April
17, Tuesday
Our private first class coach.
Scenes along the way to Chongqing
Flooded rice fields
Amazing old bridges and green farm lands
This in in our coach, showing our currant speed and outside temperature.
beautiful fields and they are building more bridges above the valley for trains or cars.
We cross a huge river along the way. Could be the Yantze River.
Arriving in Chongqing
Chongqing is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It is the largest industrial centre in Southwest China and is known as “The Mountain City”. “As of November 2010, the municipality of Chongqing had a population of 28,846,200, although the urbanized area is estimated to have a population of only 6 or 7 million.” Reminder that the entire population of Canada was 34,108,752 in 2010. Mind boggling !
Some buildings have a distinctive European aspect.
Large condo buildings everywhere. You will note that even these have laundry hanging on the balconies; that is because clothes dryers use up a lot of electricity, which is very expensive in China (as well as in Hong Kong if you remember the pictures).
A wholesale market area
Mr Wu, our local guide, is waiting for us at the station and leads to our bus. Our first order of business is to go to a restaurant for lunch. Again a Lazy-Susan on the table with at least 10 different dishes in front of us to choose from. Beer is considered a “soft” drink here and most people opt for that rather than coke or sprite (the regular choices we are offered). After our meal we walk around a big city block looking at flower stores and garden centres with beautiful vases of all shapes and sizes for sale.
Turtles and snales for sale
These turtles look like they were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Bonsai trees for sale
Beautiful flowers on a huge tree; they look like lady slippers.
Kit posing with some vases to give this photo some perspective and show how huge some of the vases are. One just behind her towers above.
Orchids in a flower store.
Meat of all types hanging from hooks, poultry that has been fleshly plucked, eggs of all sizes and colours from hens, ducks and geese. Fish, frogs, eels and turtles kept alive for sale. On the second floor are vegetables and fruits so big they defy our normal North American standards.
Meats; poultry and fish are in a seperate area
Fresh baby eels anyone? Or are they some type of huge water worm?
Mushrooms of all shapes, colours and sizes
Lotus root; usually served pickled
The vegetable section on the 2nd floor
Duck, chicken and quail eggs.
No idea what this is; looks like a giant tusk
Is this a cucumber or a squash? It is huge !
The smells in each area are also quite interesting and we all questioned the cleanliness of the soles of our shoes by the time we walked out of there. Where is that disinfectant puddle of water when you need it? {Back in Africa at the Botswana border near Chobe Park.}
The impressive lobby of the Museum
Old and new compliment each other in this architecture
“The Waterfall stone was saved before the flooding. It originally stood at the Wu Gate. Natural erosion caused its weathered look, like a waterfall cascading down a mountain.”
New statues depicting the history of the region. The one above shows the men who used to pull the boats up past the rapids in the rivers. The one below is simply beautiful in its imagery.
There was an entire rebuilt village, one of the ones that disappeared when the Three Gorges Dam was built and the rivers were flooded. Although the Three Gorges Dam project flooded certain areas, the draining of the lower reaches of the river has uncovered many artifacts, now stored in the Three Gorges Museum. This part of the museum, dedicated to the Three Gorges project, contained many new beautiful statues depicting the changes through history
but the most ironic was this one of people “happily”being relocated.
The creation of the dam and flooding of the Yantze river and other tributaries resulted in the “resettlement of a million people.The Three Gorges, a generic term for Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge, is a shining pearl along the Yangtze River stretches from Fengjie county of Chongqing to the west and to Yichang city of Hubei Province to the east with a total span of approximately 192 kilometers.”
Beautiful bronze pieces
Clay cups unearthed at one of the burial sites, ingineously displayed. Close up of one of the cups.
Ornate bronze hinge
and bronze bells, a musical instrument
Check out the animal heads holding the bar on which the bells hang.
Pottery horse and wagon wheels
Bronze doors in a portion of the museum which was closed
Then I went to view some wall paintings and calligraphy.
Beautiful painting of the Potala Palace in Tibet
The People's Hall, as seen from the museum entrance
Two little kids running in the square. Check out the little boy's sleeve covers. These appear to be very popular so that you don't wash the coat as often, just the sleeve covers.
