Trip of a Lifetime - Day 15

After breakfast this morning we received our final instructions about disembarking tomorrow morning. We then came back to our cabin and started to pack. We still have a week left here in China but today is our last full day on the Yangtze :-(

Today we will tour Mt. Jiu Hua. I found it to be interesting that the buses were painted saffron and that is the official color of the local monk's clothing. Coincidence?? I don't think so! Mt. Jiu Hua is one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains. Due to it's importance in the Buddhist religion, it has attracted many pilgrims and a large number of temples have been built in this vicinity. We visited the 200 year old Zhan Chan Lin Temple with it's gold plated and wooden statues and Qiyuan Temple, the largest of the sacred Jiu Hua temples. There are 86 temples here, 6800 Buddhist statues and 700 Buddhist monks and nuns on this one mountain. The incense burners were both large and are also very elaborate and magnificent. In their religion they burn incense to offer their prayers to Buddha. In the Anglican liturgy, we also use incense at a high mass. When it's used at one of our services, we jokingly call it Holy Smoke.

This old monk had a perpetual smile on his face as he was collecting the money for purchases of incense, and they sold a lot!

One Chinese phrase that we learned a little late was Bu Yao. This means "I don't want it" or "I don't need it". We didn't use this with the monks, but it would have come in very handy with the "Hello, Hello" people. If you say this to them they will leave you alone.

We had a Chinese farewell dinner tonight and it was lovely. We also had music with dinner and it was a very grand affair. We were served all sorts of Chinese specialties and it was a real challenge to try some of them, but for the most part they were delicious. Since I am already packed for an early departure tomorrow, I won't be wearing my new Chinese clothes that I had made. It's much easier this way. Besides, I think I'll save the black outfit for our show at the Fort Worth Petroleum Club where the members of my painting group, Canvas by Canvas, were invited to show our paintings in a few weeks.

We plan on passing out extra gratuities tonight to the people who gave us special attention on this cruise. They include Elaine, Randy and Shelly, our servers in the dining room. You don't have assigned seating on this cruise, but these young people were so nice to us that we sat at their table most every meal on board.

Then there were the three young men in the bar who took very good care of us. I have photos of two of them, but somehow never took a shot of the third one. Here is Frank with the bar manager, Colin, and this is Ben. He's the one that said that I reminded him of his grandmother. And of course there's Helen, our precious tour guide. She worked SO hard to make sure that everyone was comfortable and happy. She went those extra miles to take care of us, so everyone took extra good care of her. Speaking of Helen, I forgot to mention that a little something extra special that she did for us was to sign our books that we bought at the Great Wall with our names in Chinese. It makes a wonderful remembrance of that day that seems like it happened SOOO long ago.

She will be with us for the rest of the trip so we won't have to say goodbye to her until we get to Hong Kong.

We'll be off of the boat for good tomorrow and on our way to Shanghai. Whenever I hear the name of this city, I think of the movie "Thoroughly Modern Millie". If you remember Beatrice Lillie who played the role of Mrs. Meers who ran the boarding house for women, you'll remember that she sold the girls into "white slavery" and they were taken to Shanghai. Unfortunately I'm too old for anyone to want to buy me, so I'll be safe. I might add that I never got pinched on any of our trips to Italy either :-(

Since we'll be off of the river now for the rest of the trip, be sure to keep reading to find out what happened to us on the land. Things just keep getting better and better.

Pcasso

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 14

Today may have been one of the longest ones in a few days but it has been extremely interesting. I'm glad that I have taken so many photographs because it would be very difficult to describe all the territory that we cover each day. Totaled, I shot over 6,000 images on this trip but not to worry ... you don't have to see them all. However, try to imagine me trying to sort through them as I write this to make sure I have the right image in the right spot. It's a bit of a chore but I consider it to be a labor of love.

Our local guide for our trip to Jingdezhens name was Jerry

and he was the silliest person I've been around in a long time... including our Grandboys! He talked constantly and thought he was Jerry Lewis with the corny jokes that he told. He was trying so hard, though, that you couldn't help but like him and appreciate his efforts. All of our guides have been very knowledgeable and want you to get all the information that they can give you.

The bus ride to the porcelain factory in Jingdezhen took a little over two hours. The scenery was beautiful, so that made the time pass more quickly. The roads, even though they were major roads, were very rough and our bus didn't have very good shocks. It was an older vehicle since this was a small city and they get the used buses as I stated in a previous blog.

The countryside was beautiful and we were able to watch local farmer at work picking cotton, harvesting rice and sesame seeds and making their fields ready for the next crop. There were many cows and water buffalo in the rice paddies and on the farms. The rural life is exactly as I expected it to be. What a treat to be able to witness it first hand!

At the factory we watched the porcelain being made, fired and painted. I got some wonderful shots of the people working and couldn't wait to be able to see them on my computer once I get back home. Here's a little sample of what they were doing.

