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Published: April 8th 2015
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Pearls from the clam!
There was a pearl demo and we all got to keep one. Yesterday's Event April 7
As is becoming the custom of this holiday, we were up again really early. Breakfast with our new friends Bruce, Sarah and Zoe from Brisbane, before saying our farewells and heading off the boat. We were lucky enough to have a lovely guide called David, who named himself after David Copperfield. He picked us up from the boat, arranged porters to carry our luggage along large poles across their shoulders, up 100 stairs to the waiting minivan. I'm glad I didn't have to manage those stairs. These men raced up and then back down again to get more money and more bags. The whole ship is loaded with goods the same way. On a pole and across the shoulders of older men.
OUr first stop this morning was to the Old City in Chonqing. The guide (Cherry) referred to it as the Chinatown in China. Chonqing was a huge, federal city with a population of 32 million people. It has 68 universities. In the old city, there was a beautiful opera house. On top of the opera house was the 9th baby dragon. This dragon was said to eat money, health
Temple to the Devil King
I wrote about this on yesterday's blog by accident
Yesterday's Event and jewellery and became a constipated dragon. The aim or moral is to say that health is a better priority than money. The baby dragon is known as Pixiu (Pea Shoe). It was hard to absorb it all as it was raining quite heavily. y
In the Chinese temples, the dragon (emperor and male) is always depicted as bigger and stronger and above the phoenix (woman or empress). In this temple, there is a phoenix who is bigger and on top of the dragon. This is illegal in China except for here and in the forbidden palace in Beijing. It is because it was built in the Qing Dynasty where a woman was the Emperor and ruled the land. She was known as the 'Dragon Lady'.
After the old town, we returned a room key to the boat (naughty Noelene) and then headed out to Chickou Street. It is the old part of Chonqing and dates back a couple of hundred years. Some of the buildings are newly built but in the old style. Many shops for tourists and locals and food shops have been opened. We bought a few knick knacks and had
Remedy for Drunkeness
Rub his tummy and never be drunk again
Yesterday's Event a great time wandering around, despot the rain. We even shared a sweet potato noodle soup. We watched the man at the front of the store make them and it was delicious.
Because of the rain, David took us to the local wet market. The smile of Noelene's face was priceless. She clearly enjoyed the experience as it is so different to anything we have at home. There were frogs, turtles, eels, fish, every part of the animal that could be purchased there. I got the feeling that they rarely see tourists in that building. From the wet market, we had a quick look at the main town hall. A huge and very beautiful building in the centre of Chonqing.
We asked for Sichuan hot pot for lunch and that is exactly what we got. In the centre of our table was a bubbling pot that was divided into two sides that looked like Ying and Yang and the contents of the soup were definitely opposites. One side had no spice and the other burnt your mouth off. Even a little bit was too hot. There was a whole range of things to put
into the hot pot to cook as and when we wanted. There were mushrooms, lotus, sausage, beef, tofu, bean sprouts, rice noodles and who knows what else! We ate till we could no longer eat anymore.
After the hot pot we headed to the train station. The train we were meant to catch was not the one we were actually catching. We ended up with a three hour wait to catch the bullet train to Chengdu. Thankfully, Sharon was able to use David's phone to call home and have a chat.
So now, I am sitting on the bullet train bound for Chengdu and the next adventure. There is a small girl who has taken a fancy to us funny looking foreigners, though runs off when we say hi. We are travelling through the countryside at 194km an hour so far. I have no doubt that it might get even faster! That's it for now as I go and look out the window.
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Donna
non-member comment
Glad you are having fun!
Enjoying the blog and photos.