Blogs from Chongqing, Chongqing, China, Asia - page 5

Our 15th day in the far east was also our last morning on the Sunshine China cruise ship before it docks in the early morning in Chongqing (the sister city of my hometown Brisbane). We only had a half day in Chongqing before heading off to Guilin after lunch. We docked in this huge city with a population over 30million (well the municipality of Chongqing) around 8 am. Of course we get the standard merchants when you get off any form of transport trying to sell some sort of kite, map, scarf, jade etc. We headed off to the Chongqing Zoo to see the handful of panda’s they have in their compound. Due to some time restraints, we had around an hour in the zoo before we headed off to a park for a tea drinking ... read more

The Long Way Round China is big. This is something that I had known, in an abstract kind of way, before I had ever decided to descend onto its proverbial doorstep. The fact crystallized even more when I began researching the provinces and cities that I wanted to visit during my 3 week stint here. But it wasnt until I had my first 18 hour train ride that I began to really understand just how massive this country is. The word colossal comes to mind. Trying to "do" China in 3 weeks would be like trying to coax a tiger into a tutu. Utterly exhausting, potentially painful, and absolutely futile. Rather then wear myself ragged dashing across this vast landmass, I decided to confine my focus to the Southern provinces. This plan looked good on paper, ... read more

Stilwell Museum must be a excellent place for foreign visitors in Chongqing , especially for Americans. In order to commemorate the outstanding contritution by Gen.Stilwell in the joint resistance against the Japanese invasion, promote the mutual understanding and friendship between US and China, the Chongqing Municipal Government set up the "Stilwell Research Center"in Chongqing in Oct,1991 and the former stilwell residence has been arranged as the "Chongqing Stilwell Museum". The museum isnt very large bur delicate, there are exhibition of beding room ,dining room and council chamber for Stilwell. "Hump Flight""Flying Tiger" "Stilwell Road"--Those nouns can remind you what happened in those years. Stillwell's contribution to China and the peace of the world will be remembered by Chinese forever. Also the museum is located at a beautiful mountain and you can take a glimpse of the ... read more

If there has ever been a city on this trip that I can feel pretty certain I never will live in, or want to live in, Chongqing is it. We have been to seven Asian countries on this trip, plus Hong Kong and Macau. That is a list of many different languages, cultures, religions, and foods. One of the questions we get asked most frequently by people is how do you communicate if you don’t speak the language? We answer that we try to learn a few words like hello, please, and thank you. Then, we just wing it. In most places we can find someone who speaks enough English to help us out. We point a lot, at pictures of food on a restaurant wall or on a menu. We use hand signals for numbers, ... read more

Chengdu was a fair city...it treated me right...it absorbed me and accepted me without reservations about my place of origin and the language I spoke. It is a place I could live in...a big city with that neighbourhood feel. Now it was off to Chongqing, the third biggest city in China with a name not as recognizable as numbers one and two (Beijing and Shanghai ). I left town in a taxi using that well rehearsed word for ' airport ' in my head ... ' jichang '. Having to repeat it to the driver several times, he taught me how to say it so I could be understood the first time. That was as much as we spoke on the drive to the airport...with the odd expletive aimed at cyclists and scooters. The airport was ... read more