Our 90 minute flight from Gulin was uneventful and pleasant. After landing it too us nearly 30 minutes to get from the gate to the baggage claim...that is how BIG the Chongqing airport really it. Getting a cab was effortless and the 40 minute ride into the city center and our hotel was a whopping $14 USD. We checked into our Holiday Inn Express hotel and were down and out on a comfy bed in minutes.
The size of this city is overwhelming...and that is an understatement. The metropolitan area of Chongqing includes many suburbs and "towns," all seperated on the map by simply a drawn line. It goes on forever and is literally a bit larger than the state of South Carolina. Yes, THE STATE!
We woke early and did a search for things to do. There were several attractions that caught our eye...an ancient town, a cave system, views from a "nearby" mountaintop, and a national park housing BC era rock carvings. Once started plotting them out using Google maps, we realized that none would be accessible without a very long bus ride. Consider being in Charleston on the coast and wanting to visit a national park outside of Charolette. That is what tourists in Chongqing deal with to see "the sights."
We opted to visit the Three Gorges Museum which was a 30 minute cab ride from the hotel. It was a lovely museum with a nice variety of collections. One exhibit chronicled China's efforts to stave off the Japanese occupation. There we learned that the capitol of China was moved here between 1936 and 1943 as Beijing was too vulnerable. The photos of the Japanese bombings were startling as were the personal accounts by survivors.
People's Square
Really exquisite scroll paintings.
Bright atrium.
Mind Dynasty vases and other porcelian collections.
The studio of a famous Dutch writer who made his home in China.
Dramatic dipiction of prisoners jammed into a cell during WWII. Brutal.
Terracoata and clay sculptures from the 4th century.
Negative carvings used to make rubbed art prints. An early method for mass producing works of art in 6th Century China.
A great collection of ethic costumes.
MASKS!!!
A currency collection all in Chinese so we had no idea what we were viewing...the size of the notes was interesting.
There were a lot of spotted cats at one time in southwestern China,.
Following our visit we headed over the the People Hall, the opera house today, and site of the provisional government during WWII. It was a magnificent building from the outside.
The auditorian was a bit stark but the acoustics were awesome.
These two sites concluded out sightseeing. By now it was high noon and the temps were reaching the high 90's. We wandered a bit looking for a restaurant for lunch finding only a few that had pictures on the menus and those didn't seem to appeal to us. We headed back to the hotel and had yet another chicken burger and fries for lunch.
For dinner we visited a local Islamic restaurant for a change of pace. The food was great. The nan was delicious and fresh, the plav rice was sweet and fragrant, and the dog meat stew was a bit of a surprise as we had no idea that is what we had ordered until well after the meal was done and tummies were full.
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