Chongqing (8-7)

Sunday morning I left my apartment at 8:30 so I could meet Diao Min at 11:00, since she had invited me to have lunch at her house and had said it takes two hours to get there. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for a bus to the bus station and I was able to get on the first bus that left for Chengdu. But, even with those breaks, it was 10:30 when I got on the metro, and it took another 40 minutes to get to her stop. My route was longer than hers. I figured out later that it goes to the north; so I really traveled farther than I needed to. But this is the way I know, and it’s the easy way because I don’t have to change buses in the city with my bags.

Diao Min met me at the metro exit and walked me to her home. Her mother was still cooking when we arrived. Her cousin joined us for lunch, and her father returned from work and joined us later. It was nice to meet her family and see her home as well as to see Diao Min again. When I left, her mother gave me some grapes. Everyone walked me to the street and put Diao Min and me on a tuk-tuk. Diao Min walked into the metro station with me, since I needed to take it to the train station, and told me to let her know when I got on the train. I got there and on the train just in time.

The train was a new, fast train and was very comfortable. The speed was on a display at the front of the cabin along with the inside and outside temperatures and time. The trip to Chongqing took 2.5 hours, about the same time it takes to get from Wenjiang to Chengdu. (I read that the old trains took four hours.) The station in Chongqing has a taxi queue, which was helpful. When it was my turn, I gave the driver the hotel address printed in Chinese. He either didn’t know it or couldn’t read it. (The print was a little light and he seemed to be squinting.) So I left to wait for the next taxi. The attendant saw me and asked in English where I wanted to go. He took my paper and then told the next driver where I wanted to go and assured me that the driver knew where to take me. So I arrived at the hotel easily.

One of the women at the registration desk speaks a little English. She gave me the hotel’s business card and circled the nearby walking street and drew a line to show me how to walk there. She also wrote where the metro stop is. When I asked about tours, since the booking website had listed tours as one of the features, she was able to arrange a tour to Dazu with Chinese tourists on Monday. She also gave me a metro map and circled the stops for places I wanted to visit. All of this was very helpful.

After settling into my room, I went for a walk to become familiar with the area so I would know how to get back to the hotel after the tour. I walked to the walking street, which is about ten minutes from the hotel. It’s a few blocks long and is lined with upscale stores. The central square features Gucci, Cartier, and Vuittton along with KFC and Starbucks. There’s a clock tower in the middle of the square that seems to be one of the city’s landmarks. I learned later that this area is Jiefangbei, the downtown shopping center of Chongqing. I hadn’t planned to go there, but there I was. It was an interesting cultural experience.

I walked down a parallel street that became “food street.” In that section, there are many shops selling what they call “snacks,” which are small, quick foods like skewered meats, ready-to-eat foods, and sweets. I decided to have one of the sweets with a special jelly substance and beans. Then I saw roasted corn at the same booth and decided to have some. The man asked which kind I wanted as he pointed to the choices—in Chinese, of course. When I told him I wanted it not spicy, the woman held up a can of ketchup, so I agreed to that. She brushed ketchup onto the corn and roasted it until the ketchup was dry. It was interesting; I actually liked it.

Walking back to the hotel, I took the wrong street. As I worked my way back down other to where I started, it was getting dark. When I got to the main street, I recognized that I was near the walking street. By this time, the lights on the buildings were brightly lit and the clock tower was brightly white. The lights were mesmerizing; so I had to walk back to the square. It was also interesting because many more people were there. It’s the place to walk in the evenings. Many people were tourists, I think, judging by the number of photos being taken. But others seemed to be city people out for the evening. Most were young adults.

The street next to the hotel is called 30^o Street Bar. I thought it is named for the angle at which it descends down and ascends up the hill, but then I saw the name and a picture of a thermometer. It has a lot of restaurants. On the way up to the hotel, I noticed the Ice Cream Supermarket and had to go in. It’s a shop that sells only ice cream—six freezers full. Of course, I had to buy one.

