Xian to the Yangtze

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This morning we had a slow start as we didn't need to leave for the airport until 10.30. I ventured out to the local shopping area and luckily met up with Chris (from Scotland) and Mel (from Australia) who were also venturing out. Our goal was to find the chemist - after successfully crossing the road - not an easy feat in any Chinese street as white lines on the road don't mean anything - we then faced the battle of miming what we needed to purchase. Chris wins the prize for acting and we successfully located vitamin c, throat lozenges, cough medicine and cold and flu tablets. As you can probably guess, someone has come down with the flu so we are all starting to feel a throat tickle and Greg had a bit of a cough. The throat lozenges are interesting - I am taking them as a preventative measure - made with chrysanthemums I am told, they taste really good. The cold and flu tablets are all natural Chinese medicine as well and the cough medicine is working - tastes pretty bad though!! I think the sale people in the Chemist had quite a good laugh at our expense and I would love to know what they were saying as we were leaving.

We drove to Xian airport and checked out bag, then had lunch. Unfortunately after going through security to the concourse we were told our flight had been delayed - 4 ½ hours later we finally took off to Wuhan. From Wuhan it was a 4 ½ hour drive to the cruise ship, but of course all of it was in darkness so we weren't able to see a lot of the countryside. I noticed that as we were driving the smog was so bad you couldn't see very far out from the road anyway so I'm not sure that we would have seen much scenery even during the day. Apparently this province is one of the most highly industrialised according to the guides which explains the pollution.

We finally arrived at our cruise ship at 12.30 am in the city of Yichang. We had to walk down quite a steep path in the dark to our 4 level ship called the Victoria 3. After we went through security we were able to check in and finally get to our cabins for a much needed sleep. Our cabins are cosy, two single beds, a caravan like toilet,shower and basin compartment and we have a balcony which is great. The Three Gorges Dam visit next!

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Photos

Just some minor building works
You just wouldn't believe the amount of building going on in China. Just one of many groups of high rises that are going up in all of the cities that we have been through.