Lazy River Day 3

Today started with another optional tour - this time to the White Emperor City. Once again, I passed on this tour and decided to stick to my 'lazy river' theme instead. My morning consisted of breadkaft, nap, a little reading, another nap, and a little more reading.

Towards late morning, we entered the first of 3 gorges. The scenery was breathtaking! We were passing through sheer cliffs and steep mountains that were lush and green with spring growth. It seemed that we had a more beautiful view around every bend.

The afternoon brought us into another gorge - just as beautiful as the first, but this one offered a bonus. We were able to take an off-ship excursion to travel up one of the smaller tributaries of the Yangtze River. We transferred to smaller, glass enclosed boats for a trip up the Goddess Stream. Our local guide on the boat was Sunny and she was delightful! She taught herself English by watching American TV! She had a lot of personality and was able to share a lot about the area with us. Many of the local people living in the area were relocated due to the Three Gorges Dam project, but she stayed in her village which has about 100 people and is located on the side of the mountain.

She (and her fellow guides) sang some local folk songs for us, and managed to get about 20 of the tourists (including me) into a conga-style dance line! It was a very fun and light hearted excursion.

We had the Captain's Farewell banquet for dinner and it was amazing! They just kept bringing food - soup, vegetables, rice, chicken, fish, pork, beef, duck and finished off with fruit. After dinner, the boat staff put on a Caberet show. It was a nice mix of singing, dancing, magic and comedy. At the end, they started playing group dance songs like at wedding receptions in the US and several people got up and joined them. I decided to pass on that dance party and headed off to bed instead.

Lazy River Day 2

Today was a chill day - time to relax and unwind after the days and days of crazy schedule preceding. Breakfast was served from 7:15 - 8:15, then those who chose to go on the optional tour (Ghost City) left and the rest of us who stayed on the boat could go our separate ways. There was a talk by a river guide telling us about the Yangtze River, and then another talk about Chinese medicine (acupuncture, acupressure...). They were both interesting, but my favorite part of the day was the massage I booked! :)  I had a 60 minute relaxing massage - and a 'relaxing' Chinese massage is more like a deep tissue massage in the US.

I did leave the boat for the 2nd shore excursion of the day. We toured Shibaozhai and spent some time shopping along the street vendor stalls. The main attraction of the visit was to see the pavilion built against a tall cliff (9 stories tall) leading to the temple at the top. It was a nice excursion - it felt good to get moving for a while and get the blood pumping.

Back onboard, we were treated to a Captain's reception with drinks and appetizers, followed by dinner and then a fashion show. Not fashion as in designer clothes, but fashion as in traditional Chinese costumes from all regions and periods of Chinese history. It was really fun and interesting - some of those costumes are very intricate and beautiful. There was a very little bit of 'normal' fashion show as well, but just to highlight a few things that they were selling on board.

I really appreciated the low key day. This trip has been amazing, but also very tiring so having a down day in the middle was awesome.

Day 6

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.

Bye Bye Beijing

April 4, 2015

Today started very early and didn't end nearly early enough! We had to leave our hotel at 3:30 this morning to catch a flight to Datong. We had a bit of a snafu at the airport when it was discovered that Claire's reservation was made with 2013 as her birth year rather than her actual birth year of 2003. Thankfully, our tour guide was able to get that resolved quickly enough to get Claire and her parents on the flight with us.

It was a very short flight - just an hour from Beijing to Datong. Out luggage all arrived fine and we were ready to roll - but there was no guide. After a short wait, he (George) showed up. We had an immediate issue with the bus that was provided as there were no luggage compartments, so all of our suitcases had to be loaded on the bus into the back seats, taking up room that we needed for seating. We were able to all get a seat, but just barely and the luggage had to be stacked very high.

Our first stop was a visit to the Yungang Grottoes. There are 45 separate caves or grottoes that date back to around 490 AD. They were created as monuments to Buddha aqnd each had different carvings or statues of Buddha. They were incredibly detailed and very impressive. Some of them had statues that were 25 - 30 feet tall  and there was one that had to be at least 40 feet wide and was carved on all sides of the cave as well as with a huge center column that was square and the column was 20 feet wide. What was most impressive was that ALL of the statues and carvings were part of the original stone. Nothing was brought in. Our guide told us that they 'opened' the cave at the top and started their carving and statues from the top and worked down to the floor of the cave and base of the statue. It's hard to describe, but it was a very good stop and we all really enjoyed it. I found out that this was an 'add on' to the tour that was requested by Les (my brother in law).

