Looking out of the window of the hotel this morning, I should have been able to see a pretty decent view of the Yangtze River and downtown Chongqing. However, what greeted me was murk and I could only just about see the large Ferris wheel the other side of the main street. After breakfast we gathered outside for our daily trip, although a few people decided to stay behind and do their own thing. Given how slow some of them had been during the trip so far, it was a bit of a relief to be honest as we wouldn’t have to wait around for them today.
Our first stop was Chongqing Zoo, just the other side of the downtown area. We were here ostensibly to see the Pandas, and learned on our arrival that one had recently given birth to twins. Despite the level of protection Pandas get, they are probably one of the most deserving animals to become extinct. Their diet consistsmainly of one type of bamboo shoot, the Arrow Bamboo and they will other foods only as a last resort. They are solitary animals and don’t like each other, a serious problem when it comes to mating. When eventually they do give birth, the females are notoriously bad mothers frequently rejecting their young, or killing them through negligence. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Chongqing female was a case in point. She had rejected one of the twins and it was being cared for in an incubator. There has never been a successful case of hand rearing and this was not to be the first as the baby had refused all attempts to be fed by the keepers. Looking at the little scrap of Panda, it was conceivable that by the end of the day it would be dead from hunger. The adult Panda that we did see performed for us for a little while, feeding while lying on his back and browsing round his enclosure.
We moved on to have a look at the Red Pandas next door. These were quite different creatures and clearly did like living together as there were a number of them in the enclosure. Less picky about their food, they were also quite frisky and it was hard to pin any of them down for a picture. Lastly we went over to have a look at the other famous Chinese large mammal, the Tiger. In a very large enclosure, there only seemed to be one animal (presumably the others were asleep inside), and he welcomed us by having a big pooh when he saw us! Unfortunately, there was not time to look at any of the other animals but as we left we did see some fairly upsetting sights, a lion cage that was far too small for its occupant and some kind of circus. Perhaps not having time to look was to protect our sensibilities on such matters.
Our next stop was just outside the zoo, a small art gallery that had a resident English artist who had come to Chongqing some years ago to study Chinese art and stayed. He was the first (and last) foreigner that we had seen who was actually living in China. He was strangely unemotional about the art in the gallery, although he did explain that it is considered to be very good to stay within the conventions of Chinese art. There are several themes that run throughout the pictures, various animals that signify different meanings (cranes = longevity, bats = wisdom etc). Most of the pictures were of course for sale and when we were let loose to have a look around, Erin and I had a young chap shadowing us to find out if we were interested in purchasing anything and suggesting things we might like! Erin was drawn to one particular picture but unfortunately one of the other girls was also attracted and started bidding before we had a chance. She treated it as a little bit of one-upmanship with us, which didn’t go down too well. We did eventually go for some hand painted leaves that had been plucked from a rather attractive tree outside the gallery. Stripped of their leaf tissue, the leaf skeletons were hand painted with various scenes of China and we bought one depicting cranes, one with a tiger and one of the Yangtze River gorge.
By the time we left it was raining but surprisingly the rain appeared to have very little effect on the thick atmosphere and it was then that we realised the extent of the air pollution that bedevils the city. The traffic was appalling and so we had to take a rather convoluted way of leaving the city that involved us crossing and recrossing the mighty Yangtze on a huge suspension bridge.
Our next destination was a town called Dazu, a town almost 100 miles northeast of Chongqing. On the way we drove along a fairly new motorway heading for Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province before heading along a much older and more traditional highway. On the way we got to see some fabulous countryside, largely dominated by rice paddies and carp pools. As the land undulated, the rice paddies had been terraced to use as much space as possible. When we got to Dazu, just over two hours later and after some fearsome driving it was time for lunch. We went to what looked to be the best hotel in town and had a very enjoyable lunch. One of the more memorable items on the menu was a large river fish that looked a right beast, but which tasted absolutely divine, being cooked in soy sauce and chillies.
