China Suzhou

One day while in Shanghai we took an optional day tour by bus up to the beautiful city of Suzhou.

 The main attraction here was a boat ride on the famous Grand Canal of China.

 Suzhou is called the Venice of the East and features canals all through the city like streets.

 The guides propelled the boats by long poles along the narrow canals of the legendary Grand Canal. and it was a peaceful and beautifully scenic boat ride, but did not last very long.

 Afterwards we go to stroll down the Pingjiang Road alongside the canal and visit the tourist shops and enjoy lunch at a local restaurant with our tour group.

 We toured the Garden of the Master of the Nets next, a very wealthy rich man's estate with his own pond surrounded by open rooms of the estate on all sides.

 Inside one of the rooms.

 Across the pond you can see various room that make up the estate.  Each room had it's own building, but most did not have wall, just patios and porches.

Round windows were build to frame especially beautiful scenes.  The estates a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

China Old Shanghai

Back in Shanghai we visited the Old Quarter of town on our last day there.

Here we saw some of the ancient Chinese archecture like we had been expecting, rather than the modern skyscrapers of the business district of Shanghai where they took us first.

We enjoyed walking around browsing in the shops and ate lunch there.

We visited the Yuyuan Garden in the Old Quarter. It was also built around a pond by a rich administrator in the ancient government of China for his father.

It was very beautiful.  The rich homes go all out incorporating ponds and trees and rock scenery.

Dragon carvings on the roofs.

Each room was a separate building.

Jacquelyn on one of the balcony overlooks.  Afterwards we took a flight to Yichang and then a bus to the port for boarding on a river cruise.

China Yangtze River Cruise and Tujia Tribe

We next started the river cruise portion of our tour on the famous Yangtze River.

 This is the  Victoria Sophia, our cruise ship.  It was one of the older cruise lines but our tour guide said it was known for the best hospitality and service.

 The Yangtze River is the longest river in china and the third longest river in the world.  It flows through impressive gorges and large parts of China.  Three fourths of the population of China lives along the river, along large parts of the journey is through sparsely inhabited countryside then to very large cities.  The river provided the main means of transportation between these huge cities.

 Communist Chinese flag flying from the back of the cruise ship.  Most of the passengers were Chinese tourists rather than foreign tourists like in the past.

 The first off shore excursion was the Tribe of the Three Gorges tour, which was offered by the ship and not Gate 1.

 The Tujia Tribe lived along this tributary river and they met visitors while dressed in traditional tribal costumes.

 A single female waiting for her suitor in the traditional manner on a small boat.

 Jacquelyn and I were the only non-Chinese speaking people on the tour so we got our own private English speaking tour guide.

 We walked along a boardwalk next to the tributary river amidst the bamboo and ferns.

 They used birds to help fish.  The birds had ropes tied to their legs.  They would dive down and catch fish for the fishermen.

 At the tribal village center they put on a show, which was a traditional wedding ceremony.

 They picked someone out of the audience to play the groom, which was me, the only foreigner in the audience.

 Me alongside my bride and bridesmaids.

At the end of the show.  This was faked because actually I was a lot closer to the screen, but it looked like we were kissing.  Jacquelyn though it was funny.

China Three Gorges Dam

The next stop was the Three Gorges Dam, one of a series of dams that the Chinese have build along the river.

 The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest hydroelectric dam in the world.  In addition to producing electricity, it was constructed to increase shipping capacity along the Yangtze River and also to control flooding.

 We took an optional tour to see it up close.  We hiked up a peak near the dam to see it from a vantage point.  This is a view of the locks where ships pass through.

 And we took a smaller ship up through the dam's ship elevator.  It was very interesting.

A view of the dam a dusk.

China Wu and Qutang Gorges and White Emperor City

Continuing along the river through the Wu and Qutang Gorges.

 Beautiful cliffs along both sides of the boat as we traveled down the river.

 It was fun to stand along the rail and take in the sights.   This area was not inhabited by people.

 We did see wild baboons once.

 Large peaks.  The water was emerald green.

 Wild mountain goats.

 Some hanging coffins.

 We had a stop and a tour up the Shannong Stream and a at the native village a show.

 China is 95% Han by ethnicity but the do have several minority tribes.  Many live along the river.

 We spent several nights on the cruise.  Misty weather at times.

 We we on another guided tour by the ship and this time there were four of us foreigners.  Again we had our own tour guide.

 This was at the White Emperor City, also known as the City of Poems, renowned for being a resort where famous Chinese poets went to contemplate nature and write poetry.  In Chinese the ancient poets were national celebrities.

 They had huge statues commemorating the poets.

 Jacquelyn in a lion guarded gateway to the city, called

 It was also a place of conflict where many historical battles were fought.

 Guanxing Pavilion.

 In the Tuogu Hall, a scene depicting Liu Bei entrusting his son and the who country to a famous prime minister Zhuge Liang.  Liu Bei was the first king of the Shu Kingdom and was defeated by the Wu Kingdom.  He retreated to the White Emperor City.  He became ill and his son was too young to govern, so he entrusted Zhuge Liang, who became very famous for his loyalty and integrity.

 Beautiful rock garden.  We saw this several times in China.  They bring in interesting rock formations to make a center piece of their garden.

 Me and a view from the top.

 Jacquelyn and a view from the top.

Both of us.  As you can tell, I really liked this view.