Blog

We were very excited to wake up this morning with a new day ahead of us but were still tired from the day before so had a relaxing morning. We explored the whole ship and it was a beautiful day so we sat on our balcony and on the top observation deck of the ship and even napped on a lounge chair. Finally a day to relax after running around for almost 2 weeks.

This afternoon we went to the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project. It cost $28 billion and took 17 years to build. was started in 1994. It is still very controversial, as it controlled flooding on the Yangtze while drowning towns and archaeological sites, and displacing more than 1.3 million people.

It was pretty cool seeing the dams, the locks and the hydroelectric power station, this is China’s largest construction project since the Great Wall!

It was so nice coming back to the ship and our cabin, familiarity and comfort after moving around every few days. Cocktails and a shower and we were ready for the evening. They had a really nice show in the Yangtze Lounge after dinner, Chinese Dynasties. It showed the costumes and customs through the ages. It was nice to recognize all the staff dressed up and on stage. It was so adorable how they would wave to the boys as they walked by.

Since the weather wasn’t great, we decided to do some shopping. The boys wanted to go to one of the many electronic markets in the city.

We spent a while there while they went from stall to stall haggling until they were happy with the price they got. I have to admit that they are really good at haggling, they learned on the last few trips and it came back quick! When it is something they want and they have a limited amount of money that can be very determined. They were adorable with their calculators in hand and mixture of the limited Mandarin they have learned and the vendors limited English, but they were able to do it. Both of them came out very happy!

Wandering around the city was dizzying but what caught my eye everywhere were the food stalls. The variety and smells of each place made me want to try each one but I had to practice moderation….not easy to do here.

We had to ride the Maglev high speed train while we were here. It runs on magnets and goes up to 267 MPH! In Shanghai it just goes back and forth to the airport, about 19 miles in 7 minutes. The project cost 1.58 Billion to build and is considered one of the safest methods of transportation. It’s on a raised track and it pretty quiet, until you pass the other Maglev on the other track going in the opposite direction…almost sounds like a pop, makes you jump and you almost don’t see it go by, it’s just a second long blur. Boys really loved it!

Shanghai’s metro is easy but crowded. But during the crazy rush hours in Shanghai it saves lots of time. It was fun people watching….or watching people stare at their phones!

China has government cameras EVERYWHERE, on the streets, metro, and even in public cars and shuttles. You see the signs reminding you that you are being watched and you will be punished if you are caught doing something wrong. Big Brother IS watching!

We tried twice, once in the morning and once in the evening, to see the city from the observation deck of the Shanghai Tower…both times it was shrouded in low clouds! The Shanghai Tower is the second tallest building in the world right now at 2,073 feet and 127 floors above the ground. It has the Jin Mao Tower on one side and the Shanghai World Financial Center on the other. The design is unique as the exterior spirals upwards, to help offset winds, and there is an inner tube as well, this acts as an insulator.

Pretty cool airport like Beijing’s.

I can’t think of a better way to experience the Yangtze River than on a “slow boat to China”. The Yangtze region is the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization. It starts in Tibet and flows the entire width of China until it empties into the East China Sea in Shanghai. At almost 4,000 miles, it’s Asias longest river and the third longest in the world, after the Nile and the Amazon.

I thought this would be a great way to relax after a very busy 10 days exploring China on land. We woke up in Shanghai this morning to cold dreary weather and had to catch a 7:30 AM flight to Yichang. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning was not fun but we were excited to start another new adventure. The flight was short, a little under two hours on an old Shanghai Airlines plane. We got into the town of Yichang and had some time before boarding the ship. Since it was still cold and rainy, we went to a pretty cool museum, had an amazing spicy Sichuan lunch and then had massages.

It was called a foot massage for an hour and a half, but it was way more than that. We started out in a private room for the four of us with amazing reclining chairs. They brought in wooden barrel buckets with hot water and all kinds of aromatics in the water. While we soaked our feet, we got a very good shoulder neck and arm massage. Then we sat back in the recliner‘s and they covered us with comforters, brought us hot green tea and a plate of snacks. They dried our feet and then proceeded to massage them for at least 45 minutes. We soaked them again then laid back in the recliner while we got a leg massage. This was one of the best massage experiences I’ve ever had, even better than in Thailand or Cambodia!

