Phil's China Viking Yangtze River Cruise - Blog 5 (rivercruising .co.uk)

We arrived at our mooring in Fengdu ready to explore a city that has only been in existance eleven years! When they raised the river, all the people who lived on the South Bank had to be relocated. Therefore they built the new city of Fengdu which has a population over 100 thousand people.

Before we could reach Bonnies Bus we had to navigate almost 200 steps from our mooring.

We were of course greeted by the "hello people" street traders.

A 15 minute short bus ride brought us to Fengdu New Town where we were treated to a street show by the local choir.

It was quite surreal walking around a city which looked like it had been there at least 50 years. We struggled to build the M6 toll road in 5 years and the Chinese build a whole city in just over 10..!!

Fengdu is known as the City of Ghosts whose reputation dates back to the Han Dynasty when two families, the Yin (underworld) and the Wang (king) united. Their names combined to be read as King of the Underworld, and local legend had the "king" living on Mt. Mingshan.

After the street theatre we headed for the local market.

I was quite suprised because it didn't smell bad at all, in fact quite the opposite - the spices were quite pleasant. It was amazing to observe the Fengdu trading culture. I don't think there was anything you could not buy, from spice to steel.

Every purchase was haggled over and then weighed by simply hanging the purchase and a weight at either end of a stick. The same however could not be said about the livestock! The birds - chickens, ducks and geese - all had their legs bound to stop them escaping and were then basically killed to order! I suppose at least you know they are fresh.

The fish market was brilliant. Once again most of the fish were still alive in large basins. You picked your fish and it was duly hung, weighed, de-scaled and then filletted.

You do have to turn a blind eye to some of the local traditions though. One of which is spitting in public and the other is small children urinating in the street by their family stall... Hmm, not nice but that is how they do things here and you have to just ignore it and carry on walking.

It was the most interesting of mornings and the Viking River Cruise adventure just keeps up the wow factor.

Back to the ship as this was a short stop of only a couple of hours.

We had lunch which was superb again, I had a homemade carrot and ginger soup which was to die for and my best friend Christina in Blackpool will kill me if I don't get the recipe. For main course I chose local fish lightly battered and served with rice and a sweet chilli sauce.

A tour of the bridge followed lunch which was very interesting. I won't bore you with the technical details you will just have to trust me.

Now for some relaxing time including a chance for a quick sunbathe / sleep because it is very warm and sunny today.

At 4.30 we are going to learn how to play the traditional Chinese game of Mahjong, or at least try!

This is all before our long and final cruise up the Yangtze to Chongqing.

Everone is excited because tomorrow we are going to visit the Giant Panda's...can't wait.

Sorry Jess I can't bring one home for you before you ask!