We departed the hotel at 08:00 to visit a jade factory… It was interesting to learn about jade, but I would have preferred to see more of Xi’an instead.
Picture below is of one of the engravers making one of the family balls (multiple layers inside each other)
After the government shopping stop we went to the airport and had lunch and took the short flight to Wuhan. The tour company arranged for someone to check our bags and check in for our flight, so that made things simpler.
From the airport we went directly to dinner, but we were early, so they gave us an hour of free time. We visited a nice park with a lake.
Picture below is from the park in Wuhan in the central business district.
Picture below if of a statue in the park with the building in the background.
Dinner was at a Tibetan restaurant, but was lacking in proteins. I’m looking forward to a nice steak when I get home.
Below picture is from inside the Tibetan restaurant.
After dinner we checked into the hotel…. Howard Johnson’s. It is adjacent to the Yangtze river. About 1/3 of the tour group (me and my friend were the only Americans) went for a walk to find a pub. We walked along the river and were amazed that all the lights on the building were synchronized. It’s much more developed in China than I ever imagined. We stopped at one bar on the way back from the wall and also stopped at the bar on the 39th floor of the hotel which had very nice views.
Picture below is of the Howard Johnson hotel we stayed at.
Tomorrow we embark on the river cruise. It should be interesting considering so many different tour groups will be on the ship.