What do you do when it rains on a cruise?

Rain.  It happens a lot in April.

 Alice spent time finishing a good book.  

And we hung out a lot on the back side of the boat under the porch, seeing the scenery we'd already passed by, but seeing it without the rain drops in our eyes.

And we played some card games or chatted with others in the group.

I met one woman who has been cruising since February, starting in New Zealand, going to Australia

and then on to China.  I don't know if I'd like doing that or not.

 A monument to the river trackers--the locals who made their living dragging boats up the river.

The pole shows the rope marks etched in from decades, or even centuries of use.

 I loved the light houses along the way.  But even more fun is the patchwork fields going up the hillside.

This area produces a lot of oranges.  And we saw crops being planted on the soil below the full-mark.

I was curious and asked our Chinese guide.  The "spring" run-off doesn't arrive until about September, and so a crop can be planted and harvested before the water rises for those enterprising local families.

On Friday afternoon, we left our ship and boarded a smaller ferry for a trip up a smaller canyon.

I saw these small wooden boats that looked like they would be safe for about 2 people.

 And then they loaded 15 of us in each boat!  And that's besides the 5 crew members.

They're called "pea pod" boats for obvious reasons.

 The men rowed with these rustic wooden oars that looked inefficient,

but we got where we were supposed to go.

One of the controversial aspects of the Three Gorges Reservoir is that many of the

people displaced were minorities.  But this minority group has found

a great way to make a living--rowing tourists.

It's probably as good a living as most here in China. 

Victoria Cruise, Three Gorges

As we arrived at the riverside at dusk, it became evident that the city of Chongqing takes tourism seriously.

All the surrounding high-rises had sailing ships outlined in lights and the

dinner tour boats were glitzy.  Our boat is the calmer one in the middle.  

 A Chinese band played Sousa to welcome us as we came on board.  A bit surreal!

 Glitz.  Comfort.  The Victoria "Selina".

 After the first night sailing down the river--which is actually a reservoir--we stopped at 

"The City of Ghosts" Feng Du.  A temple complex on Ming Mountain 

portrays many Buddhist ideas on the afterlife.  

It was fun having my sister Terry with us.

It drizzled and drizzled.

 I mentioned that the cruise through the Three Gorges is actually on a reservoir formed by the

Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.  It's a controversial project, as a few million people had to relocate and reservoirs fill up with silt (especially this one as the Yangtze River carries a lot of silt).

On the positive side, there is hydroelectricity--which China needs desperately and the devastating flooding is a thing of the past.  With some of the major floods of the 1900's, hundreds of thousands of people died.

At this time of year, the reservoir is not full, awaiting the spring run-off, and hence

we had a lot of steps down to the quay.

 Our cabin--very comfortable!

 The full-line is visible.  Homes have been built to relocate people. 

There is a tomb built right at the water line--relocated as well.

 The first gorge.  Absolutely breathtaking!  

And this picture is the same as is on the 10 RMB note (Chinese currency).

As we approached, all the rain stopped and we had a great view.

 A hydrofoil passed by like we were standing still.

 Over the past few thousand years, holes in the cliffs have been used for burials.

A plank is wedged in, then the small box laid on it--I'm unsure whether it was the ashes from a cremation (as is usual here) or the actual body.  These caves would have been incredibly inaccessible when the water used to be at river-level.  No one knows how they did it!

Entering into the second gorge, and the rain came again.  Not hard rain, just constant drizzle.

Not the cruise yet!

I know... this is supposed to be about the cruise, but I still had some photos to share from

Chongqing.

 After the pollution-filled skies of Tianjin, we were looking forward to clear skies--after all, the pollution index showed a consistently low number (around 50, compared to 250 plus). 

What we found was a foggy haze.   

 We climbed the tower so we could see over all the city but couldn't see very far in any direction.

 The tower was part of E Ling park ("e" means duck).  We enjoyed exploring.

 At the Old Town, we found silk from cocoons being wound onto spools.  The cocoons were floating in water and just bobbed around as the nearly invisible thread was pulled out. The shop also had some beautiful scarves and blouses.  Too expensive for my taste!

 I've never before thought of the commonality between feet and ears, but evidently Lee has!

 In our area of China, baskets and shoulder yokes aren't common at all, but they were in Chongqing.

We bought strawberries from one man selling from his baskets.

The berries were delicious--after we triple-washed them.

We didn't want to take a chance on spoiling our cruise with food poisoning.

Before the Cruise...

We are getting more used to the holiday schedule here in China.  And having a sister with the BYU Kennedy Center teachers gives us an in with the tours they plan for those holidays.  So off we went to Chongqing (used to be called Chungking) for the Tomb-sweeping holiday, April 4.

And true to Chinese fashion, in order to make more of a single day, the government declares a 3-day holiday but two of those days have to be made up on the next Saturday and Sunday. 

  

 In theTianjin airport (which is a nice airport, by the way), I wondered what was exactly meant by "kiss n bake"?  Kiss the proprietor, and she'll bake cookies for you?

 It's a bit over 2 hours' flight to Chongqing, but what a difference!  

Tianjin was still just thinking about spring coming, but it was already well under way in Chongqing.

I love spring breaks that actually help you enjoy spring.

Next to our hotel was an elementary school.  Chinese students gather for exercising instead of recess.

There is music and they sing along and do calisthenics, and their rows are absolutely straight!

These kids were SO cute! 

 We went a day early to do a bit of exploring on our own before the cruise began.

We rode the subway (6 RMB a ticket=$1.00) and visited a very old Buddhist Temple.

The old architecture amidst a very young and vibrant city was such a stark contrast;

wood versus glass and steel.  

 In one section of the temple, I was startled to see this emblem.

Then I began to realize it was incorporated a lot in the Buddhist themes.

Someone said it isn't the same as a swastika--it's pointing a different direction.

 Kevin certainly seemed to enjoy the holiday, to Alice's chagrin.

Chongqing was the home base of the Flying Tigers, a World War II group of volunteer pilots who flew supplies in to help the Chinese fight against the Japanese, and they flew in over "The Hump"--the Himalayan mountains!  It was daring and dangerous.  An average of 15 planes a month were lost.

Kevin decided that he looks like General Stilwell. 

 And who would have thought that we'd find U.S. Army jeeps in China?

 Then we went to a market area next to another Buddhist temple.

I couldn't get the little boy to look at me, but I loved the child seat!

 We stocked up on some nuts and other snacks for the cruise,

and for 3 RMB (about 45 cents), Alice got a dense cotton candy flying saucer-looking thing.

Our cruise began at 8:30 pm, so we had a nice Chinese meal arranged by the tour,

and looked around downtown.  Alice mentioned wanting to see New York City someday,

and we said "it isn't be very much different from what you are looking at right now."