Visiting Jingzhou

Had a really good sleep last night and woke up around 4:30am. Did some reading and played a little on my iPad. At 6:30am I took a shower and got dressed and ready for the day. At 7:00am the ship docked in Jingzhou and a little after that Thomas and I went and had a quick breakfast and some coffee. Once we were done eating we went back to the cabin to brush our teeth and get our things ready for our day in Jingzhou. We had about an hour before we needed to meet our group so I worked on some journaling.

At 8:45am we left the ship and made our way to the bus for our first excursion of the day. We were on our way to visit a school that Viking sponsors – Genhe Primary School. When we arrived we went to an outdoor stage and the students put on a show for us. After the show we went to visit one of the classrooms. As we walked in the students started grabbing our hands and taking us to their desk. They had us sit in their seats and they were showing us different things. Our group had a class of second graders. They only speak Chinese, they haven’t learned English yet. They will start learning English in third grade. The little guy that I was with was energetic, he was always moving. They recited a poem from the Tang Dynasty and then sang us a song. Then we sang three songs for them – Old MacDonald; Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Hokey Pokey. When we got to the Hokey Pokey I used my hands to guide his arms and legs as we went through the song. I was trying to harness his energy. He was showing me how he writes some of the Chinese characters and then I wrote my name for him and he copied it. This turned out to be more fun than I could have imagined. The kids were so happy and energetic and it was contagious. Finally, around 11:00am we left the school and returned to the ship.

Once back on the ship we had a little time to relax before lunch. So we did a few things in our cabin and then headed to the dining room to get something to eat. It was a pretty standard lunch but it was good. Then after eating we returned to our cabin and I worked on editing pictures and journaling until it was time for our afternoon excursion.

Then at 1:30pm we made our way back to the bus and we headed for the Jingzhou Museum. When we arrived at the museum and the first thing we did was attend a bronze bell musical performance. They performed four songs for us. They used the bronze bells, tiles, the zither, pan flutes and drums. It was actually a wonderful concert. After the concert we had about an hour to wander around the museum and see the exhibits. They had exhibits on bamboo slips, pottery, jade and bronze. We all met back at the bus at 4:00pm and we traveled to a park so that we could see the ancient wall that surrounds the city. We also were able to climb to the top and walk along the top of the wall and see some views of the city. So Thomas and I took a little walk along the top of the wall and I was able to take a few pictures. The views weren’t all that great because the entire day has been overcast, foggy and drizzly.

It was around 5:30pm when we returned to the ship. We went to our cabin and got cleaned up for dinner. We had a little time before dinner so I edited some photos. At 7:00pm we headed for dinner and we had a Western menu to choose from. Thomas had minestrone soup and beef tenderloin and I had scallops and cashew shrimp. It was all very good. We ended up sitting with George and Mario and then two other couples – one from New Jersey and one from Chicago. We had a great time laughing and talking – it was one of the more enjoyable evenings. One of the women was also a physical therapist (and I had met another woman who is a physical therapist). At 9:00pm Thomas and I left the dining room and returned to our cabin. It had been a long day and we both wanted to get some sleep.