This is all the information about the cruise:

We made our way to the port, and boarded the ship. We are on the Victoria Jenna by Victoria Cruise Lines. There are a little under 200 cabins and it was very pretty. Nothing like ocean cruises and larger than European river cruises. There are 6 decks and it is laid out very nicely. Our cabins were perfect, not too small, great size balcony and bathroom with a big tub, desk and sitting area. Our two cabins were across the hall from each other so we just went back and forth between them and had a balcony on each side so whichever view was better was where we sat.

We were in the Executive Club called the Top of the Yangtze, similar to a club level category at a hotel. On the top deck, half of the ship was just for us. It is where we ate all three meals and had snacks available all day and happy hour before dinner plus a lot of other benefits. It was so much better than the main dining room which was a bit hectic, and all the meals there are buffet style. The food was good there too, mostly Chinese but a few Western choices as well. We just like how calm and quiet it was at the Top of the Yangtze and having table service with the same servers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It was an early night, we were so tired from getting up so early and excited for the next day!

Xiao Long Bao are a dream come true….Chinese comfort food at its best. I have been looking forward to trying these for months! These Shanghai style steamed dumplings are infamous, they have food tours dedicated just to these tender pleated dough purses with porky filling, and rich, ginger-laced broth. There are other fillings too like pork and crab together, crab alone and others but these are the most popular.

So how do you eat it? You must know how or you will burn your mouth with the hot broth inside. Pick up the dumpling with chopsticks and place it on a tiny dumpling sized bowl or soup spoon. Poke a small hole at the top with a chopstick. Carefully slurp out the hot soup or pour it into the bowl and sip it from there. Finish off the dumpling by eating it straight or first dunking it in the dipping sauce. The taste is incredible! We started with 3 orders of 12 dumplings, one pork, one crab and the other a combo. Ice cold beer was the perfect pairing and the willingness to make a mess!

Pork

Dumpling bowl

Pork and Crab

Crab

Those went pretty quick so we ordered two more sets and they were gone just as quick. With the chilly, misty day we had, it was perfect!

We drove to Shanghai after the Tea Plantation and what a change! Total shack to the system coming from cities that are thousands of years old to a city that is less than 30 years old. I have to say that it is nice to see modern conveniences, especially toilets with toilet paper, soap and hand towels!! The things you take for granted….

We walked the infamous Bund, a street along the Huang Pu river lined with colonial buildings of European architecture. You feel like you are strolling down the boulevards of Paris or Vienna except that you see the Chinese rather than Roman alphabet on the signs. You can almost feel the Western influences of the old days but it is the modern Wall Street of the East. Not to minimize the beauty of this area but one look across the Huang Pu and young modern China smacks you in the face. Pudong and it’s record breaking skyscrapers provides a surreal skyline that makes your jaw drop. It looks like a photoshopped futuristic city with its colors and shapes but it is actually real!

The boys just walked around with their eyes pointed up, we had to make sure they didn’t miss a step or fall! It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed strolling and taking in the sights the Shanghai.

I found a new kind of noodle that I’ve never had before, believe it or not. The hotel called them Shanghai Noodles but I’m sure there is a specific name for them so I took a picture of the Chinese name and hopefully can get the actual name of these noodles. They taste exactly like a noodle except they look like sliced potatoes, they have the same texture and thick chew to them as noodles do. This is on my list of new recipes to master!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so it was a good day to visit a Tea Plantation. This area gets a lot of rain so they have many tea plantations that grow green tea. This area is known for its Dragon Well Green Tea, supposed to be the best Chinese green tea.

We wandered through the rows of tea plants in the fields and interacted with the ladies who pick the tea leaves. They were very friendly and smiling at us and showing us their baskets of leaves. Only women pick the leaves because of their smaller fingers. They also only allow the tea plants to stay small like bushes, if they grow into trees much of the energy is put into the trunk and not all into the leaves.

The buildings at the Plantation were very picturesque with saturated colors and detail. There were ponds with koi and many places to sit and admire it all. We relaxed while the boys played with koi and turtles.

