, sometimes about 100 feet long, and secured with rusty cables and clamps to some point upriver to keep them from being swept away. Up to 10 large boats and many more small boats tie up to the same floating dock, so the stress on those cables must be tremendous. Walking along the floats to get to shore, they have one loose handrail cable to keep you from losing your balance on the floats, which are rocking severely in the current. If anyone fell in they would have been swept away instantly.

Well I guess to anyone used to rivers its not a big deal, but I am only a salt water guy and it was a bit scary!

[Dauntlessny]

Here is a very good account of someone wanting to sail in Vietnam.
Sounds much like as described above in that the government has no ability to differentiate between commercial boats and private ones.

https://www.cruisingworld.com/destin...visited#page-2