Day 9 comes to an end

We returned to the boat just in time for the embroidery demonstration, which of course, was an opportunity to buy embroidery. The scenes were very nice, but most were silk screened prints with just a few actual embroidery stitches. My favorite was a beautiful Chinese vase done completely in French knots. It was very intricate with beautifully shaded colors. We decided to keep on looking before buying as we were going to many more places in China, but unfortunately, I never saw another embroidery like it. After the demonstration, we had lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing on the deck watching the beautiful scenery go by.

Chongqing is a "municipality", which is a city governed directly by the central government. There are four such cities in China, and there is a great deal of competition to become one. This means the city doesn't have to go through the bureaucracy of the province and receives funding directly from Beijing for development. They claim the municipality is the size of Austria, area-wise. It has 10 city centers with 32 million people. That sounds more like a province to me!

That evening, we had the Captain's good-bye dinner, which was again beautifully decorated. After dinner the musical program included several Chinese dances by the crew and a talent show by the passengers. One British lady did a beautiful Scottish love song, and another group did an exuberant pub song.