One River, Two Days, Three Gorges

I was awoken by an announcement at 6:45am. It is Monday, it is going to rain but will be hot. Thanks a lot announcement lady, I really needed to know that...

Breakfast was better though, they had steamed buns AND cereal! Only warm milk though unfortunately. Still it was pretty good for a change. Shortly after, the boat docked in Fungdu, for our excursion to Jade Emperor Palace. Just as the lady said, it began to rain as soon as we left the boat, badly!

Fengdu means "ghost city" in Chinese, but it actually has nothing to do with ghosts! 

In ancient times there were 2 officials who became disillusioned with the monarchy, and moved to where Fengdu now is and became monks, and eventually immortals. The settlement then became know by their surnames (Feng and Du), which coincidentally means ghost city.

According to our guide, the old Fengdu used to be rubbish old buildings, but then thanks to the Three Gorges Dam the city was submerged, and now the buildings have been replaced by new ones, so people are happy (though the old people miss the old buildings sometimes). I'm not entirely sure this would be accurate for everyone, but it is hard to tell whether people truly believe what they say, or just say what they have to say in China. It was still certainly much less developed than the cities we visited so far, and poorer.

As we arrived to Jade Emperor Palace, we were greeted by one of my favourite statues ever; what appeared to be a 3 eyed man/demon threatening to hit you with a stick, and sticking his middle finger up at you whilst riding a flaming unicycle! Apparently he protects the palace from ghosts.

I have a great one copying his pose, but Del took the photo and I didn't get it off him yet. Maybe later!

Unfortunately this was the highlight of Jade Emperor Palace. I'm not really sure who this place is aimed at: it is a series of Buddhist/Taoist temples like I have seen a million of, but the whole complex was only completed last year, and everything that could be made of concrete was, even things that look like they are made of wood. This doesn't seem particularly holy to me, so I can't see Chinese people flocking here like they do to Emei, and it doesn't have the history, or intricate building techniques to attract tourists. Add in the pouring rain, and a 40 minute wait at the entrance for some other people from the shop to come back, and it was probably my least favourite part of the trip.

The plus side of the unholiness was that I could finally picture the kings of the 4 directions. I wonder where I can learn to fight using a snake as my weapon...

This lotus flower was also pretty good

That weather though..

Looks quite nice, but it is younger than Misty!

What's that coming over the hill?

It's the Jade Emperor! He is the king of heaven. Clearly not too well loved, or he'd warrant more than concrete

This was pretty cool. Essentially fake, but pretty cool

After getting back to the boat, and taking a shower to dry off, we basically did nothing the rest of the day (which is why I have combined 2 days). The afternoon/evening activity was a very pricy show in Chinese about Guan Yu, which we were advised against due to the language barrier. The food is buffet style, and has been ok, though not as nice as basically anything we've had in restaurants. A few of us had a few drinks after tea, and then it was bedtime! The scenery never really got going today either, we were more or less still escaping Chongqing!

The best view of the day. Not terrible, but not commercial worthy either!

The next day the announcer lady once again gave me some very helpful info. It's Tuesday. It will be cloudy. You were asleep. Thanks announcer lady...

Breakfast was the same as the previous day with some minor tweaks, and the morning excursion was another not recommended to us westerners (and not included): White Emperor City, which I passed on, but we did do a little Chinese calligraphy with William. I was expecting brushes and parchment for some reason, but unfortunately I got a pen and some paper. It was interesting to learn a bit about the characters though.

The afternoon promised to be more exciting: the ship passed through the first of the 3 gorges (which is impressive enough to be on the back of the 10 yuan note), and we had an excursion to another 3 gorges (confusingly. These were not THE 3 gorges, just 3 assorted gorges), on a smaller, but still quite large boat, and then an optional excursion which all our group went on in a 20 man boat to... more gorges!

The first of many gorges 

Further down the rabbit hole

Pointy mountains this time. VARIANCE SON, THAT'S WHAT YOU NEED (see my story about the family on the wall last post)

On to the smaller boat. The enemy lurks around here (monkeys, of course)

Gorges part 2. Tiny boat for scale

I'm not sure it's entirely in focus, but that is because some huge Indian guy bull rushed  Julia as she was taking it to get to the front

On the little boat now. Everyone's favourite shoes make an appearance!

More gorges. They all have fancy names like 'Dragon Gate'

Back on the ship, into the second of the 'proper' 3 gorges (Sanxia)

After gorging, there was another ok meal (with rice that tasted just like beef super noodles), and then we all went upstairs to watch a show put on by the staff. The MC (Echo, who we have interacted with a fair bit), and one of the girls who was dancing were very enthusiastic, the rest were less so, but facial expressions aside they were pretty good, and our table waiter turned out to be a magician too!

At the end they called for people to go on stage and do the Macarena. William had told us before that at least Alfredo and i should go up because they like to see young white guys dancing, but everyone did (and indeed a lot of videoing occurred). After that we hung around to dance a bit more (for some reason I didn't hate dancing as I usually do), but then some Indians needed the stage for a private party (as it turned out, a 40th wedding anniversary!). Not to worry though; the Indian MC asked us to stay, I think to liven up the dance floor since the Indians were generally quite old, and Alfredo, Tina and I stayed for a couple of songs. After that it was time for bed, in preparation for the Three Gorges Dam and our leaving this ship.