Day 13 - Wanxian

This day was a big bore. We visited the Hanging Coffin Museum which was 2 rooms big and wholly uninteresting. Then we went to visit an apartment which belongs to a couple who had to relocate due to the rising waters of the Yangtze. Most people spent more time at the little gift shop table some ladies had setup (no doubt because they knew tourists were coming!). Lastly, we spent a few minutes at an outdoor market where all types of foods were being sold. I specifically remember lots of different types of hot sauces (!) and tofus. The worst part of the day was that we were saddled with a guide who had an incredibly high pitched voiced and spoke like she learned english from some very poorly dubbed anime from the 90s. I'll never forget the way she kept saying "mmm hmm".
Wanxian, like many of the cities on the 3 Gorges is built on a very big slope and makes for some very interesting pictures. It's important to note that these cities are all relatively young and many of them boomed because of the huge number of people that have had to relocate due to the Yangtze's rising waters. There's an essay waiting to be written about the sudden urbanization of millions of peasants, but I'll leave that to you sociologists.
Our last full night on the boat included a talent show put on by both crew and passengers. There was lots of Karaoke, including Guang Liang's Tong Hua, which the guy sang to the music video and thus made no sense to the audience which couldn't see it.
	A couple of times on the boat, we played Hearts with some of the "older people". Yes, even in China I must play hearts. They mostly made fun of our insistance on playing with "modern" rules as opposed to their "classic" rules. For instance, they didn't believe in not being able to lead with hearts until hearts is broken, nor does the 2 of clubs start the game. We also played with 5 players, which really threw off my game since I'm not used to keeping track of that many hands...not to mention the fact that they kept giving us wine. Add to all that the fact that Gill (left) is the best hearts player I have ever met. It felt utterly useless to play against him, he knew what was in everyone's hand by the 5th card and seemed like he could make it so that anyone he wanted would take the queen of spades. I thought I was good, but playing against that guy has opened my eyes. Also they insisted on playing for money, 1 yuan per point difference to the winner...it adds up... One other thing, in French (that wonderfully romantic and poetic language) "shooting the moon" is flaccidly called "prendre control".
Previous	Enroute - Beijing - Great Wall - Silk Street - Xi'an - Hangzhou Wuzhen - Suzhou - Shanghai - Wuhan - Maoping - Xiling Shennong - Wanxian - Chongqing - Guilin Guangzhou - Kowloon - Hong Kong - Good Bye	Next