Monday, March 4, 2013

Day 58 - East China Sea

No photos today.  We are sailing west on the East China Sea, on our way to Shanghai, China.  It's been nice and calm since we left Japan.  The ship should reach the pier about 8:30 am tomorrow. I'm hoping to wake up around sunrise to see the scenery on the way up the river.

Today we got to listen to 2 lectures after breakfast.  The first was Sandra Bowern's talk on "Modern China."  She explained China's recent history from the early 1900's when the last emperor abdicated to the present.  I am familiar with most of the leaders she talked about, even though I can't always spell their names.  The details of their rule were mostly unfamiliar and eye=opening.

The second lecture was by Dr. Mark Elovitz.  It was a follow up on the one he gave a few days ago.  This one was titles. The Chindian Rivalry: Will the Dragon Devour the Elephant or get Stomped?"  In this lecture he talked about the importance of the Indian Ocean, the Bab el Mandeb (Suez Canal), the Strait of Hormuz, and the Strait of Malacca in terms of ships importing resources to China.  He also discussed several border disputes between China and India that we were unaware of.  The picture he painted of the potential future conflicts was pretty scary.

I rounded off the afternoon by going to another art auction.  They really do have some wonderful works of art on the ship.  I enjoy looking at them and hearing the stories behind them.  Plus every time I attend an auction I get a free small print.

We considered going to the show tonight, but once we got back to the room after dinner, decided to settle in.  That's one negative on this ship.  We like to eat early, which means getting to the restaurant when it opens at 6:30 pm.  Even taking our time, we are done by 8 pm, but the shows don't start until 9:30 pm.  Since we do not like sitting at the bar, we wind up with over an hour free time before they open the theater doors.  Once we get back to our room, we rarely feel like going out again. 

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