Blogs from Chongqing, China, Asia - page 4

Geo: 31.4099, 109.676I am sure you have the rhythm of the days by now...eat, tour, eat, tour, eat.....all interspersed with a little drinking and a lot of walking.Time for a break...not from the eating and drinking though....just from the touring and the walking.We decided early that we would only do the one tour today and have some rest in the afternoon. After 8 days of travel with the itinerary loaded from 7 am till 10.30 pm we gave ourselves the afternoon off.The morning tour was a ride in a small gondola-like fleet into the Wu Gorge. This idyllic transport barge ferried us at a leisurely pace for an hour into the gorge. The water was crystal clear and a deep jade green and the tributary snaked its way through the sheer gorge cliffs which towered above ... read more

Chongqing The population of Chongqing is 34 million equal to the entire population of Canada. Aside from being overwhelmed with the unimaginable number of massive condo and apartment complexes, we stopped at the local zoo to see pandas. We did not have much time to see the city since we were to board our boat later in the afternoon for a cruise down the Yangtze River and through the Three Gorges.... read more

Breakfast is set for 6:45am for those on the ‘White Emperor City’ shore visit (an extra at ¥260 each). I think in Lonely Planet it’s called White King City. Liam sleeps in, while Ky and I share breakfast with Rose. She talks about their recent trip to Kamchatka with bears and volcanoes (I know the name of the region well from a board game I played thirty years ago – strange how little things come back to you). In the background disturbing music plays quietly: Instrumental versions of ‘Memories’, ‘Hello’, and ‘Sound of Silence’. They don’t play the Titanic theme song. I wonder why? It is a puzzle to Ky and I as to why the boat would play western theme music on a Chinese built boat, on a Chinese river, surrounded by Chinese decorations, to ... read more

We had an early start at the beginning of what would turn out to be a long day and night of travelling to eventually get to Chongqing and the start of our Yangze River Cruise. First off we had a long walk into Yangsuo town with all our stuff to get to the coach that would take us to Guilin and our next ride on the Iron Rooster (sleeper train). My wheelie rucksack luggage comes into its own again. It copes with everything. I love it so much. After having lugged heavy rucksacks around India it's 'no' to ever carrying heavy bags for me again. Never believe any travel company that insists rucksacks or holdalls are the best baggage to take - wheelies all the way! There is rarely any situation I haven't been able to ... read more

There are more (& mostly different), photos on: http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/China-3%20Gorges-2012/ …..with Bruce & Kerry visiting from Melbourne I need to be a little more organised in my travel plans than I might ordinarily be. I have accommodation names & dates printed out, (English & Chinese of course), plus carefully planned train connections. I shouldn't be so difficult in summer to book tickets. Should it? Maybe their phones don't work here so I hope they arrived in Chengdu & manage to use the translation I typed for them to buy tickets to meet me in Chongqing. Now, off to Yangzhou station to start my trip to that huge, burgeoning city in central China, a special economic area which has its own administrative zone with a total population, including surrounding towns & rural areas, of over 32 million..... …..leave ... read more