In September 2007 we went on a two week guided tour of China, stopping in Beijing, Xian, Li River, Three Gorges and Shanghai.
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Favourite Days
While almost everyday of the trip was great and I encourage you to look at them all, these are the ones I consider the most memorable.
If you click on the picture you will be taken the post for the day
 Great Wall |  Temple of Heaven |  Li River |  Three Gorges |
All in all it was a great trip. We saw some amazing sights. It was great having our our driver and guide each place. Unlike a bus tour we could at least somewhat control what we did and the time we did it in.
The food was the huge disappointment. We are used to what we can get in Toronto, which is great. Here we seemed to get the same meal every time. Vegetable rice, cabbage or bok choy, a fish in sauce and some sort of meat. We did have some good meals and the food on the cruise was pretty good.
The other problem was that we seemed to be the poor cousin as we always seemed to get the absolute worst table in the restaurants. It may be that since we were just a tour group of 2 that we really didn’t count but it got really annoying and sure put a damper on any hope of enjoying a meal.
It would also have been nice if we could have gotten a detailed itinerary beforehand. What we got just listed the major places and sights we would go to. If we had known more we could have used the guide books and internet to figure out exactly what we wanted and didn’t want to see.
We certainly could have done without some of the factory “tours”. A few were actually interesting but most just wanted you in the gift shop. It was especially annoying when we had to travel a long way out of our way to go to them.
Looking back it seems like we had some really long days but we saw an awful lot of stuff and we don’t think we would have wanted to go slower since that would have meant more days and much more cost.
Today we were picked up and taken to the airport for our long flight through Chicago to home.
You can see the shadow of our plane on the clouds.
We were ready to go at around 9 but looking at our itinerary for the day we decided to lighten it a bit and cross the Children’s Museum off the list.
We first went to the Jade Buddha temple. There was lots of incense, praying and prayer ribbons.
An interesting drum.
When we finally got to the Jade Buddha, there was a big crowd so Stuart popped his camera up over his head for a picture. Then the crowd cleared to show the sign saying “NO Photography”. Oh well.
Next we went to the Bund, which is a famous shopping and business are along the waterfront. The building were a very weird mix of very old and very new. We just walked along the boardwalk.
Across the river is all brand new buildings, with a lot of very tall ones dominated by the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
We think this was a mynah bird and Jennie had fun talking to it.
Next it was off to the Shanghai museum. It was a beautiful building.
We had screwed up Aaron’s schedule so we didn’t have a lot of time here but we are not big museum fans anyway. He stayed down in the lobby while we looked around. It didn’t take long before we were bored.
Lots of static displays.
Next was a long drive across town to lunch and another “tour” of a silk factory. Lunch was another duplicate of every other lunch and dinner we have had. Edible but not enjoyable.
This is the machine they used to use to get the silk off the silkworms.
When we were on the tour the room was full of women and the machine was running. Once we were in the gift shop Stuart poked his head back in to see that, as usual, it was all for show. Everything in the gift shop was too pricey for our taste.
Back across town we go to the Garden of Mandarin Yu Yuan. We saw this building being renovated using all bamboo scaffolding.
Again Aaron is trying to hurry us but we took our time as the garden was so interesting and beautiful.
We loved this dragon than ran across the top of the fence.
There was amazing detail everywhere. Notice the horseman on the rooftop.
Outside we couldn’t escape modern life.
Dinner was another in a long line of clones. Almost exactly the same dishes everywhere.
We were booked to see an acrobat show tonight but we had a bit of time to wander the well lit shopping district.
The acrobat show was actually very entertaining. We didn't get any good shots because it was kind of dark and they were moving very quickly.
In the morning we go for a tour of the Dam area. It was quite the busy place
The dam is more than a mile wide. It is hard to sense how big it is. Each of those boxes on the cranes is the size of a small house.
A very slow line to an observation platform.
Looking back towards the locks.
We got back on the boat to go a bit farther down the river to Yichang. We got there around 11 and were met by another guide and driver just to take us to the local airport for the flight to Shanghia. The flight wasn’t supposed to leave until around 5 but there wasn’t much else to do around here. They tried to take us on another “tour” of an embroidery factory but we declined. We just asked to be taken to the airport and so we could just veg for a while.
Unfortunately there was a typhoon near Shanghia and all the flights going that way were delayed.
It made for a very long afternoon and evening but the flight finally left at 11:30pm.
Our new guide, Aaron was there at the airport at 1:30 am to take us to our hotel.
In the morning we got into what is left of the three gorges. They are still impressive but it would have been so much better before the dam and when the water was 100’s of feet lower.
The sun started to come out and it made for some interesting effects.
An interesting hydrofoil working its way up the river.
In the afternoon we all disembarked and got on these smaller boats for a tour up a side river called the “Little Three Gorges”.
The bands of dead vegetation at the river side show how much the water level changes through the year as they adjust the flow through the dam. See how tiny the boat looks below.
One of the “hanging coffins” high up on the cliff face.
This rock looked like an elephants head.
Another relocated town high up on a hill.
When the river got too shallow for these boat we got off and then onto large canoes to continue on.
They paddled for a while.
Then it got even more embarrassing. They got out and started hauling us up river with ropes. We felt very stupid sitting there in our life jackets underneath our sun shade.
The guy in charge.
The guide and guy at the rudder even sang on the way back.
Onwards, back on the main river.
Our first view of the dam.
We didn’t have to wait very long before it was out turn to go through the locks.
Lock full
Lock down.
It took us until well after dark to get through all 6 locks before we were out the other side.
Finally tied up for the night.
