The Great Wall Of China

       We were up early today – just after 5 am – as we were to catch our off on our tour to the Great Wall of China at 6:15. There were plenty of people up at that time as there we many early transfers from the ship. They wanted everybody out quickly so that they could do another “deep cleaning” to rid the ship of the virus. 8:00 am seemed to be the magic hour for vacating the staterooms. About 400 people are staying on and I think everyone was on tour. The Captain did announce yesterday that the number of cases had dropped below the allowable “2%” for a ship with nearly 4000 passengers and crew. I predicted that about 5 days ago. In that way when we have another outbreak he will announce that it was brought aboard by an embarking passenger.

        The trip from Tianjin (the port for Beijing) to the section of wall that we were going to visit was 3 hours by bus with 1 short comfort stop on the way. Our guide was a bit hard to understand. At one point as he described the crops we both heard that the fields were growing beans and “pork”. We did not see any pork! We did see plenty of fish ponds with many more being built. There is a new cruise terminal and it not anywhere near the location when we were here last. In fact they have reclaimed a massive area from the sea and are developing it with hotels, ports, housing, etc.

On The Way Up

Up The Great Wall

Steep Section

         The section of the wall that we stopped at was not the same one as on our last visit. That was good since we had a chance to experience a new section. This section of wall was quite steep and it took some effort to get all the way. Part of the section had the nice brick that you usually see in photos. The next section had just the bare rocks that underlies the capped sections. Then the next section was just a series of rock steps. They went on for about 300 steep steps. All this was after walking uphill for about 45 minutes. I managed to make it all the way to the top. There were only 4 other people there when I finally arrived huffing mightily! After that there was just a dirt trail that lead up over the mountain! That was a trail too far! Of course I was snapping photos all the way. There were blue skies this time as opposed to the grayish ones from the last time. I was happier with the results this time.

Down The Uncapped  Section

There is no graffiti on the wall at all. In fact there we passed 2 workers cleaning it. However they

have allowed vendors selling tacky, plastic souvenirs in many places. I thought that they should be confined to the area where every tourist must pass. This section of the wall crossed a river valley so there was a defensive fortification at the bottom currently filled with sellers. There were old rusted metal freezers on the wall holding beer and other drinks. They all seemed to be selling the same things. How many times can you say no to a resin model of a budda or the wall, etc? It seems to us that a national treasure should be kept nice and clean. Sellers around the bus is par for the course.

      We did stop for a Chinese (what else) lunch served in the traditional large round table with a lazy susan way. They bring a small plate of an item so that everyone could eat a little. There were many courses and we just kept on eating. There was one English speaking person (nationality “unknown”) who folded his arms and sat there through every course. He refused to eat

anything. All he did was drink beer that was suppose to be shared by all at the table. That was OK because we managed to eat his portion of the dish! We all ate with the chopsticks although his wife ate with a fork. I was going to jerk his chain a bit but thought better of it. I am sure he will complain about the food on that tour!

      We did get back to the ship around 4 and the rest of the night was spent resting after the early start. There are about 1700 new passengers on board and it seems most are going through to Vancouver. We did sit at our new table with the people we met in Thailand. The other couple did not join us for dinner. A brief show ended the evening.

Busan South Korea

         Today was a short visit to Busan, South Korea. We were sailing by 1:30 pm so it was just enough time to get in the port, get the tour off and get ready to sail. We have been here before and will be stopping again on the next leg so we decided to go into the city centre and walk around. There was a free shuttle service which was very efficient. We were walking around in the city by about 9 am.   Busan was not at all like the other port. It seemed to lack order whereas even Shanghai seemed

Mama Fish Lady

to have some. Our first stop was the Ja-Gal-Ch'i fish market. We have been in fish markets before but this one was a bit different. Judy described it as smelling more like the ocean and less fishy if that is possible. I think that was because the fish were all alive in tanks with running water . There were areas where the fish were being gutted and filleted but that was not true of the entire market. We wandered into one building which had row upon row of tables. We think that this was a fish cafeteria. You select your choice of fish – and many types of things from the ocean that we could not even begin to describe – and they prepare, cook and

Preparing Fish

serve it to you. We will need to check this out further when we return in a few days. How all those vendors can sell all that fish every day is beyond me! Not only was fish being prepared and sold in the market itself but for blocks around it. We did see the more “upscale” restaurants with the fish tanks out front where you selected you “entree”.