Amazing statue in the square.
and another one of "Mother and Child"
"Lost in translation" sign at the entrance to the Hall
The inside of the Hall
A painting gallery within the Hall, where you can buy the original paintings, or a print.
Walking the planks across pontoons, towards our ship
Also got some great shots of the city buildings, all lit up for the night.
Our ship, “President Prime”.
Once we were on the boat, in the dining room, waiting for our room assignments, we watched "dinner cruise" ships go by.
Up at 7 am. Bags
at door for 7:30. Down for
breakfast. Check out and on the bus by
8:45. We drive to the east of Chengdu
to the new train station. We are VIPs
today (Big Potatoes according to the Chinese) and get on a first class car on
the high speed train to Chongqing (196 km / hr). It only takes 2 hours to cover approximately 330
km on the “He Xie” (和谐) bullet train.
Our hostess on this tripOur private first class coach.
Scenes along the way to Chongqing
Flooded rice fields
Amazing old bridges and green farm lands
This in in our coach, showing our currant speed and outside temperature.
beautiful fields and they are building more bridges above the valley for trains or cars.
We cross a huge river along the way. Could be the Yantze River.
Arriving in Chongqing
Chongqing is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It is the largest industrial centre in Southwest China and is known as “The Mountain City”. “As of November 2010, the municipality of Chongqing had a population of 28,846,200, although the urbanized area is estimated to have a population of only 6 or 7 million.” Reminder that the entire population of Canada was 34,108,752 in 2010. Mind boggling !
Some buildings have a distinctive European aspect.
Large condo buildings everywhere. You will note that even these have laundry hanging on the balconies; that is because clothes dryers use up a lot of electricity, which is very expensive in China (as well as in Hong Kong if you remember the pictures).
A wholesale market area
Mr Wu, our local guide, is waiting for us at the station and leads to our bus. Our first order of business is to go to a restaurant for lunch. Again a Lazy-Susan on the table with at least 10 different dishes in front of us to choose from. Beer is considered a “soft” drink here and most people opt for that rather than coke or sprite (the regular choices we are offered). After our meal we walk around a big city block looking at flower stores and garden centres with beautiful vases of all shapes and sizes for sale.
Turtles and snales for sale
These turtles look like they were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Bonsai trees for sale
Beautiful flowers on a huge tree; they look like lady slippers.
Kit posing with some vases to give this photo some perspective and show how huge some of the vases are. One just behind her towers above.
Orchids in a flower store.
We are then driven to the older part of Chongqing to
visit the local farmers’ market.
Crossing the Jialing River; water levels are extremely low.
Meat of all types hanging from hooks, poultry that has been fleshly plucked, eggs of all sizes and colours from hens, ducks and geese. Fish, frogs, eels and turtles kept alive for sale. On the second floor are vegetables and fruits so big they defy our normal North American standards.
Meats; poultry and fish are in a seperate area
Fresh baby eels anyone? Or are they some type of huge water worm?
Mushrooms of all shapes, colours and sizes
Lotus root; usually served pickled
The vegetable section on the 2nd floor
Duck, chicken and quail eggs.
No idea what this is; looks like a giant tusk
Is this a cucumber or a squash? It is huge !
The smells in each area are also quite interesting and we all questioned the cleanliness of the soles of our shoes by the time we walked out of there. Where is that disinfectant puddle of water when you need it? {Back in Africa at the Botswana border near Chobe Park.}
From there we walk to the central part of the city where Jiefangbei Square is located; a huge plaza also known as “Red Square”. One one side is the Three Gorges Dam Museum, which we get to visit.
Jiefangbei Square also known as “Red Square” because of the marble tiles.
I love the fact that I am free to roam on my own in the museum, founded in 1951. The new building opened in 2005 and contains 45,100 square meters of space over 4 floors. There are over 170,000 items in their collection including chinaware, bronze pieces, paintings, calligraphy and jade. I have time to take in the following sections: Three Gorges Ancient Ba Yu, Art Sculpture of the Han Dynasty, Porcelain of Different Dynasties and a temporary exhibit on the first floor.
