Chongqing, The Yangtze River and the Bright Lights
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
14
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Chongqing,
China
Sunday, September 16, 2007
First stop, a wealthy man's house which is now a government museum near to the airport which shows the way the wealthy men would live with their concubines and their "number one wife". Amazingly ornate beds with the distinction between concubine and wife being the height, number of layers and amount of gold inlay making up the bed; 4 layers for the general concubines, 5 for the special concubines and 6 for the number one wife. A separate, very ornate bed is not used but passed from one generation to the next as a dowery for the daughters at marriage time. Sadly the beds were all made out of dark wood in dark rooms so photos would do them no justice.
Next we headed off to the Eling Park where we would get a view of the entire Chongqing
Chongqing Fishing
. We were a bit dubious about this as it was raining and we thought it would be a bit of a let-down. We cold not have been more wrong; the view was almost an aside from the park! The park itself was beautifully green and clean with air that smelt of trees, plants and bamboo, how wonderful.The first sight we came across was of people sitting all along a walkway fishing in a small pond. This was more like the proverbial "shooting fish in a barrel"! It was a pretty small dam / pond and everyone was successfully catching lots of fish. There was a place where they could then go and cook their fish if they wanted to.
This was followed by a whole lot of tables with lots of "retired people" sitting playing cards or mah jong. Apparently a lot of them spend a lot of time doing this but Sunday's are particularly popular.
Then it was time to see the view from the top - we could see down to the Yangtze River and parts of Chongqing but mostly mist from rain and smog from pollution. We moved straight on to the Three Gorges Project museum which was fascinating. The museum is a giant mural following along the course of the Yangtze River showing the current and future water levels, the towns that would be fully or partially flooded and the number of people who would be displaced and relocated
Chongqing Mah Jong Players
. Quite astounding! The artist who had created the mural had apparently spent a great deal of time travelling the entire area to create an accurate representation, we bought a miniature version that unfolds to be 15 metres long and signed on the last page by the artist.And that's not all... there was a Government Tea House in the park so, as we had time before having to be on the boat, we went to our second tea ceremony. All of the tea pourers were busy giving presentations so we were asked to sit under the trees outside and drink tea while we waited, how nice! This ceremony was by far better than our previous one with a lot more discussion and fun. Our guide even joined in with the fun. We tasted Jasmine, Litchi Black Tea and, best of the three, Oolong Ginseng which Annie even bought a small tin of to take home.
That was the end of a surprisingly great visit to the Eling Park.
We briefly stopped to walk across the open square in front of The People's Palace where people were just wandering around and children were learning to rollerblades. Unfortunately the heavens decided to open again so we headed off to another new experience, Chongqing Hotpot for supper
Chongqing Tea Tasting
. This is similar to a fondue in that you cook your own food in a bubbling pot in the middle of the table. The difference is that this one has an inner, very spicy mixture and an outer mild mixture. The outer one is for cooking noodles and for the not-so-brave to cook their food in. We bravely used the spicy mixture and, once cooked, dipped the food into a mixture of oil, soy sauce and a generous dollop of garlic that our guide created for us. There was a really good selection of fish, veggies, strange (but not magic) mushrooms and all sorts of different forms of Tofu along with a variety of noodles. I thought it was all pretty good but unfortunately it was a bit too oily for Annie's palate (and t-shirt which partook too :-)A final quick stop at the supermarket to stock up on water and we were taken to check in on our cruise. Talk about "running the gauntlet", the gangway was a really long and rickety collection of metal walkways joined together and just a few centimetres above the Yangtze which, thanks to the rain, was raging. I was escorted with our guide clinging to my one arm and someone else on the other and a great deal of concern from both. Made it, PHEW!!! Poor Annie, she had to walk across on her own and contend with porters who decided they had had enough and just dumped our cases outside the boat.
We got our cabin sorted out and went exploring. We had heard that the lights of Chongqing by night are quite the sight. Well, step aside Blackpool Illuminations, we have reached a new level of scariness. The buildings and restaurant boats all try their best to outdo each other and the result is FANTASTIC!
Comments
Hey
Hey, it seems that u have had a fabulous trip in my Chongqing ,havent u?hehe