Feb. 27 - Mount Jiuhua

Woke up fairly early this morning.  My back was sore and even though it was only 6:00 am, it felt like time to get up.  We were showered and ready to head for breakfast, just after 7:00.  Wouldn't you know it, today, breakfast didn't start until 8:00.  Oh, well, that's life.

Where we docked

After breakfast, we had lots of time before we were to leave, so we took a tour of the ship.  Starting from the top (deck 6 - the Sun Deck) we walked around there.  It is quite nice, but would have been much nicer if it were sunny.  Unfortunately, it was foggy and cool, and we weren't able to see much.  Even the boats passing us going the other direction were difficult to see.  We were talking to an Asian girl who is on our trip (Lisa from Abbotsford) when we noticed that our ship was turning toward the other side of the river.  We weren't sure what this was about, but it appeared that we were going to stop beside a couple barges that were moored at the end of a pier with big cranes, one which was loading a boat with long poles.

Well, we did stop there, and after the ship was tied up, some folks got on board.  By this time, Dawn and I had gone to our room because it was easier to see from there, what was happening.  We watched for a while, and then decided to continue our walk around the ship.

We went from the top floor down a level which is where the Cheers Bar is located.  This is where we had our first introduction to the briefing for the day, and is basically a big lounge where there are performances on stage at times.  Not much else on that level, except for the area for the VIP guests (those who had rented the big, expensive suites - one the same size area as our house when we bought it) and we weren't welcome there.

On deck 4, we first encountered the ship's artist.  He was painting figures (animals and people) on the inside of small bottles.  He showed us some that were finished.  They were signs of the Zodiac, so we could have gotten our birth month horoscope characters.  He also had a number of embroidered pictures, many which were very cool to look at.  If we had a way to get it home, we may have purchased one because we like them so much.

There was also a small shop there that had pearl necklaces, and another small one that had candies.  Moving down a deck, there was another small store that had dresses and scarves.  On this level also, there was  a photography stand where photos taken at the Captain's Welcome Reception were available to view on computer monitors, and for purchase, we assumed.  We didn't go, so didn't stop to look.

The next deck down, deck 2, was our deck so we didn't stop there, except to watch a camera crew interviewing one of the ship's staff.  They were at the bottom of the steps we had to go down to get to the first level, so we watched for a while.  Interestingly, they were touring the ship, too, and also went on the bus tour to Mount Jiuhua.  Apparently the mayor of this area was there.  They must have been doing some sort of promotional video for the cruise ship.

On the bottom deck was a swimming pool, the spa, some Mah Jong game rooms, and the movie theatre.  There wasn't much to see, so we went back up to our room to wait around until lunch.

Buses waiting to pick us up for the tour.

Policeman stopping traffic for our tour.

After lunch, we were off to Mount Jiuhua (a place with 98 temples in a small area, which is quite a tourist attraction).  It was an hour and a half bus ride to get there, but because the mayor was with our group, there were police at every light, holding traffic so we could get through, and making other cars and trucks pull over so we weren't held up.  Quite nice to have a police escort, when

Rice paddies

you are on the right side of the law.  We did get to see a part of rural China; the houses, the farming, the somewhat primitive examples of

Scooter truck.

people washing clothes in the river, and a number of small towns.  We took lots of pictures, but had to stop because the battery for my camera was running on empty.

The area we were going to was way up a steep, winding mountain road.  It was likely similar to the many logging roads we see built on the sides of mountains in BC, but here the roads were paved and there were large mirrors on each sharp corner and switchback.  There were temples/monastaries built on the side of steep cliffs, built in strange places up the road, and when we got to the top, there were hotels, many shops, as well as a number of different temples scattered all around the area.

Getting off the bus at the mountain.

The tour was to hike up to a few of the temples, but we decided to not go. 

Carrying in some goods.

Instead, we spent the hour and a half walking around the area, looking into shops (and purchasing a few things).  In this small area, there were at least 5 banks, at least 2 of which had ATMs.  I needed to get some more money for the rest of the trip, so we decided to ake a withdrawal if we could find someone at the bank who could translate the Chinese words in the machine for us.  At the first bank, our card wouldn't work.  Our PIN was supposed to be 6 numbers, not the 4 we use, and were told work in China.  Here, the girl who was helping us pointed us up the street to another bank.

Clouds moving up the mountain and the temples.

At this bank, another girl spoke a bit of English, and she helped us out.  This machine would take our card, so we were able to get some more money.  Hopefully, we won't have to withdraw any more before we leave this country.  This girls was also very helpful, and we both took her picture when we were finished.  Then it was on to look into and through the many shops.

Girl from Bank.

Lisa, our tour guide, told us that in the height of tourist season, as many as 64 000 people might visit this little place in a day.  That is almost the entire population of Kamloops, going to a small place like Aberdeen Mall, only driving up this winding road with other "crazy" drivers coming down.

Chinese baby leading his parents around.

Dawn and I stayed in the town square, while most of the rest of the group went looking at the temples.  They told us to meet in the square in an hour, but they were going to look at

Monk - enjoyed having his picture taken.

3 different temples.  The last one was up many stairs (some said 1000 steps), the last section which was very steep.  They looked around at the monastary there, and then came back down.  They were about 40 minutes late getting back, and even then we weren't finished.  We had to walk back to where the bus was going to pick us up, but first looked through another temple on the way to the bus.  Then it was back on the bus, drive down the steep, winding road, and head back to the ship - another 1.5 hours.  Again though, the police were basically ensuring that we did not have to stop many times due to traffic lights.  The main road was very straight, wide and smooth, so it was quite a bit different than what we were expecting.

We arrived back at the ship a little late, so got to our room and headed for supper.  Although we were late, we were earlier than most of the others, so there was no lineup for the buffet.  Nice.  Had an enjoyable meal, talking with the others in our group.  We like all of them, but especially like Ross and Donna from Saskatoon, who are just normal folks and not trying to impress anyone (hopefully like us), and also John and Alice from Burnaby, a Chinese couple who have lived in Canada for about 30 years.  The others are nice, too, but some seem to be trying to impress and "one-up" the others with the things they have done.

After that, we decided to head to our cabin and get ready for an early morning tomorrow, when we leave for the Chinese Porcelain town at 8:30 am, and a 2.5 hour drive from where our ship will be docking sometime during the night.