Asian Adventure - Chongqing

Darryl woke me early to look at some gorges we were going through, so I took some photos, but ended up going back to sleep. 

A young student came to have a photo taken with us and to talk to us, and she brought an older girl who spoke better English. They are all very friendly. With the train leaving late we also arrived late in Chongqing. The guide was Sue and she collected us and took us first to look at Ciqikou Ancient City, which used to be a famous area for making the blue and white Chinese pottery that we know. Now it is all little shops selling goods and food. It was quite interesting, but we also could have almost paid for our trip if we charged for each time people wanted a photo with us. 

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Chongqing is the largest city in China (perhaps the world) with 42 million people, but the smog isn't as bad as that in Beijing. Because the smog isn't as bad, you can see how big the place is. It has the confluence of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River. Because there were a lot of hills and mountains here, we didn't see any bikes or electric bikes, and the motorcyclists mostly had helmets.

We then went to a delicious lunch at a riverside restaurant. Once again we had Kungpo Chicken, which was really lovely and spicy, Black Pepper Beef and boiled cabbage. There was also a tomato and egg soup which I wasn't really taken by. Little cakes and jelly was served, which Darryl scored. 

The guide was then going to take us into the city to look at shops, but we weren't interested and talked her into taking us to a garden, (Eling Gardens), which was on the top of a mountain. There was a great view of the river and city from the top, and lots of interesting plants, although it was pretty hot and humid. 

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We were then dropped down to the ship “Victoria Grace” for our cruise of the Yangtze River. We were quite early, so had an easy start. We went up to the club to share a Screwdriver and Pina Colada. It turns out that there are only 5 Europeans on the cruise, the others are Americans, Bob, Carol and Joanne, so we had our own special safety briefing. The Americans have the expensive suites, so we have been told to go to the executive dining suite for our meals. Our snacks were finished off as we waited in our cabin for the cruise to start at 9pm.

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