http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Chongqing en-us Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:00:46 BST Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:00:46 BST HiSo I thought I had lost my camera but I just found it This past week was my week off of school so I did a bit of touring. Unfortunately I didnrsquot have my camera I should be getting pictures of it all from friends though. Meanwhile I will now upload the pictures I didnrsquot upload earlier for you to check out. So I started out this week resolved to find some Chinese recipes onli http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-330896.html As a prewarning I am going to set my blog to private. Currently anyone and everyone can see it so Irsquom going to switch it to private. I will add everyone to the private list that is signed up as a subscriber. If you are not signed up and want access let me know so I can add you. I wonrsquot add anyone who doesnrsquot ask because it will send an email with every new postLast weeke http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-326726.html It has been a while since my last blog so this may be my longest one yet. School is going really well. I just gave my first tests at the end of last week and beginning of this week. All Arsquos And they were not easy tests I have been giving a lot of homework. After the math test I gave today they asked about math homework and I said there was none. My one student that speaks little En http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-321530.html Just a quick FYI if you didnrsquot know it you can subscribe to this blog. After you subscribe an email will be sent to you every time I post something new. This way you wonrsquot have to check it all the time or even worsehellipmiss something Ok so the last week has been completely exhausting But also a lot of fun Today is Sunday. School started last Thursday. My schedule is as http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-315568.html As I promised this blog will describe the school. School still does not start for another week. This week we are preparing our classrooms and going through orientation. The only teachers here so far are the Chinese teachersparapros and an Australian teacher for the 34 year old class. The Australian teacher is in Chongqing because her fianc works for the Hilton here. All of the teachers a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-312429.html Baigongguan Prison Zhazidong Prison are located in the Gele Muntain in Chongqingwhere Kuomingtang tortured the communist during WW8545. Believe or not all the Chinese people know this prsion because there is an article about the yongest martyr who died for the PRC.His name is Song Zhengzhong234352539120013he was arrested with his Mom when he was only one year old never know what http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-306243.html So after changing our plans we took a bus to Chongqing it was an 8 hour bus ride and our driver almost fell asleep everyone was dozing on the bus even the driver when Sabine and Tom saw that the driver was starting to nod off. so they jumped up and started making noise to wake him up after that Terry our tour guide went up the front and spoke to the drive to keep him awake. it turned out that http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-304355.html June 24Having seen Chengdu and visited the main sights of the area namely the Panda Reserve and the Giant Buddha we decided to move on to our next port of call Chongqing haha its funny you see because itrsquos a port. The aim here was to find a cheap cruise down the Yangtze River so that we could see the Three Gorges and the famous Three Gorges Dam.In China they have 3 cities that are kno http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-302090.html Arriving by overnight train from Xi'an I expected Chongqing to be a grey city without much to do. I was to spend 3 days in the city as I was waiting for Harriet the girl I had climbed Hua Shan with so we could be on the upcoming Yangtze cruise together the city is the major stepping stone for the Three Gorges Yangtze cruise. As it turned out Chongqing was pleasant enough to spend a few days http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-295304.html Formerly known as Chungking this is a big city where the Yangze flows by curiously reddish in colour like flowoff from iron ore. Took a cable car suspended above the river to the principal downtown area. Walking the busy streets under drizzle I thought this was as I often imagine the Orient to be like during monsoon season endless dripping rain and dark wet streets dim light under a heavy gr http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-287042.html After a typical Chinese Drive to the Beijing Airport the ever impressive yet frightening road gamble we made it. We were on our way to Chongqing the mountain city where no one speaks english. This has turned out to be both a struggle and a blessing. A struggle as our Taxi driver had no idea where our hostel was despite giving him the directions in pinyin as well as with characters. We http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-277319.html At Yangshou we were trying to decide whether to go to Chengdu to visit the Pandas or Chongqing to do a cruise down the Yangtze River to visit the Three Gorges Dam. We only had time to do one and Chris' engineering interest in the dam swayed the decisionWe arrived in Chongqing and only planned to be here one night before getting the boat down the river however they were all fully booked for 2 da http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-275689.html The answer is....32 million I think it may be the largest city on the planet or we were told so by a couple locals and it is China's fastest growing city with the government pouring money into it for massive construction and design projects helped by the fact that it's close to the biggest dam in the world the three gorges dam dam it's all big. We flew in from Guilin and caught a shuttl http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-266385.html Chongqing surprised us both. We had read in the Lonely Planet that it is nothing more than 'concrete city' a stopoff on the way to a Yangtze Cruise so we didn't expect to see bright neon lights swanky restaurants and a Hong Kong style skyline across the river. But that was what we found. We had taken a bus from Chengdu to Chongqing. The journey was only around 4 hours and so we arrived early