We disembarked from our Yangtze cruise in the city of Chongqing. Chongqing is the largest municipality in China, with 30 million people. It is a hilly city, and therefore, no bikes. Our first stop was at the Chongqing Zoo, where we got to see some very cute red pandas, as well as some giant pandas. After that, we were off to General Stillwell’s museum to learn about his contributions to the Chinese during World War II. We also visited the Flying Tigers museum and learned about their dangerous flights over the Himalayas during the war.
For lunch, we experienced a special treat. Our tour guide, Carol, took us to a really nice restaurant where we were able to go back into the kitchen and watch the iron chefs at work, which was very cool. The head chef used a wok with an inferno for a flame underneath it. We were a bit nervous any time he took the wok off the flame, but he was a pro. The presentation of the food was truly amazing, complete with orchids on each plate. The food was definitely the best we have had thus far on our journey, and that is saying something. It was very cool to watch them make our food and then sit down to enjoy it.
After lunch we drove to Chongqing airport and flew off to Hong Kong. Our local guide picked us up and explained that the airport we had just landed in was built on a man-made island. Pretty impressive! Our hotel is the nicest yet, which is also saying something considering the beautiful places we’ve staying in thus far, and the concierge gave us some tips on where to eat dinner and we decided to try an Indian restaurant down by the water. We took the hotel shuttle down to the harbor, where we watched the nightly laser/light show (think Disneyland’s Electric Light Parade, but the lights are on buildings instead of floats) and walked along their Avenue of Stars. The harbor is beautiful at night and we enjoyed people watching as we strolled along. We ended up at TGI Friday’s instead of Indian food, which was a fun change from Chinese food. We even met a fellow American who was there on business and invited him to eat with us. It was fun to hear about his travels and adventures in Asia and tell him about our experiences, too.
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Today we visited the place where Chinese people throughout history have believed that people’s spirits go to be judged when they die. It is called Fengdu, or the City of Ghosts. There is a temple for the “King of Hell” as well as statues depicting what happens to people if they are not good in this life. Yep, a bit creepy to say the leas, but also very interesting. There are also three bridges to choose from that you can walk over. Depending on your choice, you will either have love, health, or riches in your next life. We learned a lot about the Chinese Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife from our experience. Today we woke up to the stinky smell of gasoline laden paint. The smell pervaded our room and made us choke. Then we escaped by going to breakfast. After breakfast we were pleasantly surprised to experience the Shennong Stream. This area was once inhabited by the ancient Ba people, who hung their coffins up in the air on the sides of the cliffs. Very interesting. We got to see two of these coffins. Most of them are no longer visible due to the rising of the Yangtze River. We took a ferry up the stream and hopped onto little “pea pod” boats rowed by five local dudes. These dudes are in amazing shape because they had to row and then pull the boats complete with 15 passengers upriver. We wore life jackets and melted in the sun, until we reached the section of the river that had clean cool water and shade from the cliffs. The view was spectacular and our local guide and the men sang their traditional songs while we floated back down river. The whole experience was super amazing and made us thankful that we had opted for the tour that included the Yangtze River. We woke up bright an early so that we could join the Taichi morning exercise group on the upper deck. Then we stood amazed at the view of the first gorge, the Xiling Gorge. The scenery was breathtaking and we took a million photos of the mist-shrouded mountains. Our local guide, Ambrosia, and our fabulous driver took us to the Xi’an airport in the morning for our flight south to Wuhan. As we were landing , the pilot told us that the current temperature in Wuhan was 98 degrees. That’s super hot, folks! Our local guide, Eric, met us at the airport and we hopped in the van for a “4 ½ hour” ride to Yichang, where we would hop on our boat for the Yangtze cruise. First off, the van’s air conditioning was not functioning very well. Secondly, there was something akin to a heater pumping out heat on the floor. Needless to say, it was a toasty trip. Today was another very exciting (and roasty toasty) day in Xi’an. We started out at the Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built in 652 AD during the Tang Dynasty to house the Buddhist scriptures brought back to China from India by a monk named Xuanzang (the story of the Monkey King describes his journey to India and back). The area around the pagoda is a working monastery. They created a huge mural showing the life of Buddha that was created using all different colors of jade (the picture to the right shows a portion of the mural depicting his birth). You might not be able to tell in the picture to the right that the pagoda is leaning a bit due to the angle I took it from, but the locals call it the “leaning tower of Xi’an.” We took a group picture in the gardens so you can check out our fun fellow travelers, the Martinez family from Miami and the Lambies from Los Gatos. Beijing Impressions & Surprises Our morning started out with a visit to a government-run jade factory. Who knew that there are 1,200 types of jade? Not us! They gave us lots of interesting information and then had us all try on jade bracelets so that we would plunk down a few hundred bucks for one. We resisted, though Val did buy a cheap one on sale for kicks. Breakfast was lovely with lots of options. Then we were off on our adventure at 9am. We headed to Tiananmen Square and saw the People’s Congress, Mao’s Mausoleum, the Chinese Museum and, most importantly, the Forbidden City. We took a lovely group picture with the whole gang and then the Forbidden City welcomed us with a downpour of rain that soaked us to the skin, but was over in a flash. Jessica created a slicker out of a garbage bag, which was very creative. We walked through each of the courtyards, which were super beautiful. The buildings were so colorful and intricately detailed. We tried to look at the throne and almost lost our lives in the process. People were pushing and shoving like crazy. We got to see the area where the emperor's wives lived as well as their private gardens. In the gardens we were convinced by some students to view an art show…otherwise known as a tourist trap to buy paintings. We set off late from SFO and found ourselves seated next to a very nice lady who, it turns out, grew up in China and moved to southern California with her husband when she was 30. She shared all kinds of interesting information with us about China and how it has changed over the past 20 years. At the “end” of the flight, they told us we had to land in Hohot instead of Beijing due to weather issues. We were sad not to be able to get off the plane and scared that we might be stranded in Inner Mongolia forever. We eventually took off and made it to Beijing about four hours late. In the meantime, we met Sandy and Sarah who were on our China Spree trip and had fun getting to know them. It was hot and humid at 10pm when we disembarked, but the airport was beautiful, empty, and air conditioned! We checked into our very nice hotel, Joy City Hotel, and crashed.Our tour guides are Jim (who is the national guide for the group we’re with for a few days) and Richard, the Beijing local guide. They are both super nice and helpful. |
AuthorJessica Robledo and Val Smith on location in CHINA! ArchivesCategories |