Today we travel to Jingzhou which is the embarkation point for our Yangtze River cruise. Wuhan is just a stop along the way unfortunately as I think this city has a lot to see.
I was up a couple of hours before breakfast opened and had the in-room coffee while repacking. Since my cabin on the river boat would only have a shower, I took advantage of the deep bathtub.
Luggage was out my door at 6:30 am and I headed to the breakfast buffet and found several of my tour mates.
Wuhan to Jingzhou
We left the Howard Johnson Pearl Plaza Wuhan at about 8:10 am when the last people boarded the bus. I was disappointed we didn’t have time to visit the Hankou Jiangtan Park across the street from the hotel. The park is next to the Yangtze river.
It was going to be a four hour drive to Jingzhou so we settled in.
We passed by the Flood Memorial in the park. It was built to remember the people lost in the 1954 Yangtze river floods. Apparently the flooding that year was so bad it was one of the main factors in the government deciding to build the Gezhouba and Three Gorges dams.
In the other cities we’ve toured, we only saw newer apartment high-rises including some in Wuhan. Here we saw old apartments that are slated to be torn down like those in the picture above or already torn down like below.
After two hours we had a happy room break at a truck stop type place (reminded me of Italy in that respect). The bathroom had tons of stalls but all were squat toilets. I’ve mastered the skill of using these during my trip so no problem.
We all got a kick out of the snacks in the convenience store like chicken feet (in two brands).
There were marinated hard boiled eggs…
and some unusual chip options.
I didn’t buy anything and stuck to my snacks from home of nuts and Luna bars.
During the drive John gave us our cabin numbers (mine was 324) and information about the cruise and what we’d see in Jingzhou.
Jingzhou Lunch
Two hours passed quicky and we were soon in Jingzhou.
The restaurant looked very promising. It was a two story with nice decor and had lots of downstairs customers. Apparently this was where the Chinese people ate.
We were led upstairs which was pretty empty and had the worst meal of the entire trip.
There was tons of food left over at our table. Even Rex, our table’s personal Mikey (who eats anything) wasn’t eating much. It was dissapointing since the venue was nice.
Jingzhou Museum
Next stop on our city tour was the Jingzhou Museum.
The museum houses over 100,000 bronze, pottery, silk, jade, and lacquer relics. It is also a home of an mummfied corpse but more on that a bit later.
Although the relics were interesting and in many cases, beautiful. The highlight was the grounds of the museum.
The museum displays the mummified remains of a 2,000 year old corpse. The man was from the Han Dynasty period.
I didn’t take pictures although many on the tour did.
Jingzhou City Wall
Next we stopped at the city wall which was originally built in the Ming Dynasty but rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty (1600’s). It is one of the best preserved city walls in China.
We entered the wall at the East Gate where the Binyang Tower stands.
There were several life size figures of warriors from the time of the wall including this one with his horse. Notice the round stone step. There’s a story about it you’ll read about in tomorrow’s recap.
Inside the tower, the huge bronze sculpture shown above was sharing space with souvenir stalls.
After time to roam, take pictures and for some, buy roasted chestnuts, we boarded the bus to head to our home for the next four nights on the Yangtze River.
Don’t miss the previous China posts linked below.
Going to China (tour and visa)
China: Trip Preparations
November 12-13, 2016: Travel to Beijing
November 14, 2016: Beijing and Great Wall
November 14, 2016: Ming Tombs and Peking Duck Dinner
West International Trade Hotel Beijing
November 15, 2016: Hutong and Temple of Heaven
November 15, 2016: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden Palace and Beijing Opera
November 16, 2016: Pearl Factory and Summer Palace
November 16, 2016: Traveling to Xi’an
November 17, 2016: Jade Factory and Terra Cotta Warriors
November 17, 2016: Dumpling Dinner and Tang Dynasty Opera
Grand Barony Xian Hotel
November 18, 2016: Traveling to Wuhan
Howard Johnson Pearl Plaza Wuhan
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