Got on the 9.18am K986 train towards Chongqing (47Yuan~USD$7, 4 hours). There are also express trains (2 hours) that run pretty frequent from Chengdu to Chongqing costing 112 Yuan.

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View on the way

Got to the ChongQing North station at around 1.30pm,

then took bus 141 towards ChaoTianMen which the YangTze River hostel is located just nearby.

Crossing the bridge over the JiaLing river

YangTze River hostel (25Yuan~USD$4)

Chongqing was the Kuomintang wartime capital from 1938 to 1945. The city is one of four municipalities in China, large cities directly under the government control. Chongqing City is intersected by the Jialing River and the Yangtze River. The city is surrounded by mountains. It contains Daba Shan in the north, Wu Shan in the east, Wuling Shan in the southeast, and Dalou Mountain to the south. Chongqing is also famous for its hot and humid weather during summer.

Chongqing is quite different from other cities in China. The landscape is very hilly and streets are windy. Unlike most cities in China with a center point, the city of Chongqing is divided into 4 main districts. The peninsula intersected by the 2 rivers is called YuZhong or JieFangBei district. Then there is JiangBei district north of the peninsula. NanPing district is at the south of JiaLing river. ShaPingBa district s located at the west part of YuZhong district. No matter old or new buildings, most buildings in ChongQing are quite high, above 20 storeys, Guess probably because of its mountainous landscape it’s easier to accommodate the city big population in highrise.

An old highrise

JiefangBei, People’ s Liberation Monument from the Japanese.

This can be considered as the main downtown of Chongqing.

Around JieFangBei is pedestrian mall

It’s quite hilly in Chongqing, stairs used to move around

Took the monorail

to DaLiTang. (Great Hall of the People). The government is pumping a lot of money into Chongqing. Everywhere there are constructions going on. The first monorail line was completed in 2005. 5 more lines are being currently constructed.

Great Hall of the People. Chongqing’s Great Hall of the People (and the People’s Square in front of the Hall) is an architectural symbol of Chongqing City. Its construction began in 1951, but its design is traditional and mirrors those of China’s ancient classical dynasties. It somewhat resembles an enlarged version of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. The People’s Square was only completed in 1997 and is decorated with trees and flowers.
There are many people dancing at the square every evening.

Night view across the river

A cute kitten, back at the hostel

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