Day Eleven -- Donting Lake - Thursday - 20 March 2014

The closer we get to Shanghai -- the busier the traffic on the Yangtze -- all kinds of ships are going back and forth in somewhat of a chaotic nature although they are not bumping into each other so there must an order to the chaos.

At breakfast we notice this strange vessel passing by the window -- it looks like a haystack floating down the river -- there is more than one.  We are told it is "rees" -- a plant material taken from the banks of the Yangzte used to make paper.  The loads are so large that there must be a navigator on top of the pile of rees to communicate with the Captain or whomever is driving the boat.

We are in Yueyang -- population 1.2 million.  The city is at the south end of the Donting Lake which is the 2nd largest fresh water lake in China.   At 9 am we depart for a look at the Yueyang Tower -- a tribute to Fan Zhongyan -- a scholar from 1045 A.D.  He wrote a poem "On Yueyang Tower" which has been part of Chinese culture all these years.   The original poem is on the wall of the second floor of the tower.  This is more of a structure than a tower since it is only three stories high.

After a stroll down a pedestrian street with several shops we are back on the boat in time for lunch and an afternoon at leisure.

Did I mention how much rest we are getting on this part of the trip?   

Thanks for Reading!

Pat