Day 10 -- Guilin - Chongqing - November 19, 2015
Time to fly to Chongqing this morning from Guilin to continue our tour on the Yangtze River on the Sinorama Gold 8. So far, we have enjoyed this well-planned tour. As I have said, most of the time we did not have to get up extremely early to start our days and most likely we checked into our hotels in the late afternoon so we can rest and clean up a bit before dinner. Sometimes we had free time and were able to explore on our own around the neighborhood of the hotels. This may not be true with other Sinorama itineraries though.
Breakfast buffet at the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel was wonderful. There were many Korean tourists here at breakfast on the two previous days that we stayed here but this morning it was kind of quiet.
For the first time, the noodle station was not even ready for service. This was a very popular station.
I really enjoyed the yogurt they served on this trip. Not as thick as the ones we have in the states.
After breakfast, we left the hotel on our way to the airport. This is the back of the hotel.
Behind the hotel is the Central Square where the public can view the waterfall show from.
Some more street scenes of Guilin from the bus as we leave the hotel early this morning.
Good-bye Guilin!
It was wonderful to be able to come back for a second visit after twenty-some years.
Oh, here is the fuzzy picture of the 'knock-off' Golden Gate bridge.
Arrived at the Guilin Airport for our flight to Chongqing.
Everything was done for us so all we had to do was to pick up our boarding passes from our guide and head over to security check.
This time, both buses got on the same flight.
(When we came from Shanghai, people from bus 2 were put on a different flight.)
And, we got separated...
...because of group check-in they were not able to seat people together. That was understandable. I had a good chat with Marjorie from New York during this flight.
I think this was a Xiamen Airlines plane, quite spacious.
Chongqing--
Chongqing (means Double Celebration) is a major city in Southwestern China. It holds a very important place in Chinese history. During the Sino-Japanese War between 1937-1945, it was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek's provisional capital (Republic of China). The Japanese Air Force heavily bombed the city during the war. Due to its mountainous environment, many people survived from the bombing but many lost their lives also. During the war, the government moved many universities and factories to Chongqing from the northern and eastern parts of China. Changing this inland city to a heavily industrialized one. Chongqing is also named as one of the three furnaces in China together with Nanjing and Wuhan. These three cities have the long summer with very hot and humid weather.
We had been here twice before, both when disembarking our upstream Yangtze River cruises. The last time was in 2009 and I was eager to see the changes of this city.
In less than two hours we arrived Chongqing.
Our luggage were handled by a separate truck that will make the delivery directly to the cruise ship as we boarded our buses into town.
Exterior of Chongqing Airport
Our local guide in Chongqing. She was with us for a couple of hours only until we board the Sinorama Gold 8 that afternoon. She speaks very good English.
We finally got a turn to sit in the front of the bus so I was able to take some pictures of the city as we drove from the airport.
Like all other cities in China, Chongqing is progressing rapidly with new developments everywhere.
Chongqing is a city on the hill so it is unlikely that you will see bicycles here.
Just some shots of interesting buildings.
"Chongqing Port" where we would come back later that afternoon to board the cruise boat.
The pedestrian sidewalk turned into a parking lot.
Traffic jam everywhere.
This was where we had lunch that day, near the port.
The Opera House (Grand Theater). We were told that they got the idea from the Sydney Opera House.
I was surprised to see this kind of propaganda still around.
"Learn from the good example of Lei Feng."
We were taken to the city center for an hour of shopping and sightseeing before it was time for us to board the Gold 8.
Skyscrapers everywhere
I believe this is the art museum.
We were dropped off at the pedestrian street where high-end stores are scattered.
It was quite busy for a Thursday afternoon.
Chongqing People's Liberation Monument at the center of the Pedestrian Street.
We were not interested in shopping at high-end stores, so we just walked around, people watched, and checked out some local stores before meeting back up with the group.
