Today we are in the port of Tianjin which is an hour and half drive from the centre. Tianjin is a city of 12 million people, the third largest in China and the port is built on reclaimed marshland, which extends some 40km towards the town itself and is either being or waiting to be redeveloped. It's like watching the industrial revolution in real time. John took an excursion to Tianjin centre - it was closed! Or at least most of the sights he was supposed to see were. It was Monday and state owned monuments and museums are closed for the day. The excursion provider had failed to inform the ship of this minor fact. He managed to see one Buddhist monastery, the ugliest church ever built and a bizarre house called the pottery house, decorated Gaudi like with over 4 million pots & ceramics. All these divided by a traditional chinese lunch. Then an hour and half drive back to the ship, not a great day for him but I did have the champagne on ice when he returned. While John was away I went to the gym, the thalassotherapy pool and generally spoilt myself aboard ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment