12 August 2011: The River Cruise Vacation in China

12 August 2011
Greetings all from hot, humid, sticky, overcast, hazzy,  North-eastern China!
Rodney and I just got back from a wonderful family vacation with my sister Patricia and her husband Tom on a visit around China!  We met them in Shanghai and then we all did a River cruise/tour of China together...the cruise/tour was nice and we got to see alot of China in 12 days...but the best part was to spend time with my family!!  As I write this, Tom and Patricia should be home in Florida, probably sleeping!
In this blog, I'll take you on the cruise tour here in China taking us from Shanghai on a flight to Wuhan then on a river boat from Wuhan to Chongqing on the Yangtze River, then flying again to Xian and finally flying up to Beijing...all in 12 days!  In the ~1.5 years we've been here, we really hadn't taken the time to tour the big sites...so we were just as touristy as anyone else!

We started off in Shanghai with trip to the Yu garden.  I've been there before, but it never disappoints!

One of the beautiful doorways in the Yu Garden

Rod & Sarah at the Yu Garden in Shanghai

The beautiful Yu Garden in Shanghai

The protective dragon in the Yu garden in Shanghai

Yu garden in Shanghai

After the Yu garden, we went to the Bund and then to a couple of "museums"...where everything in the "museum" just happened to be on sale!  It was hot and hazzy...a typical day in Shanghai in the summer!

The Pearl of Shanghai as seen from the Bund side of the river

Tom and Pat Hurley on the Bund in Shanghai

Sarah & Rod Miller on the Bund in Shanghai...I think Rod was saying something like "how many of this photo do we have to get?"!

Rodney..."His majesty the baby" sitting on a throne in a silk embroidery "museum"

Sarah & Rod Miller on the throne together in Shanghai

 After Shanghai, we took a flight to Wuhan where we would catch the river cruise boat and go up the Yangtze River.  Wuhan is one of the three 'furnace city on the Yangtze" (the other two are Changqing and Nanjing)...where, as the name implies, it's hot in the summer!  Wuhan's claim to fame is a tomb that was unearthed where they found alot of musical instruments, and specifically a big set of ceremonial bronze bells.

The bronze bells at Wuhan on display at a real museum.

The set is huge...check out the size of the people on the left of the photo

We attended a short performance of a small group of people playing replicas of the instruments found in the tomb...very nice!  The above video (if it ever gets finished uploading!) doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea...

In Wuhan, we get on the boat..the name of the company we used was "Viking River Cruise".  It was recommended to us and we can recommend them as well.  The itinerary of the cruise is for adults...I would not recommend it for children...they would really be bored and there are not alot of activities on the boat...the time on the boat is meant for relaxation...and that is exactly how we found it!

The Viking River Cruise boat on the Yangtze River being loaded in Wuhan.  Capacity somewhere around 250

The big deal on the River cruise was seeing the 3 gorges that have been made navigatible due to the big dam project...and it is a big dam.  It's quite controversial still with people and entire villages being moved up the hillside so that they not under water!  Overall, I'm sure they have better living conditions...but I'm also sure it was hard to leave the land and village that has been home for generations.  In any case, I'm sure that the electricity that is generated by the hydro-electric plant is much needed to drive this country forward!

A boat next to the cruise ship going through one of the locks on the dam

Coming in or going out of one of the locks on the 3 gorges dam...can't remember which!

A view of part of the 3 gorges dam site from the 185m platform...this is just part of the dam..there are 5 locks total..notice the pretty gardens in between the locks...classy!

A view of the Yangtze River (muddy flood season in the summer)

More of the muddy Yangtze River and some dwellings along side

The level where a bridge used to be and some of the rolcated houses along the river...much better than before I'm sure

Some of the gorges along the Yangtze

Tom & Pat Hurley on the boat...raining as you can tell!

One of the new bridges across the gorge..the river will be about 30m higher during the winter...they keep it low during the summer flooding season!

Rain made for some beautiful waterfalls on the Yangtze

After the dam, we stopped at a pagoda where a dyke was built around the pagoda in order to protect it from being flooded.  The pagoda was actually just a set of steep steps to get up to a Buddhist temple on top of a big rock.  Trish and I climbed to the top (of course!) and we were ringing wet with sweat...but we were happy!

The Pagoda at Shibaozhai

View from inside the Pagoda to the landscape on the Yangtze River

Sarah and Patricia after climbing the steps to the top of the Pagoda...sweaty but happy to be together...and to be alive and well after the climb!

After the Pagoda the river cruise portion was really about over..and so we cruised on into Chongqing and while there, we visited the zoo, which had some Pandas!  They are so cute!

One of the Panda's munching on the bamboo..he was very content to just sit there and eat!

Patricia and Sarah at the zoo with the Panda eating in the background!

Rod Miller happy with the Panda eating behind him!

