China

Yangtze River Cruise to Chongqing Date - 12 May Weather - Smoggy, warm - 29c Accommodation - Raddison Hotel, Chongqing For the last four days we have travelled west from Jingzhou to the super city of Chongqing. Chongqing  which sits beside the busy Yangtze River has a population of 34 million. The city is China's biggest and was the original capital. We moored at the centre of Chongqing at 6.15am and visibility was very poor as a dense smog covered the city. It is a city known for its fog, mist and being hot. Mike says the people in summer are like steamed Dim Sims. Chongqing will be the furtherest west we will travel. We disembarked at 8.30am and walked for fifteen minutes along the wharf and past a lot of construction to our bus.  Some of our tour group have contracted a low level virus with sore throats etc. It seems to last only a day so hopefully we will stay healthy. We are frequently washing our hands where possible and using hand sanitiser before eating.  ...

Yangtze River Cruise Date - 11 May Weather - Rain Accommodation - "Yangtze Gold Three" This was our last full day on the Yangtze River and most of us woke up feeling quite tired after a broken night's sleep. Overnight there was heavy rain and a storm with persistent lightening and loud thunder which lasted for about two hours. The Chinese can also do huge storms!  Before breakfast our boat had moored near the 12-story 18th century Shibaozhoi Temple and the accompanying Red Pavilion. Both structures sit on a 200m craggy hill. The pavilion has 9 floors of covered wooden steps that hug the hill and lead to the temple which sits high on the hill. The higher one climbs in the temple the more likely your wishes and dreams will come true. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam the base of the Red Pavilion would have been under water. A dam construction surrounds the base of the hill to keep out the water.  It was raining when we went ashore at 8.30am and it persi...

Yangtze River Cruise Date - 10 May Weather - Sunny, mild Accommodation - "Yangtze Gold Three" We woke to a cool morning sailing close to the bottom of high, steep mountains. We were clearly within the first of the three gorges. We sat on the balcony watching the scenery slowly go by and listening to the many birds hiding in the mountain-hugging trees and shrubs. We could clearly see where the flood line of approximately 15 metres on the banks of the river. It was a very peaceful way to start the day.  At nine o'clock we disembarked and caught quaint small flat-bottomed, glass-ceiling boats and made our way up the Goddess Stream along a very narrow, deep gorge. The high cliffs and mountains came straight down to the water and it was stunningly beautiful.  The gorge has become a tourist attraction since the building of the Three Gorges Project as the dam has increased the water level by 50 metres. This has allowed year-round boat access where previously there has bee...

Yangtze River Cruise Date - 9 May Weather - Sunny, very warm Accommodation - "Yangtze Gold Three" It's hard to believe that we have only been on the tour for seven days. We have seen and done so much and it has been a terrific tour so far.  This was our first full day on the Yangtze River and we had an excellent day. The boat moored twice, one for the Water Village in the morning and in the afternoon we moored to take a coach tour of the impressive Three Gorges Dam Project. I woke up at 4.30am to see a small partially lit city passing by. By 5.30am it was light enough to see that from our cabin balcony we were coming into a very large lock. It was very exciting so we quickly got dressed and raced to the top deck and watched the proceedings as we followed two long gravel barges into the empty loch. We didn't think we would fit but like everything else in China all is big and we fitted in quite easily.  At 6.30am we slowly rose to the top of the loch with the ...

Jingzhou - Yangtze River Cruise Date - 8 May Weather - Sunny, warm Accommodation - "Yangtze Gold Three"  Today we started our four-day Yangtze River Cruise.  We had a later start of 9.30am and we immediately headed to a new farming village on the outskirts of Jingzhou. We passed large canals which take their water from the Yangtze River and these feed into smaller canals for the mixed farms. The village was considered a rich village with small plots of beans, garlic, rape seed being grown in a traditional manner and chickens, ducks and pigs being kept very close to the houses. The village people didn't seem to mind us wandering past their tiled two-story homes or their farms and they seemed curious about us and took photos of us. Jingzhou is an ancient walled city of 4.6 million people sitting by the Yangtze River. It is considered a very small city. Before lunch we headed to the city centre and walked along a section of the ancient wall and one of the six large, ...

Xi'an - Wuhan - Jingzhou Date - 7 May Weather - Hazy, overcast; light rain and cold in the afternoon Accommodation - Wyndham Jingzhou Hotel  We were up bright and early despite the previous day being a busy one. It was a day of travel by plane and coach to get us into position for the four-night Yangtze River Cruise.  Our bus departed the hotel at 7.00am for the 10.05am flight and Mike gave us another Chinese language lesson on the way. Each day we practice simple words and phrases which could come in handy. We are using "Bu" frequently when we want to shoo away the street vendors which the Chinese call "mosquitoes" as they buzz around. The roads throughout the Xi'an city centre were wet as they are hosed twice a day to keep the city clean. As we drove north to the airport we once again passed many high rise buildings and a new section being built for 2.5 million residents.  As part of the Chinese Government's Five Year Project people are being ...

Xi'an Date - 6 May Weather - Very hazy, Warm Accommodation - Grand Barony Hotel This was our only day in Xi'an and we came to this "small-sized city" of 9.8million people to specifically visit the Terracotta Warriors and Horses and it was breathtakingly spectacular. We spent the entire afternoon at the archeological site.  Xi'an is also the home-town of Mike, our guide, and he was very enthusiastic in wanting to show his city's highlights. It was another busy, varied and enjoyable day. We made it a longer day as we took an optional night tour. Everywhere we turn there is a photo opportunity and we loved the way the phone lines weaved across the city.  We were on the bus at 8.30am and headed through the steady traffic alongside beautiful road-side gardens and many high rise buildings to the near-by Dayan (Big Wild Goose) Pagoda. The roses in Xi'an are pink in contrast to Beijing's orange/yellow. The Buddhist Dayan pagoda is an impressive seven s...