Imperial China Day 14
Imperial China
OAT Day 2-10 - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Visit Hu Xian Farmers’ Painting Village-Fly to Wuhan-Transfer to Maoping-Embark Yangtze Cruise Ship - Yangtze Cruise, China
We spent a quiet night in our rural village. Caryl from Edwards, CO and Jim and MaryAnn from Prescott, AZ and Gennie and I were together in our clean but modest home.
Our simple breakfast this morning, was a boiled egg, fried sugar bread, a quesadilla like triangle-shaped flat bread with a green mystery vegetable, soy milk, and a churro-like pastry but without the cinnamon and sugar.
During breakfast Mrs. Yang brought out her “English Book” a dictionary of common words and phrases. We had fun laughing and trying to learn more about our respective languages.
It was raining quite hard when we joined the rest of our OAT group. The temperature was 60 degrees and the humidity was over 85%. As we walked along the narrow village streets, Matt shared with us a time-line of the Communist take-over of the land in the 1950’s, then the economic reforms that began in 1978. Now, in these villages, several farmers share common tasks as in a coop but gain the profits from their individual efforts.
Our first adventure of the morning was a visit with a local farmer who is also a painter. We went to a big gymnasium were we watched Mr. Cao do a unique water color for us. With Matt translating, Mr. Cao explained his career and the awards he has earned by depicting ordinary rural life in his paintings.
We walked back to our B& B, thanked Mrs. Yang, and then returned to the airport in Xi’an. We had lunch at the airport restaurant as we waited for our flight to Wuhan.
We stood in line for 40 minutes to pass through security. Gennie and the rest of our group got through easily but they did not like my flashlight or all of my electronic equipment - it delayed me for quite awhile.
We had another easy flight, to the city of Wuhan which is composed of three towns—Wuchang, Hankou, and Yan Yang all on the banks of the Yangtze. Recent archaeological discoveries indicate that settlement here began about 3,000 years ago.
Wuhan has over 8 million people with many major industries such as auto manufacturing, chemical and iron and steel production. There is also a huge ship building facility here.
Our new driver, Mr. Wei met us at the baggage claim area. Because we were the last ones off of the plane, our luggage was just coming out as we arrived. We walked directly to the bus for our trip to Yichang.
The land here is very flat and fertile and the farmers are very prosperous. This is known as the land of rice and fish but they also grow the lotus here. We saw many water buffaloes in the rice paddies.
On the way, Matt shared more insights of the area, the government, and even his thoughts of the “reform” measures here in China. We had a comfort stop after about two hours.
Just before arriving at Yichang we made a convenience stop at a local liquor store to stock up on “Hot Water” before getting on the ship. Matt warned us that the adult beverages on the ship were very expensive.
We had dinner at 6:30 at the Yansha Hotel before boarding the ship. We arrived at the Victoria Rose, our home for the next 4 days as we explore the Yangtze River.
Although we were all dead tired, we listened to the ship's Tour Director tell us about the rules for the ship and some of the details we would need to know for our stay.
Once in our rooms, we noticed the air was not moving at all in our cabin so we spent almost 2 hours trying to work with housekeeping to remedy the situation. Matt finally interceded and asked the captain to turn up the air! At 10:30 we were able to settle in, unpack, and take a much needed shower after two days and a night on the road!
Accommodations: Victoria Rose - - - Meal: B, L, D
Picture 1 - Map of flight to Wuhan and Drive
Picture 2 - Rainy Morning in Hu Xian
Picture 3 - Mr Cao - Farmer/Painter
Picture 4 - Pilot of Flight to Wuhan
Picture 5 - Countryside West of Wuhan
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Comments
Post a Comment!This is great. Keep up the good work but try to improve your spelling.
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