July 2, 2004 (Nanjing)
Our cruise (I always feel ridiculous saying referring to "our cruise," but I honestly can't think of a good substitute) was set up so it was nine days, and went from Shanghai to Chongqing, along the Yangtze River. Most days we would dock and have an excursion. Very Love Boat. On this day, we docked in Nanjing and went to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial in the morning (314 steps, very hot), and then a "Qing Bazaar" in the afternoon. I had been in Nanjing in 2000 with Suzi, Brett and Kim and we had gone to this memorial and the Museum of Japanese War Atrocities (or something like that in title--very uplifting stuff, as you can imagine, and not at all timid in its horrificness).
 
The "Qing Bazaar" must be cruise-speak for "shopping center," since that was what it was. I did manage to purchase the pirated DVD of "Fareinheit 9/11" for 10 yuan (about $1.20), but then we saw it somewhere else for 5 yuan (60 cents). My mom got that stuck in her craw for awhile that we paid twice as much as we could have--the Mahan family is on a constant quest to obtain The Best Deal Possible. I just popped in "F9/11" when I got back home, and it was indeed filmed in a theater where you're party to coughs, laughs, and bathroom breaks, but it's still watchable. Later on in the trip, I got "Lost in Translation," and that copy is pretty right-on.