China

The Captain was delighted to announce that Silver Shadow is faster than Kung-Rey, so that it presents no further threat to the cruise. He was less delighted to announce that top speed had to be maintained owing to a medical emergency in the night. Silver Shadow reached the port at lunch time, far earlier than the original scheduled time of early the following morning. The sick guest was immediately taken to hospital.

The early arrival meant that all of the face to face immigration procedures could be conducted in the afternoon. This was helpful as tours to Beijing were departing at 6am the following morning. Silver Shadow provided food and drinks to local staff working in the cruise terminal. Diva and TSH witnessed a butler pushing a trolley loaded with food for immigration staff.

Diva and TSH did not travel into Beijing, as they had previously visited the sites there. Instead they chose to go on a trip to the city of Tianjin.

The port at Tianjin is very extensive and it takes half an hour just to drive out of the port area. Tianjin is a modern growing city with many interesting new buildings as well as a few older ones.

The first stop on the tour was at the later life residence of Pu-Yi, emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The dwellings (one could not call it a palace) were only built in 1921 and were quite modest but interesting. Perhaps time to re-watch 'The Last Emperor'.

The next stop took the travellers to walk along an old street which was populated by food stalls and craft shops. TSH found this very interesting but did not buy anything.

Diva and TSH were next treated to lunch - a traditional Chinese mix of foods, eaten with the aid of chopsticks. This was a challenge to some guests, who had no previous experience of using chopsticks.

The next stop was at the Yangliuqing New Year Painting Museum where the process of drawing, carving wooden blocks and then printing the pictures was explained. It has to be said that this was not the highlight of the tour for Diva and TSH. The brightly-coloured pictures would never be hung on their minimal walls. They did however make a small purchase of gifts for young people.

The last stop was for afternoon tea at the former Mansion of Prince Qing. Diva was surprised to be  served with Earl Grey tea.

After this it was back to the ship where the butler had left out some tea and sandwiches!

That evening Diva and TSH opened the pink champagne provided when they embarked the ship way back in Vancouver. The champagne was used to accompany pizza delivered to the suite. The butler questioned the order for two pizzas, pointing out that they were large. He emphasised his point later when he delivered them. He placed one pizza on the table and another at the other side of the room. 'Here is your extra pizza, sir'. He was no doubt even more surprised when he tidied the tray away later to discover that there was very little pizza left.

On the following day Diva and TSH took the shuttle bus to the local shopping centre. This involved the journey out of the port area again but they were determined not to sit on the ship all day. The walk round the shops and food outlets was interesting as most of them were aimed at providing for local people rather than tourists. Some names like MacDonalds, KFC and Starbucks were familiar, as was toysrus, but these were in the minority. They have soft play areas in China, just like in the UK. It was fascinating to note that young children in China - and in Japan and S Korea - often wear Spiderman hats and have dinosaur stickers on their backpacks.

Many guests were unable to buy anything in China because they had not read widespread travel advice that Chinese establishments take only their own currency and do not accept credit cards. The ATMs are not keen on western cards. TSH and Diva had cash but when making a purchase, Diva was embarrassed when the cashier shook his head and refused to take her offered note. Turned out TSH had issued her partly with Russian currency. Fortunately it was mixed in with some Chinese!! Accountants, eh? 

A member of crew told TSH and Diva all about the crew trip to the Great Wall. Silversea had taken 75 of them for an outing and it was clear that they had really enjoyed themselves. This particular crew member was on his first time at sea, first time seeing the world and he was thrilled by the experience.