Noodles for brunch
Pig intestine noodles (6 Yuan~USD$1)

XiaoMian (4 Yuan~USD$0.7)

Today is a rainy day

Took bus 1 to XiNanZhengFa University

at YuBei district. It’s around 45 minutes bus ride to the university.

Yumin showed me around the university. The university has a pretty nice library.

Took bus 801 to Chongqing University at ShaPingBa district.
Cafeteria of ChongQing University

Walked around SanXia Square which is another square with a pedestrian street at ShaPingBa district.

SiFanUniversity

Called it a day after visiting 3 universities and took bus 089 back to ChaoTianMen at YuZhong district.

Most days, ChongQing is covered by fog. The city is also called WuDu, the capital of fog.

Ate XiaoMian (3Yuan~USD$0.50) for breakfast, a typical local food.

There are a few museums located around ChaoTianMen bus station, just within walking distance from the YangTze River hostel. Visited the ChongQing famous people museum which is free.

There was a short movie about how the Japanese was trying to bomb the city during the war. Even till today, most people in the city still have an anti Japanese sentiment and there are still many bunkers in the city.

A long painting hanging on the wall

Because there was an Russian artist exhibition, got a promotional ticket for 10 Yuan to get in the ChongQing Urban Planning museum.

The museum is about plans to develop the city. The current mayor of the city is BoXiLai. The guy was also the mayor for Dalian few years back, and the city Dalian also has a similar Urban Planning Museum.

Plan of ChongQing

View ChongQing in a larger map

The average per capita income has been increasing for the past few years. However, the income for rural population is still lagging behind the per capital income for the city population.

The plan of One Circle with 2 Wings. The objective is to use the city (an area of one hour economic circle) to lead the development of the rural area.

The museum was pretty interactive with a lot of videos and multimedia equipments.

Took bus 265 to CiQiKou

which is an old town of ChongQing.

Like most other old towns in China, the town has become touristy with many shops selling souvenirs and food catering to visitors.

There were also a few Indian Roti shop.

Got back to the RenMinDaLiTang.

tried to visit the three Gorges museum but it was already closed. The latest time to enter is 4pm.

Golden mini twin tower

Took bus 338 to YangRenJie which has some structures from other countries.

Everywhere there are constructions going on.

Took bus 321 back to JieFangBei. Food in ChongQing has some similarities with Sichuanese cuisine, except that it’s not that numbing. ChongQing is famous for its hot and spicy HotPot.

Met up with Phoebe whom I met at the hostel in Chengdu for hotpot dinner, together with her friends.

Duck intestines

Pig’s brain

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.

View Larger Map

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