http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-260257.html Chongqing Yangtze river cruise Dec 07Huge isn't the word to describe Chongqing I hadn't heard of it before coming to China but 30 million people live there. The city centre split by two big rivers doesn't feel that big the rivers both have cable car rides across them for views of the city and the pollution above it. After we had been on that we found ourselves 10 pin bowling which says a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-259525.html When we flew out of Shanghai we landed in Yichang. From the airport we drove through the countryside. There is canola everywhere you look. This area is also famous for tea and oranges. I feel like I am in the middle of a Leonard Cohen song..... The canola is easy to spot and you can see patches between houses on hillsides beside businesses etc. If there is a small bit of arable land some http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-258599.html We arrived in Chongqing with a smoggy sign of relief. I had picture perfect images of the city as a forgotten city in the lolling hills of main land China. Needless to say it wasnrsquot quite what I was expecting Chongqing station was flat and lined with rubble.We took a suspicious looking cab to our hostel who dodged police cars by shielding her face with a newspaper. What we later realised i http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-257344.html Like the title says above we have arrived in Chongquin sounds more exciting than it actually is lol. well we woke up rather early in chendu to catch a train to Chongquin. wasnt to bad only a 4 hour jouney which was a bit of larf really. as this was our 1st train journey within China we didnt really no what to expected once we arrived at the station it was the usual overcrowed hustle and bus http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-251478.html A city between two rivers shrouded in fog where stick porters still shoulder an infinite variety of loads under new office blocks. A buddhist temple surrounded by deformed beggars sits in the shadow of the surrounding skyscrapers. We had booked our hotel via an agency online. When we arrived at the hotel we thought we had been dropped off at the wrong one. We were expecting to pay 20 pounds a ni http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-241260.html So...we board the train...hundreds of people flocking all over the place...fighting to get onto the train first... I dont understand though as we all have reserved seats. The Chinese just feel the need to rush around. They have the desire to be the first in every situation. You will never get anywhere in a queue if you dont push. Fact. The train is a double decker and has about 15 carriages. Huge http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-239604.html 25th January Panda dayToday we were up at 6.15 to catch the mini bus to the Giant Panda Research Base just outside Chengdu. Many other westerners were joining us from the hostel and the minibus journey was a VERY tight squeeze On arrival we eagerly made our way through the park to the enclosure where the pandas were due to be fed. It was their cries we heard at first resembling a dog...th http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-239601.html Hello I am in Chongqing in China. Home to 32 million people on the banks of the River Yanzi. And you've nevr heard of it probably. It's a huge industrial city plighted by pollution smog and ugly grey buildings. Luckily we're only here for 1 night before we head up the Yanzi river on a cruise up to Yanching tomorrow. In stark contrast Chengdu where we spent 2 nights was surprisely pleasant. Afte http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-239595.html . http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-220861.html Friday 26 October Xi'an to ChongqingAfter another pleasant brekkie at the hotel in Xi'an Eva and I walked a few block to the China Bank and got a cash advance on our Mastercard for some RMB. That process took a few minutes but worked ok. It was a very interesting walk and we were dodging traffic with the locals. We had done an early checkout and so getting out of the hotel and picked up and ou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-215290.html I remember hearing of the Curse of the Yangtze some time ago but like most dismissed it as a load of poppycock. I find however I have had to rethink my position in light of recent events. See what you think.The next item on our list of things to do was a Yangtze River cruise so the place you go where most of these tours start from is Chongqing. We had a 7.50pm flight out of Lijiang on Wed http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-212013.html Yesterday we found out that because of the chinese holiday.The only tickets left for our over night journey to Chongqing were for hard seats.No sleepers available for days.....As we had already travelled to Xi'an on hard seats we decided to go for it.We knew the worst that could happen was that we would not sleep.How wrong we wereSo we set out early wanting to be near the front of the queue http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-208831.html Taking the train to Chongqing was another long ride so we opted for the hard sleeper. It was much more comfortable than the hard seat I was actually able to sleep We arrived at Chongqing around 9am. It was raining lightly. The station was chaotic getting out luckily the tour group that we signed up with had someone meet us at the train station. We went back to the tour office settled up the http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-205713.html Dear FriendsandFamilyThe blog site has had some problems but Ithink that we are up and running again. I have lost my previous blogs and have no idea where I left off so will try to update you the best I can. I am writing this from Dazu which is part of the largest city in China Chongqing with a population of 30 million Tomorrow we are going to see the famous Buddah statue that is in a p http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-190484.html Our plan was to arrive in Chongqing at 630 spend the day there and board the boat in the evening. On the way to Chongqing Josie was awakened by a huge thunderstorm. Not thinking too much of it we started to get ready at about 600. The train stopped but we were told that it is only 10 minutes left to Chongqing. Those 10 minutes turned into 10 hours It rained and rained and rained... we di http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-189757.html