Friday 14th October 2016. 9.15 from our cabin on the Victoria Jenna on the Xiling Gorge on the Yangtze 
River waiting to go up through the locks into the Three Gorges Dam. This is my first trip ever on a big cruise ship and I can see how people get hooked. It is very comfortable. I got up this morning for the Tai Chi class. This happens each morning.
On Tuesday morning in Beijing I went for a walk after breakfast to stretch my legs before our flight to Xian to see the terra cotta warriors. I was noting the streets and landmarks very carefully as I went so as not to get lost, and then I spied a church spire. I crossed the road and turned down the street. The large church gates were closed but I pus
hed and one opened. It was St Michael’s and All Angels a Catholic Church. The door to the church was open so I went in and though. A service was in progress, mass and beautifully sung in Chinese. There was a decent size congregation, mostly elderly. I could only stay 15 minutes before I was due to head back, and the service finished at just the right time and I headed for home. I looked it up and it was built in 9001 by French Jesuit’s. It was empty during the Cultural Revolution but not destroyed and opened again in the 80’s.
The terra cotta Warriors are amazing. They were built in the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) over the lifetime of the emperor Qin Shihuang to protect him on his journey to heaven. This grew out of the 
tradition of the real life retinue of the Emperor being sacrificed at his funeral to accompany him to the afterlife. Qin (pronounced Chin) is where China gets its Name. He became emperor aged 13, and ordered the building of the Great Wall that year. (The wall was added to through many other dynasties) . The next year he ordered the creation of the warriors. During his life he united 7 large provinces to become the first federation of China. He died in his fifties; a long life for an Emperor of that time. As we heard his history I kept remembering Solomon. The emperor’s son succeeded him but he was not a good Emperor and his father’s building of the wall and warriors had been costly for the nation. His reign only lasted 2 years and the federation of states fell apart. How extraordinary that the warriors were unearthed in the 1970’s and became such a point of worldwide interest they brought China back into communication. Many nations made donations and provided expertise to restore not only the terracotta warriors but also a section of the Great Wall of China attracting millions of tourists each year, including this year me. Fascinating that the Adolescent Emperor should have put into action these two massive projects that still have impact today. It shows some wisdom that he was thinking about his mortality and afterlife at such a young age.
The things I am missing are gmail and facebook. These are not available in China so I am missing sharing my photos easily with friends and family.
There is so much to do and see here. Our guides assure us that October is the most comfortable month of the year. They have short Autumn and Spring and long Summers and Winters a bit like Swan Hill really. We are very lucky.
Saturday 15th October on the Victoria Jemma. We have left the third gorge, which is the smallest and most majestic gorge now and we are waiting for the group who went on the White Emperor City. Last night we had a Chinese Dynasties Show by the Cruise Staff, of traditional Costumes from various regions and eras of China. I certainly could get used to this cruise life. It is very easy to take.
Sunday 16th October, 
Last night w
e had a visit from boat traders with a very ingenious system for exchanging goods. Their poles can reach right up to the 4th level.
This morning we went on an excursion to the Red Pagoda, a very famous landmark that is featured on one of the bank notes. The Pagoda is actually a covered stairway up to the temple on top of the mountain. Only the peak is above the water now. There were 100 steps up, large steps almost ladder like so Judy let me go on my own.
There was a great view down from the top level, a
nd in the photo you can see our cruise boat, the out one, we had to walk through the second cruise boat berthed there to get to shore. You can also see the rocking bridge we had to cross to get to the Red Pagoda. It was an experience in itself, not too bad if there weren’t too many crossing at the one time, but there were a few times when it really lurched about. If you click on the photos you can see them close up.
This is the original mudbrick farm house of the people who didn’t need to relocate. That is wood and kindling stacked all around the house, what with thatching on the roof it wouldn’t do very well in a bush fire prone area. You can see the large brick house in the background you can see the large 3 story brick house of the farmers who were paid compensation for relocating.
Looking down from the top of the relocated farmer’s house. This isn’t all his land but rather a communal farming area.
In the yard , the old and the new. Some very nice harvested sweet potatoes, and the satellite dish in the background.
Grinding corn. A few people had a go, but it was harder than it looked.
Selling food at the farmer’s market.
It is a pity the vendor moved just as I was taking the shot but what a marvelous selection of fungi.