     We then wandered to the typical narrow alleyways filed with stalls that sold clothing, housewares, etc. We even found an area that we called the Home Depot section because it sold pipes, small motors, etc. Another part had fruits and vegetables only. From there we wandered down the street to the 'upscale' district where the fashions are more western like in display and appearance. They have every colour of running shoe that you can imagine and every name brand was on display. We decide to take the escalator up to Yongdusan Park. It is located

One Of Many Street Sculptures

on a small hill that provided views of the city. As we wandered around there was a small fence surrounding one of the buildings. Many locks were closed on the railing with notes attached to them. We have not seen this since Florence Italy although I know it is a common practice in some cities. We walked the 257 steps back down to street level and continued to the Lotte department store.

          The Lotte Department store is a beautiful store 11 stories high. There was one section that had quite a selection of wines. We ended up buying a Chilean Merlot take back to the ship. The ^th floor is a garden and observation deck where again you have wonderful views of the city. Because of the cool temperatures (13C) and winds we did not stay too long. Since it was getting close to the last shuttle time at 12:30 we made our way back to the shuttle stop to join the throngs of people waiting to get back to the ship. There were plenty of buses and although we ended on the 5^th bus, we waited only for a short time. We were back in time to go to the dining room for lunch. We ordered cheeseburgers! Judy's meal arrived a bit rare (a lot rare?) and then brought her another one. This one was even rarer so she settled on soup and pie!

Lover's Locks In The Park

other reason for visiting the store is that the 11

        We are now headed for China and the debarkation point for this leg. Tomorrow we have a sea day after the formal tonight. It is packing day for those leaving the ship. When we arrive in China we need to be off at 6:15 as we opted to go back to the Great Wall. We hope that the weather is a bit warmer!

Ashore In Nagasaki

      Nagasaki was the second to last port on this phase of the cruise. Since we were docked in the city

Taking The Trolly

at a very nice cruise terminal, there was no need to shuttle into town. In fact it was easy to take public trolly to the sites that we had selected. Since this city was destroyed by atomic bomb in 1945 it was an easy choice to go to the Peace park, ground zero and the Atomic bomb museum.

We were up very early and decided to complete the immigration check immediately. Since the tours were leaving later, by 7:30 we were ashore to get finger printed and have our photo taken and a stamp placed on the copy of or passport. We did the thermal scanner thing as well. It only took a few minutes and since no one was at immigration, we were back on board in about 10 minutes. We then and had a very nice breakfast before hitting the city by 9. We found the street car and managed it quite well. The port lecturer that has been giving the port talks is very good. The trams have automatic change machines and you deposit the fare when you leave the tram. No matter how far you go, the fare is the same. Of course we were following the crowd like a bunch of lemmings! We were actually able to transfer and then get off at the right stop.

Peace Park!

Paper Cranes

    Our first destination was the Peace Park which was close to ground Zero. It is full of peace monuments donated by countries and cities around the world. We looked for one from Canada but did not find it. However there are many locations for the monuments. There is one main sculpture dedicated to Peace. The park was the site which held ruins from a prison that use to be in the area. All that was left were a few basic wall foundations.

    The second stop was Ground Zero. There is a monument in this park at the exact point where the Atomic bomb detonated. It was very plain and simple. There was also a portion of a Catholic church that was moved there. I can remember seeing that structure in the photos of the damage in Nagasaki. They also have a portion of ground that preserved since the 1945. In all it was very well done in an extremely simple manner. One of the things that we encountered were paper cranes. The crane is the

symbol of Nagasaki. A young girl was dying after the blast and her classmates said that they would make her a string of 1000 cranes. This has become a symbol for peace that is used extensively. You can but multi-strands of the small paper cranes and then hang them on the a memorial. We saw many of these bundles as we walked around the bomb site.

 

Part of Church Not Destroyed 

   Our last stop was at the Atomic Bomb Museum where the story of

Watch Your Step

Nagasaki is retold. They have many artifacts that have been collected and preserved. They also have a model of the bomb that was dropped. It was a very sobering and moving experience. We could only look at the results of the bombing so long before we both decided to leave. It is very hard to describe the feeling that we had in that museum. The photos of the people and the stories that were told made it impossible to dwell for very long. It was very well presented in such a simplistic way.

