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We had an easy flight to Xian, so easy that I actually don't remember it at all. Quick background: Xian is located in the Yellow River Basin and is one of the birthplaces of civilization. It has seen 3,100 years of development and 13 dynasties, giving it equal fame with Athens, Rome, and Cairo as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals. After landing, we dropped our bags off at our hotel and then headed to a Tang Dynasty dinner and show, which was filled with traditional song, dance, and colorful period costumes.
We are now in Pippa Hill, the center of Chongqing City, in People's Square. In the 1st and 3rd photo you can see the Great Hall of the People. It was built in 1951 and is used as a performance venue. The long wings on either side are the People's Hotel. The other two photos show the Chongqing Museum which opened in 2005 to replace the old museum. This was a nice last stop before heading to the airport to board our flight to Xian.
On the way out, James was reunited with his Australian relatives.
This was highly disturbing to me. Visitors were pouring whatever drink they had into the bear's mouth. It's fur was all matted and sticky from the beverages. It was obviously commonplace because the bear was begging for a drink.
As part of our tour we sat through an art presentation and then had a chance to tour their gallery.
Above: the only non-panda or non-bear that made the cut. Last: don't expect to see kiosks selling snow cones and hotdogs.
Proof we were actually there :)
Awwwwwww! Surprising as it may sound, I actually edited out a lot (more than half) of my panda shots.
I'm very excited for today. We are visiting the Chongqing Zoo to see China's national treasure (and my favorite animal), the Giant Panda Bears. Warning: there will be ridiculous amounts of Panda photos in the next few days.
After our final breakfast on the ship, we disembarked and did a quick tour through Chongqing. It's located on steep hills at the confluence of the Yangtze and its major tributary, the Jialing River, this proud mountain city was the capital of China during WWII, when the American Volunteers Air Group, "The Flying Tigers," was based here.
The ladies wearing their new purchases from today and another delicious dinner.