We have just been for an optional excursion to the house of a relocated farmer. He was paid compensation for moving and now has a large 3 story house. Next to it is a mud brick traditional house of a farmer whose house was on higher ground and didn’t need to be compensated when the water rose. Hers is a traditional house, very small and dark but I rather liked her kitchen and imagined she cooked some very fine meals there. A few of us had a go at grinding corn. The second part of the excursion was to a farmer’s market. Our guide said her parents always shopped at the farmer’s market but she never did because she didn’t like to bargain. I will put photos in tomorrow.
These fruit and vegetables have been brought in fresh from the farm, hanging from either end of a stick over someone’s sholders. Now the women pick out the best for their families and bargain.
Monday 17th October, sitting in Chongqing railway station. We will be waiting here for a couple of hours so it is a good time to add in those other photos. Our train leaves at 11.43 and it is only 9.30am.
12.25pm on the bullet train hurtling through the Chinese countryside at speeds up to 300 km an hour. And it is smooth too. Smoother than Eurostar. Way smoother than the Swan Hill train. We will arrive at Chengdudong in half an hour.
7.41pm We have just come back from a walk down to a famous Buddhist Temple and Cultural Complex. We had a map from the hotel but the names of the streets didn’t really add up. I tried some traditional dumpling soup. Beautiful
There was some blue sky to welcome us here in Chengdu,the first glimpse of Blue sky since the windy day we arrived in China. We arrived just after a public holiday too so the factories had been closed. Since then it has been foggy every day. Chongqing where we disembarked we were told had four names. Mountain City because it was built in a very mountainous area, Fog City because they have about 150 days of fog a year, Oven City because it is so hot in summer, and Bridge City because it is built on the junction of two rivers and has 26 bridges with more being built.
Chengdu I guess is Panda City, but also it is famous for its flowers and trees. Even though most people live in apartments they have pot plants in their rooms, so perhaps it is Garden City as well.
Tuesday 18th October. We had a marvelous look at the pandas and they were out and playful. The weather was just right for them, no sunshine today but Panda’s like the cold. The newest babies are 3 to 4 months old, and the oldest one had just started moving around. Last year’s babies are quite large but still drinking milk which gives them more energy than the diet of bamboo that pandas survive on, so they were busy playing, climbing the trees, rolling down the bank and hassling their mother.
The red panda’s actually no relation to the giant pandas, panda just means bamboo eater were very lively and great fun to watch.
If you click on this picture you can just make out figures down the end of the path. They were playing flutes. On the other side of the river there was a band. Back further there were a group playing piano accordions. They seemed to be taking turns and playing in response to each other like a conversation.
Our guide dropped us off after the tour at a Shopping Mall that has a great big panda climbing the wall. You have to go in to see its face peering over the wall of the
7th floor. We had lunch there at a Taiwanese Restaurant. I ordered roast duck breast on a bed of taro and it was even more delicious than it 
sounded. We were able to walk back to our Hotel. After a rest I felt like another walk so I walked down along the Jin Jiang River to the Huoshui Ecologic Water Park.
Thursday 20th October. We had a very quiet day yesterday, with a walk around the shops and then in the evening we braved the culinary specialty of the region, hot pot. The Hotel receptionist booked for us. We travelled by taxi after the staff couldn’t
The staff showed us how to go about enjoying the meal. It was quite a complicated process, especially when we didn’t have a clue. The dishes came at intervals during the evening so it was a lovely relaxed evening. We had been warned that the restaurant was busy. If we didn’t get there by 6.30 we would lose our booking.
get through to order one. The staff had very little English and we have no Chinese but we managed to learn what to do and I really enjoyed it.
The square bit in the middle is over a cooker. On the left is water, and on the right a soup. We cooked the sweet corn in the water and the meat and veg in the cooker. I had to go and pick out the sauces herbs and spices to go in the bowl on the left. We dipped the meat and veg in the there. On the right is our soup. We had a class of green tea and a glass of sarsaparilla.sh, but we worked it out and really enjoyed
At around 7pm there was entertainment with a face changer dance but really the whole night was entertainment.
Our noodle dish arrived with great ceremony and artistry. the dough was on a tray and the chef made the noodles in front of us like a skipping rope dance.