Early start this morning as Irene was picking us up at 8am to go to the pier, to board our Victoria Cruise ship for the Yangtze River cruise to Wuhan. The pier was very primitive---- the steps were uneven and slippery because it's drizzly, and there were no handrails. Luckily, we hired two caddies to carry our suitcases (RMB10 per suitcase, money well spent but that's thanks to Irene who knew the market rate!) down to the boat.
Despite a horrible run-down pier, thank God the boat, the Yangtze Pearl, was actually rather nice. And for the first time in this trip the check-in actually got our booking!!!! The room was bigger than I thought and had everything we needed really, and there was even a nice big window.
The boat left Chongqing just after 9am. It was foggy and rainy--- not a good sign! The greyness just about summed up Chongqing.
We were all rounded up at about 10am on the top deck, as the cruise director Ernie Kemm and river guide Harry Long gave us an introduction to the boat, the staff and the Yangtze River. Looking round at the audience, there were very few people below the age of 50.... This would be a very interesting trip!
Lunch was actually quite edible (buffet style with Chinese and Western food, but I stuck to the Chinese food), contrary to what everyone has said to me before the trip. I was on table 17 which was probably the "youngsters" table.
After lunch we arrived at Fengdu and left the boat for an on-shore excursion. The city of Fengdu had 75000 residents, but they would have to move by 2003 because the water would flood the whole city. The famous sight here was the Ghost City at the top of Mingshan--- we took the chairlift up (RMB12 roundtrip) but had to wait for about 15 minutes for all the passengers to get there as some of them were obviously too scared to go onto these chairlifts--- at one stage there were about 20 consecutive chairlifts without anyone on, and we thought some of the passengers have fallen off! Then we had to go slow as we waited for them to climb the steps to the temples.
We spent about 2 hours there and it was fun to see the buildings, decor and the devil statues. Then we headed back down to the pier.
Dressed up for the Captain's Welcoming Reception in the evening. Now would I refuse a glass of champagne? Of course not! And although it's Chinese champagne, it's actually quite nice.
There was a fashion show after dinner--- all models were the boat crew and they were pretty good by amateur standard. Afterwards there was a disco and that drove most of the over 50's to bed.
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