UR TV CAST

At the moment an ancient cable-car takes visitors up to the shrines, but eventually all that will be visible above the water will be the mountain peak, which will be reached by boat. The shrine complex is open 6am-6pm daily, entrance 20RMB (£1.45). CAN I STILL SEE THE THREE GORGES? Yes – the dramatic landscape is the highlight of any trip down the Yangtze. At the top of Ming mountain there are a number of garish statues of gods and demons, as well as Buddhist and Taoist temples; very little is original, but it’s a pleasant excursion and a good viewpoint from which to survey the building work that is going on to rehouse the local population and strengthen the water defences along the river bank. Between Baidicheng – which will become an island as the water rises – and Yichang, the river becomes narrower and the mountains higher, creating some of the most stunning scenery in the world. Its population is deserting the old village to be rehoused in a new city on the opposite side of the river.

But it is also believed to be the home of the king of the dead, and local people come here to make offerings and say prayers for their ancestors. Most of the settlements are little more than clusters of houses, with paths leading down to the water, where a couple of fishing boats might be moored.One of the bigger villages is Fengdu on the north bank, a ghost town in two senses of the phrase. In Fuling, for example, a city some four hours downstream from Chongqing and noted for its pickled vegetables, two-thirds of the population will eventually move to new accommodation above the new water level.The oldest part of Chongqing is set to disappear, although here the river will only rise by 33 feet. This old quarter is gradually being demolished, but enough remains to make it an interesting place to explore. It is hard to imagine how the residents of this area, who pass their time out on the streets, washing clothes, cooking noodles or playing mahjong with their neighbours, will adjust to life in the high-rise apartments that are being built for them.

This is predominantly farming country, much of it mountainous, and it is suitable only for the small-scale farming of oranges, bananas and other crops on terraces hacked out of the rock. SO I SHALL BE SAILING THROUGH AN URBAN LANDSCAPE? Although there are several large cities on the Yangtze, there is also plenty of variety in the landscape. WHERE WILL I GET ON BOARD? Most of the cruise boats start or finish at Chongqing, a huge city in the Szechuan basin which, when the surrounding area is taken into account, has a population of 33m people. It is extremely hilly and so, unlike most other Chinese cities, is unsuitable for bicycles. Most people get around on the number 11 bus – the colloquial term for walking – and porters hang around on street corners, ready with their bamboo poles to carry shopping bags and other bulky items up and down hill.Little remains of the city’s revolutionary history, although the villa that once belonged to Chiang Kai-shek is now being restored.

The most flamboyant building among the skyscrapers of modern Chongqing is the town hall on Renmin Street (open 8am-6.30pm daily, entrance 5RMB/35p), which contains a huge auditorium with seating for 4,000 people which is used for political rallies and cultural events. The square outside is being redeveloped, and will eventually be the location for the Three Gorges Museum. For the moment this is housed in a building in Eling Park and is well worth a visit before you get on the boat (open 8am-6pm daily, park entrance 30RMB/£2.15). It contains a model of the new dam, as well as a 100m-long painting of the river, showing all its main villages and landmarks. Also marked is the level to which the water will eventually rise, which highlights one of the reasons why the building of the dam has been so controversial.By 2009, when the water level finally reaches the target of 574 feet above sea-level, 1.2 million people will have had to be rehoused as whole communities disappear under the water.

If you book through a British tour operator, such as Bales Worldwide (0870 241 3208, ) or CTS Horizons (020 7836 4338, ), the river trip will be incorporated into a longer holiday that is likely to include Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. Most of what remains is booked in advance by tour companies, such as Presidential Cruises (00 86 10 66011122, ).Cruises between Wuhan and Chongqing usually last five nights, while the downstream journey takes four nights; prices start at around £300. Since the Sars epidemic earlier this year, and the consequent drop in the number of foreign visitors, many boats have been taken out of service. There is usually also some kind of optional entertainment, ranging from lectures on Chinese medicine to early morning t’ai-chi sessions on deck.