July 20 - Jingzhou

July 20:  Cruising To The Gorge / Walking The Ancient Wall In Jingzhou

This morning we woke up cruising the Yangtze River, but the landscape had begin to noticeably change from the flatlands to more mountains off on the horizon. At breakfast we were joined by our guide Iowa and when I asked him about the next few days "when we enter the Three Gorges" he replied that we had already entered the gorge itself, but that the scenic trips we would take would be into tributaries from the main river into more narrow gorges. That promises to be among THE most scenic days of the entire month we've spent in SE Asia to be sure. When we asked about today's schedule and expressed some disappointment at not getting to visit the school (the plan for today had been to arrive in Jingzhou by late afternoon and then go into the city to visit a Viking-sponsored school), Iowa explained that with the high river level (due to floods in the spring) the ship is moving into a very rapidly moving current. This is slowing our progress and making our schedule difficult to follow. 

In the late afternoon some of the children from the school we were supposed to visit came and performed for us for about a half an hour. And then we all boarded buses into Jinzhou. We drove about 20 minutes until we reached a nice park that surrounded the remnants of the 400-year-old city wall. We climbed to the top and took in the views and had our picture taken. The "highlight" was when Kim wanted her photo taken on what appeared to be a stone statute of a horse. But when she climbed on board - in a most "un-lady like fashion" the horse proved to be hollow and less than sturdy! I and one of our fellow guests was sure it was going to topple over....but it didn't and we got the picture of the day!