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Yichang
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A transport terminus on the Yangzi 120km west from Jingzhou,
YICHANG
was an important commercial centre under the Han, and later became a treaty port. Fading during the early twentieth century, the blossoming of Yangzi tourism, as well as the building of the
Gezhou dam
upstream (not to mention the
Three Gorges dam
), has seen an optimistic renaissance replacing the once decrepit atmosphere. That said, there's little of interest in the modern city centre - glaring and shadeless in summer - but animated evening scenery along the river compensates, with water traffic moored up, nightclub barges throbbing to karaoke efforts, and crowds flying kites, gorging themselves on shellfish at nearby street restaurants or just sitting on the banks cooling off with ice creams. You may well end up here for a night; aside from the river, Yichang marks the start of routes north
to Shennongjia
, while the town is also on the
rail line
between Xi'an and Hunan.
Yichang stretches along the Yangzi's northern bank for around 5km directly below the Gezhou dam, with buses and trains pulling in near each other on Dongshan Dadao. Due south of the train station, itself atop a huge flight of stairs, buses #3 and #4 run for a kilometre down Yunji Lu through the town centre to Yanjiang Dadao and the river, then turn left for another couple of kilometres to the ferry terminal . For accommodation , the Dagong Binguan (A?100-150) offers clean but dreary rooms very close to the ferry terminal; a much better bet is the friendly Dongxin Dajiudian (tel 0717/6453449, fax 6443525; A?150-200), between the bus and train stations at 116 Dongshan Dadao. For something more luxurious, there's the spanking new Yichang International Hotel (tel 0717/6228186, fax 6222888; A?300-500) at 127 Yanjiang Dadao, the ferry terminal road; while the Taohualing Binguan off Yunji Lu (tel 0717/6442244, fax 6445701; A?100-500) offers very tired budget doubles but better standard rooms. All hotels have places to eat , and there are some good, cheap establishments around the Dongshan Dadao-Yunji Lu junction. There's also a post office (daily 8am-6pm) farther down at the junction of Yunji Lu and Yiling Lu, while the CITS are a A?5 taxi-ride (the fixed price for town) upstream along the river at 40 Yanjiang Dadao (tel 0717/6746582, fax 6731683) - a fairly helpful bunch if you can locate an English-speaker.
Leaving Yichang
, you'll find the
airport
is a A?50 taxi-ride out of town; book flights through
agents
at the river end of Yunji Lu (tel 0717/6232323 or 6238482).
Ferry
departure times in both directions are chalked up on a blackboard at the terminal, but because the journey into Sichuan through the Three Gorges takes five days to Chongqing against the current, instead of three coming the other way, most people start this trip upstream. By
train
, it's a smooth ride up to
Xiangfan
and points north, or south to
Zhangjiajie
in Hunan; the station ticket office can be a brawl, though crowds don't seem to last long and it's also possible to book major destinations through the
Yichang International Hotel.
Yichang's
long-distance bus station
has an English-speaking enquiries desk and departures to almost everywhere between Wuhan and Chongqing; some local destinations are also covered by minibuses from the bus-station forecourt. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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China,
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