One can ALMOST see the sun through the haze/smog/fog that seems as connected to China as the Great Wall itself.
We have three nights on this boat as we float on down to the Three Gorges and the associated Dam. Enjoying the down time to do some thinkin', plannin', and readin'. I have three different tubes of Pringles (including blueberry flavor) with me, so how bad can the trip be?
Since I last posted in Shanghai, we've hit a couple more cities. Spent a couple nights in Xi'an (population around 4 million) and:
-rented bikes and rode atop the surrounding ancient city walls
-ate at a restaurant purported to serve over 300 different types of dumplings ("walnut dumplings"?)
-visited the Great Wild Goose Pagoda...how can you NOT go somewhere with that name?
-checked out the Terracotta Warriors...one of the scheduled highlights of the tour. Pretty cool, but you have to wonder about how large an ego an emperor has when he forces his citizens to cast 7,000 life-size warrior statues to be buried alongside his tomb. Good thing there was no tv back then to distract.
-enjoyed my second Chinese massage (80 minutes for $5.75). Massage room (is there a name for this?) had a flat-screen showing the movie, Seven.
-had a successful, if challenging, trip to the mall to find new underwear
From Xi'ian we flew to Chengdu (population around 5 million). There we:
-went to visit the "World's Tallest Outdoor Sitting Buddha" (71 meters). How's that for a qualifying "tallest".?
-partook in Chinese massage number three. (120 minutes for $13)
-visited the impressive Giant Panda Research Base. Cute animals. Included there were two five-day old pandas that essentially looked like gerbals.
-ate from a traditional Sichuan hot pot. As with in Africa, I'm finding myself eating less and less meat as my travels progress.
-dominated the English in bumper cars
-paid to have my ears (actually just "ear") cleaned by a middle-aged Chinese man with skinny metal tongs at a tea house. I'm 100% sure you all will enjoy those photos.
From Chengdu we took a train to Chongqing, population over 30 million (that's right), bought some foodstuffs and wine and boarded this luxury liner.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
2 comments:
"went to visit the "World's Tallest Outdoor Sitting Buddha" (71 meters). How's that for a qualifying "tallest".?"
- are you saying there is an INDOOR sitting buddha taller than 71 meters? now that would be impressive.
In fact that's something that we in the tour group have been struggling to find out since the visit!
And how tall is the biggest STANDING one??
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