Today started at a normal time - we didn't have to be at the bus until 8:30.
All of our luggage had to be loaded back into the little bus - Les is getting
very good at this puzzle by now and we feed him the bags in the order he asks
for them.
Our first stop was the Xian city wall. This is the only city wall in China that is still completely intact all the way around the city. People have the opportunity to rent bicycles and ride around the city. We had talked about doing that, but it was only about 50 degrees and rainy so we decided to pass. Instead, we walked along the wall for a ways, took some fun pictures and then moved on.
Next stop - the Muslim Quarter. Xian is a large city by US standards (8 million people), but not considered a large city in China. We walked through the streets for several blocks and it was all very busy street markets. It was reminiscent of Istanbul and the streets surrounding the Grand Bazaar. Our desitnation was the Great Mosque - we all found it very interesting to see the Asian architecture with Arabic writing and influence. The mosque building was closed to non-Muslims, but we were able to look in and see all of the grounds.
After a quick lunch, we were off to the airport. We got checked in with no problems this time - the tour company had already resolved the issue with Clair and the airline had the correct birth year for her reservation. The flight was quick - just an hour to get to Chongqing City where we were met by our next tour guide - Annie. We have now had 4 guides: Apple, George, Linda and Annie.
Annie got us all on the bus (a bus with actual luggage compartments!) and let us know that the check in for the river cruise was not available for 2 hours so she suggested that we take a tour through the Ancient City of Chongqing. We arrived just in time - they closed the gates right after we got in. A local guide (Bella) took us through the Ancient City and shared the history with us. The area is quite small because the city of Chongqing was heavily bombed by the Japanese and only a very small area survived. The city itself is HUGE - 33 million people. It's really amazing to visit a city of that size and realize that none of our group had ever even heard of it previously. Chongqing is bigger by far than New York City. According to Annie, this city has as many people as all of Australia and almost as many as all of Canada!
We all really enjoyed the Ancient City tour, but were ready to get on the boat. Annie suggested a drink/snack stop so we went to a local grocery store first. After picking up snacks and drinks we headed towards the dock. The police had blocked off the road that we needed to drive on because of a lantern festival. That meant we had to walk further than expected, but the luggage is all on wheels so that was no big deal.
Check in was less than efficient. Once again, there was a problem with Clair because the cruise line was expecting a baby and she's 11 years old instead. But before we even got to that, we had to send all of our luggage and groceries through a scanner. Unfortunately, as Les' bag came out the back side of the scanner, it caught on something and crashed to the floor - breaking a bottle of wine he and Linda had JUST bought at the grocery store... Then the band started to play and it was LOUD! We were in a tiny, encolsed area, Les was trying to gather up his groceries that were not ruined, we were all struggling with our suitcases and the band was banging away! I don't even remember what they were playing except for the bass drum - I remember that. Can we all say chaos? Geez... Les was about to blow a gasket - he told the band to stop; they didn't at first, then he gave them a 'look' and they quickly stopped playing!
Well, after all that, then we get into the lobby of the boat and end up standing around for at least 30 minutes while they figure out the 'Clair' situation. I don't know why they couldn't get the rest of us in our rooms while they dealt with that, but they didn't. Besides the issue with Clair, we also discovered that we each had to pay an extra 150 Yuan (about $25 US dollars) 'service fee'. That was all supposed to be included in our overall tour price. After another 10 minutes or so, they finally determined that our tour company did indeed cover the service fee so we got that resolved. To top it all off, the shore excursions that we were told were included and part of the tour are not included and there are extra fees for those. Not a good initial experience...
We finally got our room keys and I hightailed it out of the lobby. I was DONE! It would have been nice to ignore everyone and everything and take the rest of the night off, but we needed dinner, so I went back down to the dining room with the group to get something to eat. I'm glad I did - not because the food was so great or anything, but it was a nice time to chill and decompress with the group.
Our first stop was the Xian city wall. This is the only city wall in China that is still completely intact all the way around the city. People have the opportunity to rent bicycles and ride around the city. We had talked about doing that, but it was only about 50 degrees and rainy so we decided to pass. Instead, we walked along the wall for a ways, took some fun pictures and then moved on.
Next stop - the Muslim Quarter. Xian is a large city by US standards (8 million people), but not considered a large city in China. We walked through the streets for several blocks and it was all very busy street markets. It was reminiscent of Istanbul and the streets surrounding the Grand Bazaar. Our desitnation was the Great Mosque - we all found it very interesting to see the Asian architecture with Arabic writing and influence. The mosque building was closed to non-Muslims, but we were able to look in and see all of the grounds.
After a quick lunch, we were off to the airport. We got checked in with no problems this time - the tour company had already resolved the issue with Clair and the airline had the correct birth year for her reservation. The flight was quick - just an hour to get to Chongqing City where we were met by our next tour guide - Annie. We have now had 4 guides: Apple, George, Linda and Annie.
Annie got us all on the bus (a bus with actual luggage compartments!) and let us know that the check in for the river cruise was not available for 2 hours so she suggested that we take a tour through the Ancient City of Chongqing. We arrived just in time - they closed the gates right after we got in. A local guide (Bella) took us through the Ancient City and shared the history with us. The area is quite small because the city of Chongqing was heavily bombed by the Japanese and only a very small area survived. The city itself is HUGE - 33 million people. It's really amazing to visit a city of that size and realize that none of our group had ever even heard of it previously. Chongqing is bigger by far than New York City. According to Annie, this city has as many people as all of Australia and almost as many as all of Canada!
We all really enjoyed the Ancient City tour, but were ready to get on the boat. Annie suggested a drink/snack stop so we went to a local grocery store first. After picking up snacks and drinks we headed towards the dock. The police had blocked off the road that we needed to drive on because of a lantern festival. That meant we had to walk further than expected, but the luggage is all on wheels so that was no big deal.
Check in was less than efficient. Once again, there was a problem with Clair because the cruise line was expecting a baby and she's 11 years old instead. But before we even got to that, we had to send all of our luggage and groceries through a scanner. Unfortunately, as Les' bag came out the back side of the scanner, it caught on something and crashed to the floor - breaking a bottle of wine he and Linda had JUST bought at the grocery store... Then the band started to play and it was LOUD! We were in a tiny, encolsed area, Les was trying to gather up his groceries that were not ruined, we were all struggling with our suitcases and the band was banging away! I don't even remember what they were playing except for the bass drum - I remember that. Can we all say chaos? Geez... Les was about to blow a gasket - he told the band to stop; they didn't at first, then he gave them a 'look' and they quickly stopped playing!
Well, after all that, then we get into the lobby of the boat and end up standing around for at least 30 minutes while they figure out the 'Clair' situation. I don't know why they couldn't get the rest of us in our rooms while they dealt with that, but they didn't. Besides the issue with Clair, we also discovered that we each had to pay an extra 150 Yuan (about $25 US dollars) 'service fee'. That was all supposed to be included in our overall tour price. After another 10 minutes or so, they finally determined that our tour company did indeed cover the service fee so we got that resolved. To top it all off, the shore excursions that we were told were included and part of the tour are not included and there are extra fees for those. Not a good initial experience...
We finally got our room keys and I hightailed it out of the lobby. I was DONE! It would have been nice to ignore everyone and everything and take the rest of the night off, but we needed dinner, so I went back down to the dining room with the group to get something to eat. I'm glad I did - not because the food was so great or anything, but it was a nice time to chill and decompress with the group.
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