Today a short plane trip with China Southern from Xi'an to Wuhan followed by a 5 hour bus ride to Lichang to meet our river cruise ship. The countryside here is quite flat with many lakes and rice paddies. The farmers plow with water buffalo just as their ancestors did. The fields are bright yellow with canola flowers, mile after mile as far as they eye can see. Sometimes there are pagoda tombstones in the middle of the yellow. Bert says that probably marks the spot the farmer dropped. The small villages are similar to those you see anywhere with a big difference. In other countries that I have visited the center of each village is always the Church or Mosque or some house of worship. Religion here is nearly nonexistent. People will go to a temple and leave offerings but it seems more a superstitious ritual than anything else.
We are looking forward to the Yangtze cruise. the pace of the rip is almost frenetic and we need to recharge for the 2nd half. Nothing has been said about Tibet so we are assuming we won't be able to go. What a shame!
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