i'm back on dry land! after 5 days of floating down the yangtze river on the "Princess Jeannie", i'm now in a hotel the city of Xi'an. along the river, we stopped in to several cities for 1/2 day shore excursions. one of the highlights was taking a side trip down a smaller river on 'peapod' boats. these are rickety boats which are rowed by a crew of 6 scantily clad men. at one point in the trip, they get out of the boat and drag the boat by hand with heavy ropes threw the narrow quick flowing passage. here are a few sites from that adventure:





on the first day on the yangtze, we visited the Three Gorges Dam project. wow. wow. and another wow. i highly recommend learning more about it - if you don't already know. i don't have time to get in to the details but let's say for now that it is frighteningly huge, an amazing wonder of technology and a potential catastrophic disaster. let's leave it at that for now and show a few pics: