Saturday March 28th…
We started the day with a buffet breakfast, a little mixture of western and Chinese food. It was a rainy day so we were less than excited to watch the view pass by from the sun deck so instead we went to a massage/acupuncture demonstration. They talked about main pressure points, it was interesting to hear but I wouldn’t recommend that anyone rush to hear it. After the demonstration I took a shower and fell asleep watching the view pass by from our open balcony doors.
I was only asleep for a short while before it was time to wake up and eat lunch. Lunches and dinners were Chinese food. They were good. Most of the food was more American Chinese food rather than traditional Chinese food, but it was still delicious.
After lunch we headed out for our first excursion. We stopped in Fengdu. From the dock we could see where the old city of Fengdu was in rubble and mostly under the rising Yangtze waters. The new city was built high on the hill. Many cities just like Fengdu had to be relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam. Most of them were just built higher on the hill but some of them crossed over to the other bank of the Yangtze. Millions of people have been relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam Project, but many have been given better housing accommodations than what they had. The down fall is that most of those people were farmers and now there farm land is underwater and they are not trained in any other profession so they are struggling for jobs.
In Fengdu we climbed many stairs to reach the Temple of the Emperor of Hell, also known as the Ghost City. This is where people were judged to determine if they were going to heaven or hell. The difference in China is that hell is high on top of the mountain and heaven is down low. Also the myth goes that all ghosts from all over the world end up on this mountain area. The weather was rainy so it really obstructed what would have been a great view.
After the excursion we got back on the ship and dried off/warmed up and changed and then headed to the Captains welcome dinner. After dinner there was evening entertainment by the staff. They did a few different dances from around the world and a short skit. It was cute Chinese entertainment. After the entertainment was over we all danced for a short while to songs such as the YMCA, the macaraina, and the chicken dance…it was a lot of fun dancing too all of these songs with the Chinese people on board. It was very entertaining.
After all of the entertainment was over the 5 of us cracked open a few beers and eventually headed to the sundeck since the rain had subsided. It was super cold with the additional wind from the moving ship but we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately there was cloud cover so we were unable to see the stars. We stayed up there just talking, joking and laughing for a few hours; it was a great night!
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