Heading West

8/3/15 

Our last day in Shanghai was only half a day, as we were flying out to Yichang to catch a river cruise up the Yangtze River. I was glad for this, as I don’t think I could have made it through a whole day of sightseeing. While my fever had broken, the coughing and congestion was still there. The older ladies in the group were all very nice and concerned, offering me a range of medications that they had brought with them in their pharmacopeia. (NN: Everyone seemed to have a medicine from home that they swear was good for everything!) 

Pet Market

Before heading to the airport, we were taken to a local flower market and pet shop. Knowing the pet trade for what it is, and the Asian pet market at that (read: no regulations), I was not too eager about visiting the latter. Thankfully it was mostly a place for aquarium supplies, so mostly koi and decorative goldfish, but they did have caged crickets and baby turtles – all trying to claw their way out of their enclosures – and hanging baskets of beautifully ornate and very sad looking song birds squeezed into cages that were just barely larger than their wingspan. Incredibly sad. And yet surrounded by beautiful orchids and bonsai. (Side Note: Something happened to our camera & I lost most of the pictures from this day :(  Boo.)

Caged Crickets

If you can't pet it, Nick says it's not really a pet

Goldfish

Our last stop in Shanghai was to a silk carpet and embroidery shop. Shanghai is known for its silk textiles, so our guide assured us he would take us to a place where we could purchase “the 100% silk products”. No doubt there was an arrangement between this shop and our tour company to bring potential customers in, but it was still very cool to see how the carpets are made by hand – the amount of time and dexterity it takes, the patience, is impressive. A very fine, high quality carpet will have more, smaller knots in it, the best shown had 1700 knots per square inch, (and that’s all carpets are really, knotting different colors tightly together in a certain pattern), so will take longer to make, a year at least, and will last 150 years without fading (and of course, retail in the U.S. for about $16,000. But for us “special price”, only $6,000 in China). The carpets were really beautiful, the details were stunning and the silk was so incredibly soft. (NN: The highest quality carpets have an interesting phenomena that they appear like they are different colors when viewed from different angles, white from one angle could be dark red from the opposite angle.) We were then shown a separate gallery where, like needle point, artists create portraits or landscapes by embroidering silk. Some of the embroidery was so fine and tight, it looked like it could have been a photograph. While others, used layers of silk thread to create texture and shadow in the wings of a crane or the hair of a young girl. It was really impressive. (NN: They also have two sided silk paintings that are pressed between two panes of glass. From one side a kitten could be yellow and from the other side black. Obviously I was impressed by the changing colors of seemingly the same thread.)

Orchids

But on to our flight from Shanghai to Yichang, where for 1.5 hours I was granted a whole row to myself in which I could curl up under a blanket and let unconsciousness take over. We arrived on our boat, the Century Sun, later that night. The first thing our guide did was introduce me to the ship’s doctor. I’m not sure how well the consultation went as I feel a lot got lost in translation, even with his broken English. He asked me my symptoms, which I’m not sure came across well; he took notes in Chinese and then wrote in English “bad cold…” just like that, and turned the paper to face me so I could read it. He then slowly selected three different boxes of medicine, as if he wasn’t sure what to give me, but I enjoyed watching him write the dosage amounts in English on the boxes: carefully writing out each word from right to left. I did not enjoy the bill he then handed me for close to $100 worth of prescription medication. But what are you gonna do? I don’t have many other options for the next 4 days on a boat, with no wifi or connection to an outside clinic. So I thanked him, swallowed the 6 recommended pills and curled into bed. But not for long! At 10pm we had a mandatory, all hands fire drill, complete with life jackets and deck leaders, that was announced over the loud speaker. Other than making us aware of where our life jackets are stored, I’m not sure what this accomplished, as they just herded us into the dining room, had us sit in tables according to room number, then after a few minutes told us we were free to go. No “this is what to do in case of a real emergency” or “how to get off the boat” (as I’m sure we wouldn’t all sit tight in the dining room if something were actually to happen). But, like I said, at least we now know where our life jackets are. ;) 

Roses spray painted blue & covered in glitter