     We found the right tram to take to get back to the ship. By now it had started to rain steadily and we certainly needed the umbrella that we had. We walked a street with the shops near the cruise terminal but skipped the walk up to the nearby gardens. We wanted to get back to the ship for a cultural show that was being presented in the theatre .It was the local opera company doing portion of Madame Butterfly. The lead singer did a marvelous job during the 35 minute performance. We have not see that many people in the Princes theatre this trip. All in all a very good day despite the rain. Busan will be the last port for this portion of the trip.

Ashore In Shanghai

    Shanghai is the one of the 3 largest cities in the world, the other 2 being Mexico and a future place where we will stop – Tokyo! It is located on the Yangtze River but far inland from a coastal location. In fact the city is on a tributary about 25 miles from the main river. Although we entered the channel early in the morning, we were not along side until 10 am. We were held off the dock until exactly 10 am at a new cruise terminal. We docked about an hour away from the city as this ship is too large to get much further upstream. The river is very busy with a steady stream of barges shuttling up and down.

 
Our passports and visas were already checked before we landed and except for the checking of everything again, disembarkation was slow but not delayed. Our tour headed out around 11:30 and we did not return to the ship until 7:30 last night. Our tour included only 3 stops. The hour drive to our first stop gave us a good look at the city. There are thousands of high rise buildings of all types. Shanghai is an important gateway to China and many international companies have all build beautiful buildings here in the last few years. They also have a local festival to plant trees and the city is quite green despite all the buildings. They are also preserving many of the old areas so you get high rise buildings next to 2 or 3 story dwelling that date back a hundred years. The city is very clean for the number of people living there. Yesterday was the start of a 3 day holiday so the city was more crowded than it would normally be on a Sunday.

Juinmaro Tower

View From The Top

     Our first stop was the Juinmaro Tower, currently the tallest building in Shanghai. We went up to the observation deck on the 88^th floor. Needless to say the view was spectacular! They are building a higher structure next to it. From there you get the 360 degree view of the city. The centre of the building is “missing” so that you can look down at the lobby! It was a very quick trip up to the top! The day was a bit smoggy (as is usual in a big city) and shooting through the glass hampered the photos.

Looking Down

    The second stop was the Yuyuan Gardens built about 400 years ago while the city was just being developed. Today it is the middle the old city centre. It was a classic Ming Garden featuring more than 30 halls and pavilions with the typical use of rocks, water, trees, etc. It was a very nice quiet spot.

The last stop was actually in the same location as the gardens. We had opted for this tour because it gave us about 4 hours of free time in the old city area or”Old Street”. It was filled with shops

Yuyuan Gardens

and eateries and people. We needed s quick bit so we went to a”recommended” restaurant. We ordered 2 separate dishes and that was an adventure in itself. Because of the time (mid afternoon) we could not order from the entire menu. It was basically dim sum. As expected the waitress spoke as much English as I do Chinese (Sounds like YEE HA which means “hello”) . We pointed to the 2 items we wanted (they use pictures). We never got our spring rolls and the Dim Sum order was not exactly what we ordered. So much for customer satisfaction.   We could have had a much greater variety at a much lower price if we had eaten where the “locals” eat – on the street. However we did enjoy the experience of eating with a young Chinese man and his son who was at the same table (and shared our tea?)

Shopping District

     After that we walked around the area, trying to find the river which has a beautiful park. However it was like the Amazing Race. Maps that don't show the streets, foreign names (in English) and not being able to find which way to go. Eventually we knew the direction but did not have enough time to get to the river and back before our transport was leaving. We would have been eliminated on this leg of the race!

      We arrived back by 7:30 in time for a truly spectacular Chinese Acrobat show with 5 young “very flexible” women. A very graceful and spellbinding show. We did manage to get to the dining room on time but because of the late sailing (midnight) and long tours, it was 'open seating' and the 2 other couples did not make it back from their tours until later. Dinner was one of the best tasting meals we have had.

Today was a typical sea day, rumba, line dancing, tea and talk with friends, a rumba lesson, art auction and then afternoon tea. I sat with a Texan who wanted to know what to do at afternoon tea. How do you answer that. My answer of course was drink the tea! Tonight is line dancing night and we arrive in Nagasaki tomorrow. We will be touring on our own.