Sunday morning we're up early as our suitcases have to be outside at 6:00 AM. I do remember now what we did Saturday after lunch; we packed, of course! And I did a bit of shopping at the pearl boutique on the ship. They had the most amazing selection of pearls; I had a pair of earrings made to match a necklace I had purchased in St. Martin, and picked up a couple of gifts for folks back home.
So back to Sunday. After breakfast, we checked out of the ship and filed off, passing through another ship that was docked between us and the dock, and on to Jack's Bus for a short ride to the museum in Wuhan. A lot of the ship's staff is waiting to wave goodbye, and we're able to give Eddie and Lucy the hugs that they didn't get the night before.
The museum is one of the more interesting ones, as it contains coffins of an emperor and his concubines. Because of their belief in the afterlife, the emperors often took their concubines with them in death. In this particular case, the coffin of the emperor's wife was not found, and it is believed that she was given permission to bury the concubines with her dead husband, but her life was spared so that she could take care of the children. The concubines were often buried alive, and they took jewelry and decorative combs with them.
This particular emperor also enjoyed his wine, as is evidenced by the many wine containers that were also found in his tomb:
But the most amazing thing that was recovered from his tomb was a complete set of bells, which were used in ancient times to provide musical performances for the elite.
After the museum tour, we were treated to a performance on a replica of these bells. It was just fabulous. I've tried to attach a video here, but I'm having problems getting that to work. In the meantime, here's a still shot.
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