China Day 15: Good Morning, Xi'an!

Last night we caught a plane to Xi'an, capital of China during the Qin Dynasty, in the 200s BC. This was the first time China had a strong central government with a single emperor at its head (notwithstanding the fact that Qin Shi Huang Di was a bloodthirsty autocrat who went off his rocker in his later years due to his obsessive search for the elixir of immortality and the ingestion of a lot of toxic chemicals in that quest). During its years as the Imperial Capital, the city was known as Chang An, or "Great Peace".

Our flight was not too eventful, though we had a lot of turbulence - I didn't realize, but there are some mondo huge mountains between Chongqing and Xi'an! Going over them was a bit bumpy. During our descent, we looked out the window and saw huge burial mounds

built up over imperial tombs. We also saw one of my favorite airport signs when we arrived here:

I feel that "The Waiting Hall of Connecting Flights" ranks right up there with "The Palace of Gathered Elegance" or the "Five Summits Reading Hut" (one of the buildings at the Garden of the Master of the Nets) for elegance!

On the bus into town we met our local guide, Mark,

who is an old college buddy of our own Fred - Xi'an is his hometown. He seems like a nice fella! They took us straight to our hotel where we luxuriated in rooms which seemed VAST after the boat cabins! Dad is also happy to be back in a full-length bed; the bunks on the boat were a little short for him, plus the room attendants tucked the sheets in so tight that he couldn't get his feet all the way down to the bottom! (I'm short enough that I had no problem.)

This hotel is built around a 16-floor interior light well


that made me dizzy just to get near.

They also gave us something I hadn't seen yet at any of our hotels: a little package of laundry detergent among the toothbrushes and shower caps. This was very practical, and I took the opportunity to wash out some things!

China Day 09: Hello to Yichang

After our meal we waddled to the bus and headed out to the airport. The rest of our day was uneventful, which is the way you want your air travel to be. I did see one of my favorite airport signs of the trip, though.



Our arrival in Yichang was met with pouring rain. We walked down an enormous flight of stairs to the dock where our river boat awaited us:

Dad was well prepared, having kept his rain gear where he could get at it:

We boarded to the accompaniment of music from an actual brass band

playing such Chinese standards as "Doe A Deer" and, wait for it, "Red River Valley"!

Our ship is the "Princess Elaine", run by Regal China Cruises. There are about four different tour groups on board, so we will see some unfamiliar faces. We are the only folks on board yet, though - the rest of everybody will arrive tomorrow.

This ship was made in Germany, and then owned by Russia for a few years; China bought it when Russia couldn't make the payments or something. Our cabin is tiny, but contains all the essentials: beds

which fold up into couches during the day, compact-but-functional bathroom facilities


a TV, a fridge that actually cools things (in happy contrast to the one in Shanghai)

and magnetically-closed cupboards, not that we're expecting high seas:

The elegant glass carafe is our source of drinking water on the boat: they come and refill it with distilled water every day.