Chongqing is a big city...even by Chinese standards...in the city proper there are about 10 million..but add in the "greater Chongqing" area, and there are about 33 million people...wow!  It's known for it's hot spicy food...they say they eat hot spicy food to make them sweat in the summer so that they can cool off!  I don't know if it works or not, but they do have hot spicy food...they have peppers there that can make your mouth numb and others that cause blisters...I didn't try them!

After the zoo, we took a flight up to Xi'an.  In the evening, we went to a musical about the Tang (the 3rd dynasty in China, (618-907 ad) and Xi'an was the capital of China.  The Tang Dynasty, said to have been a very prosperous period for China and supposedly the fatter the person was, the more money he had, and consequently, the more admired they were (wish that were the case today!).  We saw a beautiful show about life in tang Dynasty which was beautiful!  Funny though...I didn't see any fat women  or men in the show!  For my friends in China reading this...if you want the information about this show, I have it..I highly recommend it!

A dinner theater show about the Tang Dynasty while staying in Xi'an

Some of the "concubines" in the Tang Dynasty show at Xi'an

The next morning, we went to see the Terra Cotta soldiers...what an amazing site!  The soldiers were all around the tomb of the 1st emporer of China, called the Qin dynasty era.  He started working on his tomb when he was only 14 years old...must have had quite an ego to have made this size of monument to himself!

Some of the soliders at Xi'an

Sarah and Patricia in front of the Terra Cotta soliders in Xi'an

Rodney, Tom, Patrica and Sarah in front of some of the soliders at Xi'an

A close up of one of the soliders...what a work or art to get the expressions!

Close up of a soldier

Another close up of a solider

Tom, Patricia, Sarah and Rodney under a shade tree outside...don't we look like tourists?!

After Xi'an, we took a flight to Beijing.  It seems like every flight we took in China was delayed...we sat for at least 1.5 hours on the aircraft for every flight...but we  all arrived safe and sound!
In Beijing, we went to a spot on the Great Wall....the Great Wall is an amazing piece of work...there were too many people for my taste...and I'm sure there are spots that are not crowded, but we went to the section that is one of the best preserved Badaling (I'm sure they tell this to all the tour groups!) .  Rod and I climbed up to several watch towers...and it is really a climb!  In some places there are steps, in others it is a ramp...but in all cases, it's steep!!

View of the Great Wall from one of the watch towers

Sarah & Rod taking a break on the climb up the wall!

Rod climbing the Great wall...with 10000 of our closest Chinese friends right beside us!

Rod climbing the wall...it's not raining...the Chinese women use sun shade umbrellas so that they will not get tanned!

A view of the wall from our highest vantage point...it goes on for over 5000 miles, starting at the border with North Korea all the way to the western parts of China.  It's not 100% contiguous, and it winds around several areas.  The same emperor that built  the soliders in Xi'an started the wall and the road system in China.

 After the Great Wall climb we were all worn out...but we had signed up for an excursion to see a sampling of Beijing Opera. I had heard on my Chinese language classes that Beijing Opera was a "must see", so I signed us up...it was very interesting...but I don't think I'll be going back again any time soon...I liken it to cats howling just before they go to the vet, or when two male tom cats are fighting...and I guess my ear is not tuned up to the eastern music tones yet...The costumes were really fascinating...but I can't really say the same for the music!  In the not so distant past, women did not go on stage, so all of the female roles were played by males...and they all sung in female ranges...I don't think it's the case today though...but that really didn't make much difference...I was still hearing the cats howl even after we left!

One of the actors in the Beijing Opera

Another scene from the Beijing Opera

The final day of the tour, we went to the Tienanmen square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace...and I think, so did every other Chinese person...what a hot,  crowded day!  I'm sure we'll go back, but not in the summer...I think either April or November would be good...and especially a day when the kids are in school!  There were too many people there to enjoy looking at the sights!

Sarah standing on Tienamen Square just in front of the Forbidden City (notice the picture of Mao in the background!)

A closeup of the little guys on the roof at the Forbidden city...there are always an odd number of guys (3,5,7,9) and the more figures, the higher ranking the building is...9 is for the Emperor only! Notice the blue skies in Beijing...this was a rare day for us...it was mostly overcast and hazzy!

Patricia in front of the Forbidden City on Tienanmen Square

The Throne room at the Forbidden City

Sarah and Patricia at the Forbidden City

Rod at the Forbidden City Garden

The boat ride at the summer palace.  It's really not a palace...it's a huge park with a nice lake...another place I would go back to , but not in the summer!

Sarah in front of the marble "boat"..it's a carved marble boat..interesting to look at, but that's about it!

After all of that touring, we were all exhausted!  It was soooo good to spend the time with my sister and her husband and of course now I'm really missing them...but hopefully they will come back and we can see some other sites on a more leisurely pace! We met alot of very nice people and got a good tour at each site from knowledgable tour guides.  But the best part, was spending time with my sister!

If you want information about the Viking River Cruise we did here in China, here's the link.
http://www2.vikingrivercruises.com/rivercruises/china-yangtze-beijing-shanghai-2012/itinerary.aspx

Take care everyone, and looking forward to some rest now before I go back to work!

Sarah & Rod