Moo's Mid Life Crisis: China

From Emei we took a bus to visit the Leshan Giant Buddha (not to be confused with the Big Buddha, or the Great Buddah). We took a short boat trip to get the best view of the Buddah and it was much more giant than I had imagined it would be.

More carvings on the rock around the Buddha

Onwards again (via bullet train) to Chongquing and our 2 day trip down the Yangtze river. Chongquing is a small city of only 30 million people (yes) and like Beijing and Shanghai it is directly governed by the central government rather than locals. This was done in an attempt to help boost the economics of the entire area, which was significantly poorer than much of the rest of the country. We spent no time in the city itself, just driving in to get to the boat, but the cityscape was every bit as impressive and picturesque as Shanghai.

The boat (Victoria Grace) was a little smaller than a lot of the other cruise boats we saw on the river. 2 floors of cabins, an open sun deck (though we had no sun at all - overcast and grey both days) and large bar area. The rooms were small, but comfortable.

Porters carrying our bags

It was very nice to have 2 days or relative relaxed-ness and inactivity after the hectic schedule we had been on. I snoozed a fair bit, and when I wasn't I would be reading, blogging or looking at the scenery. It was pretty, but quite samey for most of the trip. Steep green mountains rising up from the waterside. The water level here changes about 70 meters throughout the year as technically the entire length we traveled in the 2 days is the reservoir of the 3 Gorges Dam, rather than a river.

Some of us had another bash at mahjong, including using one of these fantastically impressive automated tables! I'm not sure if missing out the shuffling and wall building is a good thing, but it is really cool the first few times you use it! Alex came along and told me all the rules I was using were wrong, as we were supposed to be doing Szechuan rules without the Winds and Dragons in the deck.