Xi'an to Chongqing

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Joined our cruise in Chongqing after an interesting departure from Xi’an airport. Amy had been sick in the car on the way to the airport due to the tail end of a 24 hour bug. As we exited the car Sonia asked for the passports. Due to a gridlocked major traffic jam in Xi’an we had arrived at the terminal with only 20 minutes to spare. So those 20 minutes were spent rapidly searching the bags and racking our brains as to where we had seen them last. As you can imagine we all remained very calm, controlled and analytical in our search for the documents which are required for domestic travel in China….. Ok, ok truth be known as the time ticked towards our deadline and the floor of the terminal starting to resemble a bomb affected teenagers bedroom the atmosphere was intense to say the least! Suddenly we remembered placing them in a pocket of the baggage and all was good. Well except for the fact that Ella’s booking had been made with her passport number as ID and she only had her national ID card with her. After several minutes negotiating on the phone and with 20 different officials she was issued a boarding pass. We were then able to run the length of the terminal. Arriving with moments to spare we then enjoyed patiently waiting a 15 minute delay.

At Chongqing we negotiated with rude taxi drivers for 2 taxis to deliver us to the wharf, one of which got lost on the way. Boarding the ship late afternoon we were impressed by the quality of the ship and welcome we received. A dragon dance, warm towels and a lovely chinese lady playing a grand piano in the lobby was a nice touch.

Setting sale after midnight we commenced our trip on the worlds’ third longest river to cover around 10% of it’s more than 6000km length. As we departed late most of the buildings and bridges in the Chongqing area had their lights switched off. Earlier in the evening most of the buildings, bridges and roads along the bank of the river had huge neon lights, making for a colourful and vibrant city display.

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