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Published: March 25th 2009
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Summer Palace, Beijing
The summer palace was used by the empress to escape the heat of the Forbidden City. It contains the largest man-made lake in the world which is in the shape of a peach - the symbol for long life. Thank goodness we are flying from one location to the next. The last week has been truly a whirlwind tour through China. We began, as I showed in my last entry in Beijing. There are so many wonderous things to see in Beijing and our tour guide "River", did a wonderful job of touching on many of the highlights. We walked the Great Wall, crossed Tiennamen Square, wandered through the Forbidden City, visited the Emperor's Summer Palace as well as the Emperors' Tomb and visited a number of stunning pagodas. Although we thought we would be one of 12 -14 tourists on our tour with JVC travel out of Edmonton, we are the only people in our group. So in every location we are greated at the airport by our private tour guide and driver. We are transported in style to each site, our driver waits patiently as we explore the area and then we are whisked away to our next destination. There are many days when we have been on the road from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. But we (especially I) have enjoyed luxury accommodations in 5 star hotels. I feel like a princess in such plush surroundings. China
3 Gorges Dam
The dam is a mega project just completed this year. It required the relocation of 1.4 million people who had lived along the banks of the Yangze. Whole cities were covered by the river after the dams completion an brand new cities were constructed on higher ground. is very different than I imagined it would be and very different from my experiences in Cambodia and Vietnam. The cities are huge - 4 million is considered a moderately sized city. Rather than the constant honking of mopeds and motorcycles, roads are crowded with cars. The driving is an adventure. Again, lane markings are a formality and our skilled drivers zigzag between lanes like they are driving racecars. Pedestrians have no rights at all and a marked crosswalk merely means there are more targets in larger bunches for bus, taxi and cars to aim for! We were not involved in any fender benders ourselves, but saw 3 accidents as they happened in our last two locations. But enough about the excitement of traffic! Once we make it safely to a destination, we are always in for a treat.
It has been much harder to access internet than in Vietnam and Cambodia. Since we are staying in 5 star hotels, they charge 5 star prices for internet access - over $10.00 for an hour. At our hotel here in Quilin, we have free internet access for 45 minutes so we are taking advantage of this benefit. Laundry fees have
Locks on the dam
We travelled through 4 locks to reach the height of the Yangze. The process took about 4 hours. also been crazy. At our first hotel we would have paid about $100.00 to wash our underwear and a few shirts and pants. So off we marched with our dirty laundry in a bag to find a laundry ... we did, just down the block. Fewer people speak English than in Vietnam and Cambodia, but through gestures and lots of giggles, we do communicate!
After touring Beijing, we flew to Yichang where we boarded our "cruise ship" for a 4 day tour down the Yangtze River. The term "cruise ship" is used loosely here and although the ship was compariatively first class, it is not what most of us in North America would classify as a 5 star cruise ship. But the crew really worked hard to make our trip memorable. Larry and I will never forget the evening entertainment put on by the crew - especially the "crew uniforms fashion show" and the karoke songs sung by the captain of the ship complete with a bubble blowing machine. We had wonderful table mates - a couple from New Zealand, father and daughter from Germany, and a couple from Quebec City. Highlights of the cruise were the tour of
Bridge in one of three gorges
Along the shores of the Yangze River are numerous tributaries into the river. Small and large cities also line the banks of the river. the huge Three Gorges Dam and of course the scenery along the Yangtze river and the three gorges. The air pollution is unbelievable though, so it was difficult to take any pictures where the gorges were clear. They were usually shrouded in a yellowish haze.
After the cruise, we flew to Chongqing - another huge and modern city. It was much warmer here, so there were more flowers and green trees. So far, my favorite city has been Xi An. It is known as the Imperial City as 13 of the dynasties were headquartered in this city and therefore it was the capital. From Xi An we have travelled to Guilin which is much smaller. The city is home to only 800,000 people. Traffic is not nearly as heavy, although the style of driving is the same as the larger cities. We are seeing many more motorcyles (electric), bicycles and mopeds. The people do not seem to be as affluent as those in the other cities we've travelled to and tourism and agriculture are the main industries. The landscape is very much like that around Halong Bay near Hanoi Vietnam. Today we visited a fantastic cave and strolled through
Mystical 3 Gorges
The haze made it difficult to capture the majestic beauty of the gorges along the Yangze. a lovely park. In the evening we took in an ethnic minority variety show in a local theater. Very colorful and the acrobatics rival Cirque de Soleil. Tomorrow we will be doing another "cruise" down the river and seeing the wonderful scenery that is in this area. On Friday we will visit our last destination - Shanghai. Hard to believe that next week we will be heading home. I'm starting to feel ready to live out of my closet rather than suitcase again and especially to seeing my family and friends again.
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