Not quite such an early start today thank goodness since we had a long trip by bus ahead of us to pick up the Viking Emerald at Sandouping just below the Three Gorges Dam. Our first commitment today, however, was a visit a silk carpet factory and yes you guessed yet another shopping opportunity. Just like the silk embroidery pictures of yesterday the artistry and skill in the silk carpets was breath taking – hours of delicate work. The photo of of a carpet in royal colours – superb workmanship! Many of my co-travellers were tempted to buy and I don’t blame them but this time a purchase would have paid for two future adventures so I will have to be content with the photos as memories!!
Visit over we made the short journey to Shanghai Pudong airport to take our internal flight to Wuhan. Paul, efficient as ever, returned our passports with boarding passes and having made our way through security – much tighter than at home – I had to remove my boots and empty out all the camera equipment! – but it was all done with politeness and expressions of “Two cameras!!” – we only had a short wait to board our smart Airbus 320 and left on time for the 1hr 40 minute flight to Wuhan – about 700 miles inland to the west of Shanghai.
The arrival at Wuhan was once again very efficient – Viking had arranged for our baggage to be collected and once we had identified it and checked for damage it was whisked away to follow us by van to Sandouping.
Although the bus ride of 5 hours seemed pretty daunting and we missed out on a couple of visits in Wuhan it gave us a wonderful opportunity to view the landscape as we travelled through the fertile plain alongside the Yangtze that is known as the ‘land of rice and lakes’. For mile after mile traveling along a new dual carriage road we saw lush green fields of rice and wheat tended by Chinese in their yellow conical ‘coolie’ hats with water buffalo – they don’t uses tractors since the buffalo are much more efficient in the flooded paddy fields. The ground is so fertile that they get two crops a year – the first of rice and the second of wheat so no wonder this area is know as the ‘rice bowl of China”. The many lagoons and lakes are used to farm freshwater fish (Carp) that are so popular in China – fine fish but full of bones although the way they are served most of the bones are removed after cooking.
We made good time and by early evening we had reached Xiling a rapidly growing industrial city with huge, colourful digital displays. Here we pulled off the motorway for a few minutes to pick up from a waiting Chinese a license to enter the Three DamsArea – another example of the attention to detail shown by Viking.
Another few minutes and there across the water were the inviting lights of the Viking Emerald - a comforting sight after a long but not uninteresting trip. As we drew up by the boat so the truck carrying our baggage and it was a real delight to be greeted by the whole crew and traditional dragon drummers and best of all a glass of cool champagne. A quick wash in my superb cabin and into the restaurant for the first of 5 days of excellent food served with a smile by Eddie and the lovely Amy!
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