Yangtze River Cruise

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Final Day of our river cruise today and a relaxing morning. Another additional excursion which was mainly aimed at the Chinese tourists. It was to a temple that is below the water level of the dam so to preserve it they have built a concrete wall all around the temple and you actually go below the water level to tour the site. We didn't go but preferred to rest again - got a good position on the deck and got some photos despite the heavy fog. Then it was on to Fengdu to the Ghost City - a shore excursion for all tourists. Interesting place - we were told that this is the place that all ghosts (spirits) of everyone who dies (whether they are Chinese or not) go to, to be judged whether they go to heaven or hell. The city has been built for about 1000 years and has been renovated and added to by various emperors since then. Now it is quite commercialised and while we found it interesting it wasn't really a highlight. Mind you after a few days of lazing about on the boat the 600+ steps to get there were most welcome exercise. They are in the process of building a theme park on the neighbouring mountain as part of the same complex - another Disneyland they described it, but with a Buddha theme - not sure that a visit back to that would be on our agenda! I managed to satisfy Greg's cravings for potato chips by visiting a small market - pot luck with flavour I'm afraid but it turned out well with an only mildly spicy bite and we enjoyed them with a coke when we got back to the boat. We had a banquet for dinner this evening - called the Captain's Banquet but I didn't see him put in an appearance. Celebrated Karen's (from New Zealand) birthday with cake and cocktails which was a nice way to end the day.

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