day 17 (20 march 2010)

Our very first morning on the cruise
We were supposed to assemble in the dining area by 6.30am for our breakfast. Over the PA system, they keep on repeating “早上好所有旅客, 请到2楼让您吃早点.” Knowing what to expect, we didn’t have our hopes high. This is our breakfast:

After breakfast we were to get ready to pack and go to Bai Di Miao. It is on top of some mountain and we had to climb up a total of 325(we counted) steps of stairs in order to reach the place. A lot of work in order to get there! There are services for people who are willing pay to be carried up the mountain.

For lunch, we went back the cruise and had this for lunch:

the soup taste like Oil and water ): so far the restuarant food is the best!And around 1pm, we went for another trip to another part of the river to experience another type of water transport service that is in that area(part of yangtze river)

At about 11pm, we were told that we were reaching the dam and we going to pass under it. I was very excited to experience what I had learnt during my International Freight forwarding lessons in year 1. I’ve learnt about how the ships are being transported from upstream to downstream by pumping out water at each stage of the station and I am going to experience it right that very moment. (: It took more than 5 hours for the whole process( which means the ship reach the other side of the river). And we stayed till late night just to watch this once in a life time activity as it is not a common site.

Reflection:
It is interesting to know how the 土家庭 live. The tour guide explain how simple their lives are and if one family’s daughter is going to get married, they will chop down the tree which they had planted for their daughter since she’s born and use it as a dowry. I also truly admired the people who provide the carrying service up the mountain. For me, my legs were already tired when I’m not even half way through up the top and those people can actually carry a full human load up the 325 steps of stairs. 佩服!佩服!