Next stop was lunch - you guessed it... Chinese food. I guess it is an easy way to feed a large group of people, but I'm ready for some other options.

After lunch, we headed to our next stop  which was the Hanging Monastery. Unfortunately, getting there proved to be very difficult. We drove and drove and drove and just as we reached the base of the mountain road that we needed, we hit a major traffic jam. Our driver got out and asked others what was going on and he was told that there was a bad accident up ahead. We turned around and took a different route. This new route took us another 45 minutes to reach the monastery, so we didn't arrive there until after 4 pm.

I mentioned the seating issue - well spending that amount of time in the bus on winding mountain roads was less than comfortable. Aside from the comfort issue, the drive had a GPS device that was making some sort of noise constantly! It was either talking to him (in Chinese, of course), or chirping or beeping or ringing or whatever... What it really was was annoying!

The Hanging Monastery was really cool! It was built - literally - hanging off the side of a cliff. There were 3 levels and they were all open to climb and walk through. It was built in the year 400 something - can't remember the exact date, but that means it's 1500+ years old! I loved it and of course, I climbed to the top - not everyone was comfortable enough to do so and several from our group chose to stay on the lower levels. The setting was beautiful as well - it was nestled in a river gorge between 2 very high cliffs. It was well worth the drive and is now my 2nd favorite attraction of the trip, 2nd only to the Great Wall.

By the time we loaded everyone back into the bus, it was after 5 pm and we had several hours of drive time to reach our hotel. So we settled in and prepared for hours (and hours) of listening to the Chinese GPS. We were supposed to have a 3rd stop - a visit to the Yingxian Wooden Pagode - but it was too late in the day and we told our guide to skip it and get us to the hotel.

We finally arrived at about 9 pm, all of us hungry and very tired - remember that our day started at 3 am... We got checked in and dropped our luggage in our rooms, then went in search of some dinner. The hotel restaurant was closed by this time, so our closest and easiest option was McDonald's. Not my favorite but by that time, I didn't really care, I just wanted food.

My roomie (Jen) & I had been put into a smoking room. At first, we were just going to live with it but then we were chatting and decided that was not ok with either of us. Even though I'm a former smoker, I never smoked in my house or really indoors at all so I didn't appreciate the smoke smells and neither did Jen. She argued with the front desk people (through our guide) and got us moved to a different room. It was also a smoking room, but they had opened the window to let it air out, plus sprayed air freshener so it was better than our first room, but only marginally so. By the time this was all settled, it was after 11 pm, so we had been up for 20 hours and we were exhausted.

Throughout the day, I had been unimpressed with George - he didn't seem to have as much knowledge and information as we had come to expect. Our first guide (Apple, from Beijing) was great and I think she spoiled us. Well, George was not as great - he knew some stuff but we all had the impression that he didn't fully understand many of the questions that we asked him. Well, George redeemed himself (in my eyes) with the room fiasco. He understood our discomfort and went to bat for us in trying to get us moved to a new room where we would be more comfortable.

Even though we've been up for 20 hours, there won't be much rest this night because our train leaves at 7 am so we have to be ready to leave the hotel by 5:30 am. Hopefully, I can catch up on my sleep AFTER vaction, right?  :)

Beijing Day 3

We got to see the pandas today! They are so cute and look super cuddly, but they really can be quite aggressive. We were able to see 3 of the pandas out and about and a couple of them were busy at play, climbing on and around their play set in the yard. I watched for a bit, but it was a cold, rainy morning and I got chilled so I waited in the building until it was time to go.

From the zoo, we went to tour the Summer Palace. Unfortunately, the name 'Summer' Palace wasn't enough to warm things up! It stayed cold and rainy, so I stayed chilled. And because I was chilled, I didn't take in as much as I may have had I been more comfortable. In any case, it was an ok tour but others in our group were not overly impressed by it, either. When I think of touring a palace, I think of a single building that is opulent and over-the-top luxury. That's not what this was like at all. There are several buildings and there are only a couple you can actually go into - the rest is all outside and seeing the grounds. Part of our tour was on a boat and that was kind of cool.

