Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

At our next port of call, Jingzhou (jing – zhō), we had a couple of options: we could choose to visit an elementary school sponsored by Viking or we could visit the ancient city walls.  Within our group of 12, 7 went to the school while 5 of us visited the city walls.

I'd never heard of Jingzhou and the Chinese might say that's because it's small, barely a village. It has 6 million inhabitants but "only" 1.2 million live in what we'd consider the metro area. The city has been a transportation and distribution hub for over 6000 years, due to its location right on the river.

To give you an idea where the city is within the country, here's our tour map with the arrows pointing our our last stop at the Three Gorges Dam and our current location of Jingzhou.

Our bus dropped us off at the visitor's center and we began the easy quarter-mile walk to the ancient city walls.  The path led us by this lovely bridge and I just find this photo scenic and peaceful.

On the other side of the walkway this guy kept watch over us.  I never did figure out who it was.

The first version of these walls were built during the first and second centuries AD which is in the Han Dynasty.  Like lots of old things in China there have been a number of versions of these walls over the centuries and this version was rebuilt in the mid-1640s as the Ming Dynasty transitioned to the Qing Dynasty.

City Walls Entrance - the pagoda on top is now a museum

A probably-not-so-ancient cart. People nearby were rehearsing for some kind of upcoming performance.

Today's version of the walls is about 3.75 km long though only about 1 km can be walked atop.

Looking up at the pagoda from a lower section of the walls

These guys were inside the pagoda. I'm guessing they're the city fathers or other famous ancient folks.
Maybe that's Guan Yu in the middle?

The original walls had only six gates though today's walls have nine.  There were also four caves where soldiers could hide and trick the enemy.  I don't think these "soldiers" really have to worry about that!

The walls were near a residential area, though once you're up top you can see the massive apartment buildings we saw in every city we spent any amount of time in.

After exiting the walls we found ourselves near the gift shops (imagine that!) and it was interesting to see food alongside carved figurines and scarves.

Beautiful scarves

Snacks for sale

More scarves

Carved figures of the Chinese zodiac

We'd seen Guan Yu in the shrine atop Shibaozhai but when our bus took a different route back, we stopped at this absolutely massive statue of him alongside the river.  The pedestal is 32 feet high and the statue is 157 feet tall.  Just to help with the scale you can see the top of the lamp post barely tops the pedestal and the people walking by are quite tiny.  You can double-click on the photo to enlarge it.

Massive Guan Yu statue

Panorama shot to illustrate the statue's size

It was another easy afternoon aboard the boat as we made our way to our final port of call, Wuhan.