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 Yangtze River Cruise* | Xi'an and Beijing
Xi'an and Beijing

The trip from the afternoon of September 19, 2001 - 24, 2001

September 19, 2001: WEDNESDAY: CHONGQING - XI'AN

We got off the ship at Chongqing and had to walk up some stairs on a steep bank. I had two Chinese men on each side of me that I kept telling "no, I don't need any help". I finally convinced them and got up the steps under my own power. We didn't see many bicyles here...the area is too mountianous. We went to see the World War 11 memorabilia at the Stillwell Museum. We saw a island in the river that has a landing strip still on it that was used by the famous "Flying Tigers. Next was an actobatic show performed by kids 7 to 18 yrs old. Three teenage girls and a 7 year old...it was the 7 year old that was the key performer. Another excellent performance was a young man probably about 18. Now we go to another free market place. We then flew to Xi'an. When we got off the plane it was 54 degrees and raining.

September 20, 2001: THURSDAY: XI'AN

Today the temperature was about 64 degrees. We traveled by bus quite a distance to see the Terra-Cotta warriors. These warriors were buried for 2,200 years and a man digging a well in 1974 discovered the first of these statues. They are life size and they all look different. They are a legion of warriors to protect an emporer in his tomb. They were put in in rows along with horses and wagons but the wagons were made of woods and those have rotted away. Then there were logs put over the top of these statues. At one time enemies tried to destroy this and set part of it on fire. Some of the statues have been damaged. We saw statues without any heads, some of them were cracked, pieces missing. Now there is a building over all of this. Next was the Circle Vision Movie of a battle and a museum.

SILKWORMS

The female moth can lay 300 eggs. They hatch and they eat Mulberry leaves continuously until they are 25 days old and then they start building a cacoon. Once the cacoon is built, the farmer takes the cacoon. Then they bake them, and sort them. A cacoon that has a spot on it will be discarded. At the silk spinning factories they put these cacoons in water until the silk thread comes off the cacoon. Then the women attach the thread to a spool until all the thread is off. Then they remove the empty cacoon from the water. There are many spools that this thread is being wound on. To make a silk thread they use several of these strands of silk. There are different qualities of silk thread.

September 21, 2001: FRIDAY; XI'AN - BEIJING

We flew from Xi'an to Beijing. Beijing is the capital of China. A very new ( it has all been built in the last 10 years), modern city.

PAPER AND FLOWER RINGS: The paper rings are for funerals and the flower rings are for weddings.

COLORS FOR THE BRIDE AND GROOM: The bride would be dressed in red and the groom would be dressed in green.

September 22, 2001: SATURDAY: BEIJING

We had a very big day on this day. Next went to Tian An Men Square where we had a group picture taken. Then it was on to Forbitten City which is a very large place. Up until recently the Chinese people were not allowed to go here. This was just for the emperor, his wife and comubines, and staff. It has 9,999 rooms. If you have ever been to Epcot in the Chinese section, there is a reproduction of the buildings there. I have seen pictures of this and I thought that there was only one building but you see this building and when you go around it there is another and another. This places takes up acres and acres. We couldn't go into the buildings but you could look through the door and see the inside, the thrones, the bedroom of the emperor (which was being cleaned), and we went through the jewerly musuem. We went to the summer palace, the Tower of Heaven, (built in 1420), Silk Alley,(which is a very big market) and to Lake Kunming. At this lake we saw a marble boat that a emporer's wife had built when she was suppose to be building a navy for China. Then we took a boat ride across the lake...some of the boats were "Dragon Boats...the front of the boat have a dragon's head and the back it's tail. By this time it was windy and getting cool. On the lakes that we went to, many of them had lotus flowers on them. Huge leaves and pink flowers, you can't even see the water because of the flowers. Several times we were served lotus roots at meals. After supper, 9 of us went to a Beijing opera. The other four went back to the hotel to meet a man that they had as a tour guide on 3 previous trips to China. The opera was different, English sub-title on a screen on either side of the stage...high pitched, squeeky singing, dancing with swords and acrobatics. After we got back to the hotel Ron went swimming, to the hot tub, the steam bath with another man from our group. In the corner of the pool area there was two Chinese guys playing ping pong so Ron asked if he could play a game with them. He wasn't as good a player as they were but he enjoyed the fact that he played this game in China.

September 23, 2001: SUNDAY: BEIJING

We went to the Great Wall of China. At one time China was divided and the wall was built to protect the boundries. When China was then all one country the walls were connected. We climbed a section of the wall. It was very interesting but so commerical...the vendors, the crowds, the wires and the lights spoiled it for me. We went to the Ming Tombs...there is a beautiful walkway there with stone animals linning the way. Then the Chen Ling Exhibition Hall. We had Beijing duck for dinner but it was terrible. They sliced it and put in a wanton wrapper. The skin on the duck had a thick layer of fat on it and it was tough. Only a little bit of eatibile meat in it. After supper Ron and I went swimming and to the steam room before going to bed.

September 24, 2001: DAY 16: MONDAY

We were supposed to get up at 5:00am and have our bags outside our door at 6:00 but Ron knocked the alarm clock off the night stand and we got up at 6:15. We hurried around, got dressed and ran down to breakfast because we were suppose to leave the hotel at 7:00 for the airport, which was about 40 minutes away. Our flight back to the USA was for 9:40 and we had to check in and go through all the passport checks and etc. By that time it was time to board the plane. We had a 3 hour flight to Tokyo. As we approached Japan we looked out of the plane window and could see Mount Fuji very plainly. We had a hour lay over before we had to get back on the plane so we walked around the airport terminal. I got a pin with Mt. Fuji on it. And then a 11 hour flight back to Detroit. Got our bags and my son, Scott was there to take us home. No problems....good flight, interesting trip.