Day 6 - On Board East Queen

Our day 6 began with the usual breakfast at the hotel and today we will be flying to Chongqing to start our 4 day cruise down Yangtze river. The flight to Chongqing is only 45 minutes from Guilin. This time we flew Xiamen Airlines, which among the domestic private airlines, seems to be most westernized in its service and attitude. Chongqing, is the largest of the four centrally administered municipalities in China with a population of over 30 million and is situated in the Sichuan Province, home of the hot and spicy food. The municipality, with more than 30 million people, is under the direct control of the central government in Beijing. Of course, the airport at Chongqing was a modern marvel and while we were inside we had no idea of how hot it was outside. As usual, the local Chinese guide met us with a car and the driver and when we got out the airport, we walked right into an oven. The temperature outside was well over 105 degrees with high humidity. Our program today is to check into the luxury ship "East Queen" after 6:00 pm. So we had several hours to kill and the guide suggested that we could go "shopping". The hot weather discouraged us from wandering around and so we asked our guide to take us to a place where we can just sit and relax in air conditioned comfort. So after a quick lunch, she drove us to one of the 4 star hotels in the area and we decided to spend the remaining hours in the coffee shop and the lobby of the hotel. This gave us plenty of time to talk to our guide about life in China.

Most Chinese realize that their biggest handicap is lack of knowledge of English. Therefore there is now a huge movement of making children learn English from kindergarten. The highly paid jobs such as in banks, financial institutions , tourism, etc were reserved for people who can communicate in English. Every city in China now has English language schools sprouting like mushrooms. These schools are usually manned by American or British teachers, since the Chinese do not accept any other nationality for English teachers. One of my son's Peace Corps mates who served with him in Africa, is now in China teaching English and they get paid very well by Chinese standards. Our guide, a young Chinese woman about 26 years old, spoke reasonably good English ( you have to listen very hard to understand certain words) and explained that she chose to be a tour guide to improve her English so that she can get a better job. Her husband is a doctor in the local hospital. They have no children. Talking about children, Chinese have accepted a "one child" policy from their government. However, there are some strange exceptions to this policy. for example, if you and your wife are the only child of your respective parents, then you can have two children. If you belong to one of the designated minority groups, then you can have the next child at no cost. The penalty in terms of additional taxes is very steep for the second child. The communist society has leveled the income levels of most people except the newly minted business entrepreneurs. Our guide's husband who is a doctor is making the same money as a policeman or a teacher. She explained that doctors, policemen and teachers are three of the most highly respected professions as they treat the sick, protect everyone from crime and nurture the young minds in schools. I could no help but think of the great divide that exists in these professions in USA and India.

While we were killing time in the lobby, a very attractive looking Chinese woman came to my wife and asked her where she is from. When Chandra replied that we were visiting from US, she invited her to visit the beauty parlor which she has just opened at this hotel. for a completely free Chinese facial and massage. She insisted on having photos taken during the facial and asked me to send her a copy.  My wife could not believe her luck since this would have costed at least $100 in a hotel. The facial and the massage took almost an hour and half and it was time to leave to go the docks.

We were dropped off at the docks promptly at 6:00 pm and the entrance to the ship was almost like a carnival with ethnic Chinese dancers in very colorful costumes performing local dances and welcoming the guests. While we knew that "East Queen" is a 5 star cruise ship, we did not realize that Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Henry Kissinger were all passengers on this ship in previous trips. There are 2 Royal Suites on each ship, furnished in such a luxurious way that they will be able to accommodate all the kinds of VIPs in this world. There are 86 Standard Staterooms  on East Queen, each with a 188-square-feet of comfortable space and a large picture window. All cabins feature satellite TV, central air, direct dial phone, fully stocked mini-bar and private bathroom. The East Queen can efficiently serve up to 176. The East Queen also provides the finest on-board meeting facilities in its Yangtze Hall. With a capacity of 180 people for dinner .

To make on-board time most enjoyable, these  ship offers a wonderful mix of recreation and entertainment facilities. General shipboard amenities include a relaxing whirlpool, a fitness center, health spar with a sauna, steam-bath and invigorating massage, a beauty salon, shops, night club and private TV rooms, cafes and restaurants. Shipboard dining offers a choice of Asian and Western menus for everyone's dining pleasure and a variety of sumptuous Chinese and international entrees are being served. In addition to offering exciting shore excursions, on-board activities include movies, Tai Chi classes, cooking classes, Chinese calligraphy lecture, and theme lecture on Chinese culture.

Once we were checked in, we were shown our room by the guides on the ship. The dinner was at 8:00 pm and we were told that we will be assigned seats at the table. We settled down in our room, took a shower and explored other parts of the ship and then decided to  get a drink at the bar to kill time until dinner. When we walked into the gorgeous dining room , we were shown our assigned seats. What they did, was to group the people by nationalities and assign them to the same table. In our table which seated 12 people, we were all from various parts of US including three couples from New Jersey. The largest group in the ship was a big party of tourists from Germany and another big group from Australia. Altogether there were about 15 different nationalities, and surprisingly many Chinese. The dinner was very elaborate - waiters bringing dish after dish until everyone got tired of eating. While all meals were included in the price, drinks were not included. So we decided to try out some Chinese wine which was 1/4th price of imported wines. We did not even know that Chinese made reasonably good wine. So we decided to stick with Chinese wine and save money! After dinner, we hung around as a group and talked about our experiences in China and retired to our rooms around 11:00 pm knowing fully that the ship will  moving during the night.