There were abandoned puppies found at the plantation so they brought them out for the boys to play with. I think this was the highlight of the visit for the boys! They must have been less than a week old, their eyes weren’t even open yet. To make things even more excited, they asked the boys to feed them with bottles!

We learned about how they make the tea, it’s benefits and how to make and drink it properly. The tea is really tasty and it was a nice way to spend the morning, surrounded by the green fields in the middle of a Chinese garden, warm sun on your back, and green tea in your hand.

There is a huge freshwater lake in Wuxi named Lake Taihu. It is well known for its beautiful freshwater pearls that come in many colors and are prized around the world. The boys had fun learning about how they grow and they were allowed to take out some of the tiny ones they use for creams and other products but not jewelry.

We arrived at Hangzhou in the afternoon, it is very green and lush such a drastic change from Beijing! Marco Polo called Hangzhou “the finest, most splendid city in the world….where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies oneself to be in Paradise”. It was the capital in the 12th century and it is on the back of their 1 yuan bill. The center of it all is West Lake, it is exactly what you see in lakeside pictures of China. It’s very calm and surrounded on three sides by verdant green mountains covered in tea trees.

All around the lake there are temples, pagodas, gardens and arched bridges, it is so peaceful. We took a boat ride for about a half an hour and glided past all the sights and many other boats.

The weather was a little misty but not raining. While I would have rather seen it on a clear day, it gave the lake an ethereal feel that added to the magic. Hangzhou is also the area where many locals go to honeymoon and many go just for a weekend getaway. Hangzhou gets a lot of rain which makes it so pretty.

We stopped out in the country at a rest stop and there were some very interesting food items. I have also seen them in many other places, not just here.

Glad to see they are using all parts of the Duck, I saw this at many places served fresh and hot.

Pigs feet, whole ducks, duck wings and what looks like bats?

Duck tongues

Duck heads, hearts?, Duck legs, chicken feet I think because I didn’t see webs.

Necks, maybe intestine?

The shelf stable snacks were a little stranger:

Pickled chicken foot, maybe with a cold beer?

Dried whole fish, Rowan could possibly buy this as a snack.

Mexican tomato and chicken flavored Lays potato chips

Dried fish cheek

Duck heads

Necks

Tongues

Whole duck

Pigs feet

Dried shrimp

We love this hotel, the Pan Pacific Suzhou, it has great architecture, gorgeous gardens and modern facilities. The breakfast was a highlight, as usual and I spent some time meandering around the peaceful garden. It smelled so nice and the flowering cherry trees and ponds were just a great way to get the day started.

Suzhou, historically known as the Jewel of the East, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and has cobbled streets, canals, bridges, pagodas and gardens. It is also known for its prized silk fabrics and silk embroidery, this made it very important during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

We walked along the canals peering down the alleys and into homes as people went about their day. Our favorite part was wandering down the little narrow streets lined with produce and meat stands, fresh breads, live chickens, dim sum stalls and flat bread folded with greens and some kind of spread-it all looked amazing. Since this area isn’t where all the tourists go, the boys were very popular. Vendors would come out to try to talk with them, give them something to eat, the boys would play with the live fish in the tubs of water and get sad when they saw the chickens. There were huge chunks of pork on tables being butchered for people to buy and mopeds trying to get through the tiny streets crowded with goods and people. We stopped in a local temple and walked around, lit some incense and sat quietly. We walked along the canals edge and the boys explored the banks looking for fish, turtles and frogs.

We had lunch at a rest stop and it was very interesting. Looking through all of the products and food stalls was an experience in itself (pics in another post). We had some yummy dumplings and everyone was happy.

Next stop was to see the Ling Shan Buddha, a huge 88 meter tall Buddha up on a hill overlooking something like an amusement park. It was very strange, not the Buddha itself, that was pretty cool, it was the amusement park. Kind of like a Disney World but instead of Mickey Mouse it was Buddha…. We climbed the steps up to the top, right at the foot of the Buddha, took the obligatory pictures and there was a very pretty view.

Our hotel tonight here in Wuxi, the Georgetown Hotel was gorgeous! It’s brand new and super plush, boys were happy.