Monday morning at 8:00 I embarked on the tour to Dazu. The bus drove around picking up other people for half an hour. Then we went to an office and waited for over an hour until ten more people arrived to join us. Fortunately, I had a book on my phone to read. At 9:45, we finally started the trip. After 2.5 hours, we stopped at an old temple. Since I didn’t understand anything that was explained, I don’t know what its significance is. In one room, there is a very old wooden Buddha in a glass case. A monk talked for a while. Then he dismissed us row by row and said a blessing to the Chinese people; I was waved on. This was OK, but I remember Thai monks blessing me even though they knew I wouldn’t understand. In the next room, people sat individually to chat with a monk.

We finally arrived in Dazu at 1:15. I hadn’t realized it was so far and thought it would take only a couple hours. Our first stop was lunch, which was good, as I was hungry. Lunch was included in the tour. Luckily, there were four vegetables that I could eat.

When we got to the site, the Chinese were given wireless audio receivers so everyone could hear the guide easily. That was the first I’d seen that on a tour, and I thought it was a very good idea, having been with guides who were difficult to hear and having seen many guides with amplified megaphones that project everywhere.

The Dazu Rock Carvings are carvings in cliffs. There are several sites in the area. We were at the Baodingshan Site, which has about 1000 carvings. The carvings feature Buddhist teachings. One area features buffalo carvings. 

Others sections include guardians, parental love, filial love. 

There are two caves that have statues in them. The one with a carved wall of a figure with 1000 arms and hands, each with an eye painted in the palm, is being repaired; so we couldn’t see much of it. 

The reclining Buddha is very long. There are so many figures in front of it that I didn’t realize it was the Buddha until I got to the head. 

In most places the carvings are in three levels up the cliff.

One of the men in our group spoke to me at the site. He has lived in California for a long time. He just completed working in China for two months and is traveling before returning to the U.S. He gave me some information from the guide a few times, which was nice. There were also signs in English and Chinese at the different sections.

After leaving the site, we stopped at a kitchen knife showroom. There we were given a display of the knives. I noticed when they got on the bus that several people had purchased a set. Knives are a specialty of Dazu.

Back in Chongqing, we were dropped off near the hotel, which was nice. I had decided that I would eat at one of the restaurants on 30^o Street Bar and chose the noodle restaurant, since I thought I could order there. And I could. I had noodles with vegetable sauce. It was delicious, some of the tastiest noodles I’ve had.

Wednesday morning, armed with my metro map with destination stops circled, I set off for Ciqikou Ancient Town. The metro goes right to it; so it was a smooth trip. As the Ancient Towns are, it is set up for tourists. The main street is lined with shops selling general tourist items and a few different items. One special item here was carved wooden combs. High quality ones are about $40. There were several shops selling paintings of the town.

One man was making fancy cotton candy shaped like flowers.

After the main tourist area, another street winds through a more residential area. The houses there are more authentic; people live in them. There are a number of small cafes and some shops, but the streets are not lined with shops. 

I ate lunch in one of the cafes. Vegetable dumplings (with only a small amount of meat) and sweet and sour plum juice. When I exclaimed that the menu was in Chinese, the girl quickly retrieved it and disappeared, returning with an English menu. I was impressed. Another girl came to chat with me for a few minutes. 

She suggested I go into the house because it is beautiful. It is indeed.

When I came to the end of the street, it hadn’t wound back to the main street. I wasn’t sure where I was but quickly realized that I was across from the metro entrance. So that worked out well. I enjoyed the few hours meandering through the shops and along the streets.

My next stop was People’s Square and the Three Gorges of Chongqing Museum. Again the metro went right to it. After walking through the exit, the park and museum were across the street. 

The walk through the exit was interesting. Since it’s cool there, old people—and a few younger ones—were sitting there. Some were playing cards; some were just sitting. At the end near the exit, there is a long area with tables. They were filled with people playing cards and mahjong. One section looked like a library. There were shelves with books and people at the tables were reading.

People’s Square is a plaza between the museum and The People’s Great Hall. I didn’t know what that building is until I walked over after finishing at the museum. It’s a beautiful building. Since I saw people posing for photos in front of it, I knew it is important. Since I saw people going in, I ventured over to see what it is. I even paid 10 yuan ($1.60) to go into the great hall, having no idea what it is. It’s a hall for performances. The ticket allows you to go into the hall. It’s nice and has a beautiful ceiling, but I probably wouldn’t have paid to see it had I known that is all the ticket was for. I guess the money goes to a good cause.

