We are now in Chongching minus our most senior member. MM’s flight had been delayed for hours which is unfortunate but we set her up to go before we left her all alone in an Chinese airport without the ability to speak to anyone. I can only assume that she is now on her flight as her cellphone is now off. We have arranged for the hotel to pick her up as soon as she arrives so we can only hope everything will go routinely.
The hotel is the California Inn on Hongshi Road in Chongching is nice and we have stayed here a few times before. I would recommend it on the grounds of nice clean rooms and affordability though I have not found any decent restaurants within walking distance. There is however a medium sized super market and a series of small restaurants and a night barbeque near the hotel. It appears we will be able to get Xi’s Visa issues settled quickly. If we can settle Visa issues our current plan will be to leave for Dazu tomorrow around noon. It will be a three+ hour bus ride and we should have internet access as we will be staying in another hotel we are familiar with.
Antonia is feeling a bit under the weather due to some undercooked mushrooms so we will be resting the rest of the day. I will take this opportunity to very briefly write about the two days in Xian I was not really planning to blog about. On our 3rd day in Xian we visited the international horticultural expo. We spent most of the time split into two groups which resulted in very different experiences. Lixi and I had a less positive experience hence my lack of blogging. To be fair going to the expo was definitely worth going to and my Antonia and MM had a really great time. We arrived early and were able to see the panda exhibit before the huge crowds arrived. I have never really seen active panda’s before so that was nice, not extraordinarily wonderful but it was nice. I am pretty sure Antonia had already blogged in detail about the expo so I will end my account of it now as to avoid unnecessary overlap. The next day we went to the provincial history museum. It was worth it. Three tips: 1) They give out 4000 free tickets a day so there will be long lines. These lines can be avoided if you get into and buy the special exhibit tickets. This line will be much shorter and the ticket is only 20rmb, not only will this get you into the special exhibition showcasing golden objects but it will also get you into the museum without the need of standing in the free ticket line. 2) the 1st exhibition hall features is well worth the ticket price alone, it features the terra cotta warriors as well as some other interesting things. Honestly I found the small exhibit more interesting than the terra cotta warrior site; some may disagree with that statement. 3) They have a special underground exhibition for 300rmb containing tomb wall paintings and silk rolls. MM went to see this exhibit and as far as I could tell it did not appear to be worth even half that price. I would almost compare it to the royal mummies in the Egyptian museum, state of the art preservation equipment yet besides the possible historical significance there is really nothing spectacular to see.
Before our flights MM, Lixi and myself biked around the old city wall. It is not hugely more interesting on the wall then on the ground but worth a few hours in the morning or evening when it’s not too hot, costs 40rmb for adults and 20rmb for students. We biked half way around the wall, the ride was a little bumpy but the wall is flat and wide and it took an hour to bike half way around. MM really enjoyed herself and we had a good time, Plus we do not have many city walls in the USA.
i will post pictures later
