China Day 9

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30th September

Our final day on the Yangtze began early in order to see the final Gorge (Xiling), it was in fact so early, the several members of the party viewed the Gorge in their pyjamas, but from the comfort of the Presidential Deck once again. We packed up our belongings, and at this point Mum jettisoned excess luggage leaving an old jacket behind to make way for all Dads backscratchers! After breakfast we boarded coaches to the Three Gorges Dam project. We stopped alongside the dam and witnessed the enormity of the entire project. We were then taken to an exhibition centre which overlooked the site, and from here we could see all the aspects of the project including the new lock for tourist cruise boats. We also saw some of the funniest “information” boards warning of dangers and in the true spirit of “jobs for all”, workers cutting the grass by hand - literally!

From here we were taken into Yichang for lunch (Chinese), and we arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport for our flight to Shanghai. The airport at Yichang is brand new, and when the taxi was taking us it seemed to appear from in the middle of a farmers field. When we arrived, we were the only passengers in the entire airport. Check-in was a bit of a bunfight, with a couple of large parties taking up an entire queue, but we waited patiently and we eventually checked in. Dad had not had a very good track record with the x-ray machines so far, and had managed to set the alarms off before every flight because of either his belt, watch or keys etc. This time we waited on the other side of the x-ray machine, and we weren’t prepared for the outcome. Dad had not been able to pack the walking stick he had bought at the Emperors City as it was too long to fit in his case, so he was carrying it on as hand luggage (with a bit of a limp). When the security guards put it through the machine, it set all the alarms ringing, and another two guards appeared. The reason? - the guards proceeded to unscrew the nice dragon top on the walking stick and pull it open to reveal a sword! Luckily we were assisted in pleading our case by a Chinese speaking American, who explained that Dad had no idea what was inside and was just as surprised by what he had bought as the security guards were that anyone would try and take a sword on an airplane. Needless to say the walking stick/sword was left behind with the nice officers. We then found out how lucky we really were, when the American explained that she had been told that if Dad had been a Chinese citizen and not just an innocent tourist he would now be spending a night in the police cells. Just to add to Dads embarrassment was the fact that the guards apologised profusely that he couldn’t take his stick on board because he so obviously needed it, meaning Dad had to keep up the fake limp until we got on board.

We arrived in Shanghai, and found a taxi to take us to our hotel. The airport seemed quite some distance from the city centre, and there were a lot of over and under passes. The hotel staff struggled to speak any English, but however seemed fine. We were hungry, and so decided to try something from the bar menu. The menu took us well over 20 minutes to read. This was mainly because we couldn’t stop laughing at the translations from Chinese into English. The staff must have thought we were mad. Eventually we ordered club sandwiches, which were very nice, and definitely a change from Chinese food. Dad wanted to order the “chicken winks” from the menu, but we had to stop him for fear of upsetting the staff. We had a quick wander round the local shops in order to try and get a feel of the place for the next morning, then retired to the hotel to rib Dad a little more for his earlier antics before bed. On-guard!

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Comments

[spider mark]

only the english
great to hear you had such a good time laters ha! ha!