After the summer palace, on to lunch at a Chinese restaurant! This was my least favorite of the last 3 days, but it was good enough to provide some warmth and refueling. The best part was that after lunch when we went back to the bus it had stopped raining and the sun was shining! :)


Olympic Park was our early afternoon stop and it was really cool! The stadium is called the Bird's Nest because of the way it was designed. The supports and structure criss cross in a seemingly random pattern that resembles a bird's next. And the water sport building is called the Water Cube because it's a square building. The Chinese symbolism is that Heaven is round and Earth is square which is another reason for the shapes of the buildings.

Last attraction of the day was a tour through the Hutong - these are small dwellings built very close together and in very narrow alleyways. It's where the non-ruling people lived in old Beijing. Most of these dwellings have been in the family for many generations, passing from parent to child. Our Hutong tour was in rickshaws which were fun - not amazing, but nice as a different experience.

We arrived back at the hotel fairly early today (about 3:30) so we decided to walk around and check out some of the shopping. We saw several high end shops along the street near our hotel and then we spotted the narrow alleys for the street market! That's the kind of shopping I was looking for. We wandered around in the street market for about an hour and ended up on a street that had food stalls. I did not linger for a couple of reasons - first, the smell. I was feeling rather sick to my stomach just from the smells along the street. Secondly, the bugs - fried and skewered on a stick and for sale. GROSS! Oh - and we saw one bug that was skewered on a stick, but was still alive! That was certainly enough for me (and Linda) and we headed for the end of the street while the others lingered and took pictures.

At that point I had had enough so I walked back to the hotel, stopping for a bowl of beef noodle soup on my way back. Tonight will be an early bed time because we have to leave the hotel at 3:40 AM to get to the airport to catch our flight to the next destination. Not happy about that wake up time for sure!

Beijing Day 2

We hopped on the bus and headed out of the city today. Our first stop was a Jade Factory where we got to see how jade is carved and polished. We also learned how to tell the difference between real jade and fake. Hold it under the light and in the real jade, you can see the natural elements within. Fake jade is usually glass and when you hold that up to the light, you don't see anything within the piece. Of course, after the demonstration we had the opportunity to shop around and purchase if so desired. :)

Next stop was the Ming Tombs. This is the burial site of 23 emperors from the Ming Dynasty. The exhibition hall is over 600 years old which is even more impressive when you find out it's all made of wood. The pillars in the hall (16 of them) were each made from a single tree - one pillar, one tree - and the trees were over 1000 years old at the time.

Lunch today was at a village near the Great Wall. One guess what we had... If you guessed Chinese food, you were right! We all agreed that today's lunch was better than yesterday's although that one was good, too.

And finally the major attraction of the day - the Great Wall! WOW!!! At the location we went to, there are 3 ways to reach the top of the wall - you can walk up, ride up in an enclosed gondola, or ride up on a chair lift. I chose the chair lift along with several of our group. For those who know Linda and Les, it won't surprise you that they chose to walk. When we got to the top it was simply amazing - I had a moment of disbelief that I was actually standing on the Great Wall of China - too cool!

After chatting with our guide for a bit, we decided that we would try to get to Watch Tower #1. It was a great goal - and much harder to reach than I expected. I didn't count, but had Les help me estimate and we think it's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 steps. Others in our group think way more - like 3000. In any case, there were a LOT of steps! I almost gave up but someone in my group encouraged me to keep pushing on and I did it. I'm so glad I did because the view from the top was amazing! I'm sure my legs are going to be rather sore tomorrow but it was an experience that I'll never forget!

To get down from the top of the wall, all of the 3 previous options are available, but there is one additional choice - you can take a toboggan! I was very excited about that and it was a blast! Unfortunately, I had some slow riders in front of me and I caught up to them several times. I would have much rather opened that thing up and flew down full speed the whole way! :)  However, since I was going slower, I was able to spot Linda & Les on the walking trail and gave them a holler and a wave on my way by.

On the way back to Beijing, we stopped for a traditional tea ceremony. I really enjoyed it - we tasted 5 different types of tea, including Ginseng Oolong, Jasmine, black, fruit and floral. Of course, it was another shopping opportunity. :)

Dinner tonight was Peking Duck - a traditional dish in Beijing. I learned that Peking is Cantonese for Beijing. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table and then had questionable service, but the meal was delicious! I have not been a huge fan of duck previously but now I know that duck can be prepared to be very good! Moist and tender and quite delicious.

It's been another great day - I can't believe it's only been 2 days and we've already seen and done so much!