The museum is quite nice—and free. And air conditioned, which is a nice bonus on a hot (33^o C/91^oF), humid day. The first floor exhibit is about the Yangtze River Three Gorges Dam project. It has some artifacts that were rescued before they were immersed in the water. 

One wall has a “rock waterfall” that was removed. We were reminded that over a million people volunteered to move for the project. When I exited the display, I noticed that the round theater film had just begun; so I went in. This was also free. The film projects on all the walls of the round room and people stand in the middle. Another new film experience for me. The film was about the Yangtze and made me more excited to be on the river soon.

The rest of the museum has ancient artifacts that were moved from the former museum building. These go back to Neolithic time. There is a display of coins through the ages. One section is about the Sino-Japanese war in the 1940s. I’d learned last week that during this time, the capital was moved to Chongqing. Another section features costumes and crafts of some of the minority groups. All are displayed very well.

Those two activities filled the day. After relaxing in my room for a while, I headed out to find some food and enjoy the lights and bustling crowds of the shopping area one more time.

Wednesday morning, armed with the hotel business card map with my destination indicated and written in Chinese, I headed to the Red Cliff Village Museum. On the way I stopped at the Luohansi Temple, one of the important ones in the city. Following the signs, I realized that it is the one I had seen on Monday that is beside an area being destroyed. As I got closer, I realized that it is the back of the temple; I continued to walk around the construction zone to see if it was open. It was open and there were a lot of people there. Outside the entrance were about a dozen handicapped people begging. That was the first time I’ve seen beggars here. On the way to the main building, you walk through a passage lined with two rock cliffs that are carved on top and have niches with altars on the bottom. Old women are on duty to accept people’s offerings and place them on the altars. Many people stopped to pray; some made offerings. I had my camera out. Even though I wasn’t using it, one of the old women pointed, said something, and shook her head; she followed me, pointing and speaking as I walked down the aisle looking at the carvings and altars. After I realized that she was going to keep watching me, I put the camera away so she could relax. One of the main features of the temple is a hall of arhats, similar to the one I was on Emeishan. A number of people were walking around, making quick nods/prayers to some of the statues; some stopped at altars to pray. In the main hall of the temple, several monks were conducting a ceremony. The room was full of people—nuns wearing dark brown gowns and lay people. The monks were chanting when I arrived. After a while, they stopped and walked out of the building. People were standing at attention and facing the door. After several minutes, the monks returned and chanted a bit more. The important monk, maybe the abbot, seemed to be blessing a cloth. Then he left. It was interesting to watch. I find the chanting mesmerizing, and it reminded me of the times I spent in temples with my friends in Thailand.

When I left the temple, I headed for the museum. Finding it was a challenge. I went to the area the receptionist had marked and showed my card to someone and asked where it is. She pointed ahead. I did this three more times, always being pointed ahead. I was out of the area where I thought the museum is, but I kept going. Eventually, I came to a hotel and asked the attendant on the street. He took me inside to a man who speaks English. He told me it was the glass structure outside and to go down to the fourth floor. I never would have found it without his assistance, as it is not marked from above.

This was not a museum. It’s a shopping and restaurant area. The top level where I was is the 10^th floor. An elevator goes down to the 4^th floor, which is the restaurant floor. The third floor has shops selling crafts, and the second floor has shops selling local crafts. These are mostly high quality crafts; so it was fun to walk around and look at them. And the building is air conditioned, making it a good place to hang out for a couple hours. Signs identified it as Hongya Cave. When I returned to the hotel, I asked about the other museum and learned that it is, indeed the same place with a different name from the one I’d seen online.

After checking out of my room at 2:15, I went to find a place to eat and hang out for a couple hours. I was done with the city and ready to move on, but I couldn’t board the ship until 5:30. When I returned to get my bags, I asked where to get a taxi. One of the women was leaving and took me to the bus stop with her and put me on a bus to the pier. By 6:00 I was on the ship, in my room, and ready to move on. 

Chongqing lived up to its reputation of being very hot. People in Luzhou had talked about how hot Chongqing is. When I told Diao Min I was going to Chongqing, she said it’s very hot. The last two days were especially hot. I heard the temperature was 40^o C/104^oF. Not only was it very hot, but the sun’s rays were especially strong and bright. The afternoon sun was brutal.