http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Chongqing en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:22:18 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:22:18 +0000 Chongqing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-455059.html 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 stan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-450914.html Slow Boat Through ChinaClimbing onto the bus which would take me to the pier in nearby Yichang I began wondering just what I had gotten myself into. I had been spent the past 36 hours in buses trains cars and tourist offices. It had been over 2 days since I had enjoyed the luxury of a hot shower or the comfort of a real bed. And I was now consigning myself to yet another bus ride followed http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-447833.html The Long Way RoundChina 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 mass http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-447447.html Me and Jacie arrived in Chongqing at about midday four hours later than scheduled. We had been in the amazing soft sleeper carriage so we didn't mind at all in fact I was quite pleased this was one of the cleanest places in China I'd been The man in our cabin was hardly there and didn't snore at all although I was earplugged and eyemasked up so he could have been performing cabaret for al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-447268.html Finally Hopefully I will be successful in adding an entry from abroad We have been in China now just a week and it seems like a month we have done so much. We have travelled from Beijing to Xian and boarded the Victoria Rose our mini criuse ship for our jaunt down the Yangtze to the greatest tallest biggest Dam in the world. China has turned out to be amazing the people are friendly and w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-444290.html 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 Centerin Chongqing in Oct1991 and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-436169.html I have been in Chongqing for about 5 years. When I was a 18yearold girl I went to Chongqing for study. Now I choose to stay here to work. In retrospect it was a minute. I am not sure if I am mature or not. I don't know what I have gotten. Maybe exactly because that I always worry about personal gains and losses I am not happy. Yangtze Cruises Yangtze River Cruise Yangtze Tours China Yang http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-433765.html I don't like always complains about work too. I know the right thing is hardworking and hardworking and everlasting hardworking. Everyone has his difficulties. Everyone has his must. Maybe I just want to talk with somebody who can know what I think. I think I really need more friends. We can go out and have fun. So I can forget those matters temporarily.By the way I am a travel consultant. If a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-433761.html I have been working in Chongqing for about half a year. I went to work just after I graduated. At the first time I think everything is so fresh and even if it is hard to me I still want to smile to it. But right now I feel so tired. It bewilders me and depressed me. My daliy work is deviate from my duty. I always feel a strong antipathy towards it. Now I am so sorry that in order to full fill t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-433755.html My 5 hour bus ride to Chongqing was very uneventful. I had the usual Chinese stares from everyone else on the bus who look at you at first presumably thinking you got on by mistake but when it becomes evident yoursquore staying they forget about you and you become accepted into the circle. So the journey went and the familiar ache in my neck let me know that at some point I had fallen asleep http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-432627.html Thursday 16th July 2009 ChongqingThe ships PA woke everyone up at about 5.30 am we had only gone to bed after 1 so didnrsquot have a great nights sleep. They were stopping for an excursion to some town or temple at 7 so decided to wake everyone up nice and early. We didnrsquot bother with the trip they all cost extra and 10 Yuan to see another temple at 7am wasnrsquot the most appealing of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-430690.html 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 donrsquot speak http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-427253.html Quite a trek to get to the Red Cliff Village. It's on the city bus line but it's over an hour and seemingly out in the middle of nowhereof course I know I'm still in the middle of the city. And just when you think your journey has been long enough you encounter stairs. More stairs than you ever imagine. There were so many I couldn't see the top when I was standing at the bottom. I know i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-423963.html Slept in today and then had a leisurely breakfast before heading out for a day of sightseeing. I had 3 planned stops The 3 Gorges Museum The People's Square and Great Hall and the Stilwell Museum. I found the 3 Gorges Museum with no trouble. Which is a miracle considering how messed up the bus system is in this town. The museum was huge and beautiful. And really warm. I mean I know it wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-423959.html Awoke at 7am to eat breakfast before heading on a day trip to Dazu. Another girl from the hostel and I both signed up for the tour. We left at 8am when our adorable tour guide arrived. Yet another man in a purple shirt.We picked up people in a few other locations in this massive city before heading out to Dazu. The drive took about two hours. And of course because I'm going to see yet anoth http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-423951.html Ever have one of those days you always hear about happening to other people and then suddenly it happens to you Today was one of those days.I took the train to Chongqing and was met at the station by a guy from my hostel. I bought my return ticket to Chengdu before we left and then we took the city bus to the hostel. Then I ate and booked myself a tour for tomorrow. I could do it myself but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-423944.html My last full day in Chongqing was filled by a tour to Baoding Shan at Dazu about 100km west of Chongqing. When I first signed up for the tour through a friend I had envisioned a comfortable bus with reclining seats and full windows with bottled water...afterall the cost was not minimal. Well the cost may not have been minimal but the tour bus was. Taken by a minibus to a lesser minibus seem http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-421101.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/Chongqing/blog-419976.html On the morning I left Chengdu I woke up feeling so ill Not good Sean decided just before we were leaving that he was going to head to Tibet so jealous I really want to go but cant afford it on this trip so I was off on my own again Caught a really nice bus to Chonqing and then a taxi to my hostel A few taxi drivers wouldnt take me dont think they knew where it was or probably didnt want a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chongqing/blog-419659.html