Qing Ming Festival - Day 3. White Emperor City, Shennong River

How good of a vacation is it if you don't get to sleep in?  We were up early again today to have breakfast and get ready to meet our group that was going to the White Emperor City.  I looked at the stairs that we would have to climb from the boat up and my heart dropped to my shoes, but after looking at the stairs, I realized that there were escalators that would take you up most of the way!  What a relief! 

The way up!  The white covered parts are the escalators.  Whew!

This was the original gate to the city. They wanted to preserve it and not let it get covered in the water, so they took it apart piece by piece, labeled each piece and then reconstructed it here at the site of the new city.

We were loaded onto buses for a short ride to the site where we could go across a bridge to the island where White Emperor City is located.  Then the guide told us that we would be climbing 350 stairs today!  Yikes!  I didn't know what I had signed up for!  Nothing to do but set my mind to it and take it a step at a time!  It was a beautiful climb, with trees covering the stairs.  We could have hired a porter to take us up to the top, but one look at those little men who chain smoked cigarettes, the fragile looking chairs we would be sitting in, and the long stairs snaking their way up the mountainside, we decided that the exercise was going to be good for us!  

White Emperor City was built high on this spot because is was a strategic place to guard the river from.  They didn't have to move any of the buildings when the dam was built because it was already so high up.

I took this after we had climbed about the first 50 steps.

The heroes monument at the top.  It was a monument to a great general in the army of early China.

 The Dragon represents the male leader (king) and the Phoenix represents the female leader (queen).

 A Phoenix.  Looks like he's ready to pick this guy up.

The dragon.  He's ready to push this guy over.

The White Emperor City is known as the "Land of Poetry in China." Many famous poets have come here to be inspired and write.  One poet claimed that he always wrote better poetry when he was drunk.  I don't know about that, but that was his claim.  

Some of the famous poets of China that had come to this area to write.

This scene is on the back of the 10 yuan bill.

We think these are orchids that were growing along the walk back to the bus.  Too beautiful to pass by and not get a picture.

White Emperor City also has legends and stories about the Three Kingdoms in China.  They held China together and helped unite them.  There were three kings that reigned one after another and this takes place about 1700 years ago.  We were also able to see one of the 'hanging" coffins that they have taken down to study and is now on display.  

Painted glass figures of the White Emperor.

Painted glass figures of the White Emperors advisers and helpers.

This is the hanging coffin that they brought down so they could study it.  There is a female skeleton inside the slit.  People put money in the glass display.  

We were late getting back to the boat for lunch, but it wasn't our fault.  The guide was a little long-winded, so we had to  really book-it to get back to the bus for the drive back to the boat dock and then down the stairs.  One section was a down escalator, but the rest were stairs.

A waterfall along the gorge.

We traveled through two gorges that afternoon, Outang Gorge and the Wu Gorge.  One of our group had paid an extra 600 RMB to get a "Presidentail Suite." It gave  him a private deck on the front of the boat.  He invited all of us to come enjoy the gorges that afternoon.  It was great riding out front and enjoying the scenery and the company.

A bridge spanning the Yangtze River.

Later that afternoon, when we arrived at the mouth of the Shennong River, we were boarded on a scenic tour boat for the trip up the Shennong River.  They drive you down this beautiful river and stop at a dock where you get out and board some large sampan boats.  They have benches on them and they paddle you down the the river and tell you about the history of the area and people. 

These guys decided to go fishing.

These are the sampans that we traveled on to hear the history.  The benches were not that comfortable.

Going home after a days work.

After the trip on the Shennong River, we were taken back to the ship.  They had to hold dinner back about an hour because we were really late getting back.