As we drove back to the Chongqing port, we came upon the Chongqing Grand Theater one more time. It is built at the tip where Jialing River and Yangtze River meet. It does look a little like the Sydney Opera House with the Harbor Bridge in the background.
Cable car crossing the river.
Time to board Sinorama Gold 8, our home for the next five nights. Good thing we did not have to carry our luggage to board.
Pier 8, Chongqing port
We just walked up to our room with key cards already set on the bed and luggage right by the door.
(MiNan already told everyone their cabin numbers by now.)
More spacious than some of the ocean cruise ships.
Our suitcases would not fit under the bed when closed so we opened the suitcases into two halves and left most of our stuff inside and just slide them in and out as storage. Worked out great!
The cabin was quite comfortable. We paid an extra $100 per person to upgrade from category C to Category B, I think. It was a waste because there is really no difference between these categories. I would suggest to keep whatever Sinorama booked for your package and not pay for the upgrade. Unless you want a suite or something. Most of our group stayed on deck 2, we were on deck 3. But there was one couple who did not pay any extra and they were put on deck 4. So, there's no rhyme or reason to how they assign the cabins. We received our cabin number right after we booked, but most people did not know their cabin numbers until that day. I guess it's like booking a 'guaranteed' cabin with the package.
Between Victoria and Gold 8, this was definitely better.
our balcony
Our view on the first day.
After settling in, we went to explore the boat.
The beautiful Atrium.
Dining Room where we had all our meals on deck 2.
Not sure what that "Room Service" means. We were not told of any room service being available. In fact, other than the regular meal time, there was nothing else available anywhere except drinks from the bar which you have to pay extra for. Tea time was tea only, no snacks, no pastries. Morning coffee was just coffee, no muffins served like on Victoria. If you need something to hold you through meal time, bring your own.
Disco (multi-function room) on deck 5 and terrace bar on deck 6.
Terrace Bar on deck 6, a good place to view the sights indoor.
Yep, we walked across that 'bridge' to the boat on the first day.
Open deck which we did not use much of because of the weather.
boats that docked near us
Chaotianmen dock
huge chandelier in the atrium
our cabin 8321
hallway on deck 3
At 5:00PM that afternoon we met at the multi-function room for a safety briefing.
Dinner on the first night.
We were assigned to our new tables for the rest of the cruise since some people left the tour in Guilin.
All meals were served buffet style except the Captain's Farewell Reception on the last evening which was family style table service. This last dinner turned out to be the worst meal on the boat.
There were a lot of choices at every meal with western and Asian food offerings. There is usually a station set up on one side of the boat that could be fried eggs, waffles, and omelettes in the morning, dumplings at lunch, carving of roast pork or other specialties for dinner. Many people did not notice the existence of this station.
After all the family style table meals served on lazy susans on the land tour portion, it was a nice change to be able to pick and choose what we liked with such varieties.
Instead of the watered-down borsch, finally, a choice of cream soup.
By the way, they served the best freshly baked bread.
Gold 8 set sail at around 9 that evening.
It was absolutely beautiful to see all the lights lit up.
A Victoria Cruise ship happened to sail into port.
Leaving Chaotianmen--Jialing River on the right, Yangtze River on the left.
Looking straight at Jialing River with the Chongqing Grand Theater on the right.
I think that is a floating restaurant.
Chaotianmen Changjiang Bridge
I believe this was the Baomao Express way.
We were quite impressed with the Gold 8 so far, better than what we expected. Hopefully it will stay the same for the rest of our cruise. We'll see!
Nice! We're going in September 2017. Would you suggest to bring your own beverages on board because of high prices? Are there any drinks included during meals?
ReplyDeleteThx!!
Michiel
Now I don't remember if they serve any drinks at meal time on the cruise because we always have tea which was free, of course. I would say bring your own if you want beverages on board the cruise. Even some snacks, like cookies, if you want tea time in the afternoon because they don't serve any snacks outside of meal time.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I did not see this comment until now. Just got back from Europe last night.
Have a great trip in September! Thanks for the kind comment.