Jingdezhen, as the world-famed ceramic capital, used to be called Chang Nan town. Legend has it that "Chang Nan" was actually mispronounced and that was where the word of "China" came from. This town has a long history of the making of ceramics and a rich cultural heritage. From the Yuan to the Ming and Qing Dynasties emperors sent their officials to Jingdezhen to supervise the manufacture of royal porcelain. They set up the Porcelain Office and built the royal kiln, which produced many wonderful ceramic articles. Among them were the four classic decorations: blue and white, family rose, rice- pattern and color glaze. The porcelain made there enjoys the praise of being as white as jade, as thin as paper, as sounding as a bell and as bright as a mirror.

I took a little break in a lovely grove of bamboo before we headed back to the bus. As I sat there I was able to look at this wonderful and cool looking scenery. They were a welcomed sight as it is very warm today. We went to a very nice hotel for another Chinese style lunch, then on to a marketplace in town. There were lots of street vendors as well as stores where you could buy porcelain and souvenirs. We finally got back on the bus for the long ride home. I had no idea that my bladder could last as long as it did on that bumpy road without a pit stop!

Later in the evening they showed us a preview of the trip video that the photographer has taken of our adventures thus far. It was wonderful and covers the trip very well. I'm so glad that I ordered one. We also had some music before the video was shown. Look at this little girl's shoes! They must have made her at least 6 inches taller.

Our dinner tonight was delicious and very special. It is lobster night and they did a super job preparing it. It was our reward for the long bus ride ;-)

After dinner I picked up the clothes that I had ordered and the little tailor and his workers were still working away to meet all of their deadlines. Here is one of the jackets that I had made. You'll be seeing a lot of it. It has been a long day (bus trip days always are) so we were in bed early. In the words of Karen Carpenter, "We've Only Just Begun", so keep tuned. Only a week or so to go!

Pcasso

Check out my Slide Show!

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 13

What a day today has turned out to be. This is Day 13 and that has always been a lucky number for me. I was born on the 13th day of the month and good things seem to happen to me on that day. Today was no exception! The 2007 China Hunan Tourism Festival was about to begin! We left the boat very early as there were special buses waiting for our group ... seven of them. We had a police escort in front of us as well as in back. After we had traveled for several miles, we started noticing that there was NO traffic anywhere as we started into the town. The authorities had cleared the streets of all cars, carts and bicycles in order not to slow down the honored guests at this event ... US! We were all wearing our hats, shirts and badges that they had give us for this event, and we walked the final 3 blocks....all 262 of us, with literally thousands and thousands of Chinese looking at us. They had never seen that many Caucasians in one group before. They were even up in the trees watching so they could get a good look at us. It was a very exciting time! There was lots of activity outside the main entrance and we watched the dragon dancers and listened to the music.

Once we were inside, we got settled and were waiting for the Opening Ceremony to begin. As we were sitting there, we started to hear this weird, swooshing noise and suddenly realized that something was very wrong. The crowds outside were starting to get out of control and started pushing down the barriers.

They had to bring in extra military enforcements to try to keep them under control.

I have to admit that it was very frightening. We had nowhere to go and there were hundreds of us and thousands of them!

Once the ones who could had pushed their way inside, they were very quiet and orderly. We were later told that all they really wanted was to be able to see the show. Unfortunately, only the few in the front could actually see as they are all about the same height and they couldn't see over one another.

The ceremony itself was spectacular. I would have to liken it to an opening of the Olympics on a smaller scale. I can only imagine what Beijing will be like next year at their opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics. I'm sure that it will be mind-boggling. The Chinese know how to do things right!
I have decided to put a slide show in the following blog. I took so many photos that I would like for you to see that I think this may be the easiest way to go about it. Don't worry .. there aren't TOO many. If you click on "View All Images" at the bottom right hand corner of the slide show, you can see it full screen with captions.

After the Ceremony was over, we pushed our way through I don't know how many people to get back to our buses which were MANY blocks away. I think you can see by the expression on my face how I felt about that time of day. I was hot, tired and very thirsty.

I might add that there were probably as many people gathered together and as MANY police officers at one time and in one place than I will see again in my lifetime. It's still hard to imagine and I was there!

We took it easy the rest of the day and then went upstairs to take advantage of cocktail hour. We made a point of being in the dining room at 6:00 p.m. since a special table was reserved for us so we could celebrate our new friend, Helen Lassley's birthday. After dinner the staff sang Happy Birthday to her and served her a special birthday cake with champagne for everyone.

The walking and the excitement this morning at the festival was very strenuous for me ( we covered over 2 miles in very crowded conditions) so I decided to take it easy the rest of the evening as we have a very long day tomorrow.

Several asides that I found to be very interesting. The Chinese call Americans either "Long Nose" or White Ghost" (they call the Japanese "Short Nose"). I made the comment that it would really be funny if we had had those false noses with the glasses to wear to the Ceremony and believe it or not ... look a "Hello, Hello" person was selling the very next day! I seem to always be a day late and a dollar short :-(

In the #1 cities you can only own a car for so long and then they must be passed on and sold to the #2 cities for resale. The same goes for the buses. The cities are rated by the number of people that live there .. the larger the city, the higher the priority.

Stay tuned as the plot thickens.

Pcasso