From Xi'an we flew to Chongqing where we were to board the boat for our Yangtze River cruise. We arrived hours before we could get on the boat so our driver took us to this beautiful park. Chongqing was once called “ChongKong” by foreigners because it was such a huge financial hub. It continues to be a huge center for business and innovation. It's a rainy city, and its verdant lushness was a welcome change from Beijing's dryness.

While there, we also saw a museum featuring historic beds. Sort of strange, but as Tom mentioned, it was interesting to see history from the female's point of view. You see, in wealthy homes the man often had a wife and a few (or many in the Emperor's case) concubines. Each woman had their own bed. The beds were almost like rooms with seats built into the frames. Each were intricately carved with symbolic designs- grapes for fertility, bats for good luck, etc. The higher your status the larger your bed. The wife always had the largest. The majority of these historic beds were destroyed in the Culture Revolution, only about 20 survived. Those that did were usually thanks to families hiding them in hay stacks or burying them.

Behind Tom and Jerny you can see our cruise boat, the Victoria Katerina. I'll admit to be quite shocked when we arrived at the dock to find the river nearly empty, and the whole area looking disheveled and dirty. Pam and I laughed as we walked along the makeshift platoon bridge to the boat. “What kind of cruise was this!” I'm afraid our Caribbean cruise a few years ago had left us with high expectations for cruising. Fortunately, we realized that the section of river we entered in was only a branch of the Yangtze and the boat that we walked through, wary of its rust and filthiness, wasn't the cruise boat but a docking boat. The cruise itself was lovely, and the perfect cornerstone of our trip. It allowing us to rest, spend time together, and see a less urban side of China.