The impressive lobby of the Museum
Old and new compliment each other in this architecture
“The Waterfall stone was saved before the flooding. It originally stood at the Wu Gate. Natural erosion caused its weathered look, like a waterfall cascading down a mountain.”
New statues depicting the history of the region. The one above shows the men who used to pull the boats up past the rapids in the rivers. The one below is simply beautiful in its imagery.
There was an entire rebuilt village, one of the ones that disappeared when the Three Gorges Dam was built and the rivers were flooded. Although the Three Gorges Dam project flooded certain areas, the draining of the lower reaches of the river has uncovered many artifacts, now stored in the Three Gorges Museum. This part of the museum, dedicated to the Three Gorges project, contained many new beautiful statues depicting the changes through history
but the most ironic was this one of people “happily”being relocated.
The creation of the dam and flooding of the Yantze river and other tributaries resulted in the “resettlement of a million people.The Three Gorges, a generic term for Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge, is a shining pearl along the Yangtze River stretches from Fengjie county of Chongqing to the west and to Yichang city of Hubei Province to the east with a total span of approximately 192 kilometers.”
I then visited a section devoted to the ancient Ba People, the first culture in the Chongqing region and followed that up with sculptural art of the Han Dynasty, most of which were used as tomb ornaments.
Clay cups unearthed at one of the burial sites, ingineously displayed. Close up of one of the cups.
Ornate bronze hinge
and bronze bells, a musical instrument
Check out the animal heads holding the bar on which the bells hang.
Pottery horse and wagon wheels
Bronze doors in a portion of the museum which was closed
Then I went to view some wall paintings and calligraphy.
Beautiful painting of the Potala Palace in Tibet
Mogao caves in Dunhuang,Turpan or Urumqi region, North west China on the silk route. This was one of the areas of China I wanted to go visit but it wasn't part of the tour and it would have been difficult to go by myself.
On one side of the Plaza is the Three Gorges Museum and on the other a
fairly recent building, the People’s Assembly Hall (Chongqing People's Great Hall ) built in the style of
the Forbidden City buildings, with a Temple of Heaven dome on top. This audience hall was built for political
party meetings, but is now used as a theater for plays, ballets and concerts.
A view of the People’s Hall, through the gateThe People's Hall, as seen from the museum entrance
Two little kids running in the square. Check out the little boy's sleeve covers. These appear to be very popular so that you don't wash the coat as often, just the sleeve covers.
Amazing statue in the square.
and another one of "Mother and Child"
"Lost in translation" sign at the entrance to the Hall
The inside of the Hall
A painting gallery within the Hall, where you can buy the original paintings, or a print.
That was it for our visit; the only thing left to do was
to eat dinner and head for the cruise ship “President Prime”. There was just a slight problem, Mr Wu
received a phone call informing him that the restaurant, where we were supposed
to eat, had “an industrial accident” that
afternoon, it actually BLEW UP ! Thank
God we weren’t there at the time. So we
ended up going back to the same restaurant where we had eaten lunch and then
headed out to the ship.
Chongqing has 2 rivers running through it, the Yangtze
and the Jialing River.
Chongqing, with over 100 days of
fog per year, is also known as the "Fog City". The ship was anchored in the
middle of the Yangtze River and we had to get to it via a series of platforms sitting
on pontoons; an experience in itself. I
was glad I didn’t have to carry anything more than my purse since it was a
considerable distance.Walking the planks across pontoons, towards our ship
Our ship, “President Prime”.
Once we were on the boat, in the dining room, waiting for our room assignments, we watched "dinner cruise" ships go by.
Wendy and I are sharing a room while we are onboard and
we have managed to give ourselves room to maneuver around the suitcases (since
the closets are smelly and neither of us want to use them).
There are 6 decks on the ship and the room I share with
Wendy is on the 3rd along with everyone else from our group. We will be cruising a total of 1,400 km “through the heart of China along the world’s
third longest river”. The dining
room and reception desk is located on the 2nd floor. We enter and exit the ship on the 1rst floor
(so the levels which are underwater are not numbered and cannot be accessed by
passengers. Level 4 and 5 are all staterooms. Level 6 is the lounge and open upper deck.
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