After lunch we headed into the mountains on a very small road to the Buddhist caves. By the time we got there the sun had come out and it was the more usual scorching weather that we had become used to. We parked at the village near the caves and wandered through the usual hoards of vendors before getting another golf cart to take us down to the site. The caves were in a fabulous setting, a narrow wooded gorge and this had clearly inspired the carver all those years ago. Unlike the Longmen Grottoes the other day, the carvings were there to tell a story about various aspects of Buddhism, Taoism and Confusciousism. The carvings were highly coloured and showed some very interesting depictions of the variou
s levels of heaven and hell according to their belief system.
The specific temple of Baoding Shan (Precious Mountain) is one of the four major sacred mountains in China. The carvings at this site began to be shaped during the Tang Dynasty and continued until it was completed in the Qing Dynasty. The main temple of Baoding Shan is constructed on a ridge above a mountain stream. Beyond the entrance lies the great Buddha Crescent (Da Fu Wan). Zhao Feng, a monk who was well versed in Tantric Buddhism, began this project seven centuries ago. The entire crescent is over a third of a mile long lined with 90 foot sheer cliffs. The oldest temple here, Sheng Shou Si, was built in 1179 and the carvings were completed in 1249.
One of the most artistic carvings in the crescent is the Wheel of Life. The decorative wheel is carved into the solid rock and the scene reflects death in life. The outer two rings of the wheel show the cycles of birth and death as animals live, die and are reborn. Divine figures are cast out from underneath the wheel as it turns. At the midpoint of the crescent there is a Sleeping Buddha (Prince Sakyamani). Further along are thou
sands of bright sculptures of coloured Chinese figures in the cliff walls also common to the Song period. Notably there is a scene of Heaven, Earth and Hell. Buddha represents Heaven and is devoted to filial piety. Carvings reflecting Earth are based around nurturing and caring for children. Hell is torturous and for those not living piously and who fall away from the teachings of Buddha and Confuscius.
Apart from the wonderful carvings, we had the amazing din of the cicadas once again and the most wonderful display of butterflies that we saw on the whole trip. The butterflies were absolutely huge and were all sorts of colours, including sulphur yellow, black and fritillary-coloured.
After our tour round the caves we headed back up to the golf cart to take us back. We drove so fast that one of the girls lost her hat in the wind and had to run back for it. When we got back to the village, we were among the first and Marco took us over to the edge of the car park to look out at the view. It was truly amazing; we were really high up and overlooked the valley that we had travelled up earlier. All we could see before us were crops growing in terraces up the side of the mountains. Of course we were bombarded with more vendors on the way back to the bus, but I had a new tactic – I had no money in my pockets. I repeatedly showed them my empty pockets but they continued to laugh as if to say ‘I don’t believe you’.
Going down the mountain in the coach was almost scarier than going up as many tourist coaches were coming our way and there was little room to pass. When we got to the bottom of the mountain we stopped at a small cluster of houses to see how the locals lived. I felt slightly uncomfortable about this, especially as this practice is apparently frowned on by the authorities and we were not allowed to stop for long in case the police came and moved us on. There were two different types of house; one was obviously owned by someone who had managed to become fairly wealthy while the others were much more ramshackle and presumably were rented. In the courtyard, there were several women in evidence – presumably the men were all out in the fields or the city working. In the middle was a large mat covered in dry chillies, a very colourful and probably common sight in this province. After nosing about in the houses for a few minutes we got back on the bus and made our way back to Chongqing.
Most of us took advantage of the long ride back to the hotel and had a bit of a kip on the bus. When we got back to Chongqing we were very surprised to see that the smog we had left behind in the morning was still there and hadn’t burned off in the sun as would have been expected in a place of such intense heat.
When we got back to the hotel there was time for some wash and brush up time before going across the road for some dinner. We had some proper Sichuan cooking, which was a nice change but we didn’t have the famous hotpot from these parts, which was a bit disappointing. One dish that really stood out was very colourful, consisting mainly of chilli (or so it seemed). There were pieces of chicken in amongst the chillies although it was almost hidden. The chillies themselves tasted rather odd, with a distinctive slightly soapy taste.
After dinner we decided to go out on the night-time outing – Chongqing by night. The first part of the tour took us to the main square in the city centre where we stopped for a look around. What we were greeted with shocked us. There were something like six or seven thousand people (the majority seemed to be women) all dancing to music playing over a loud music system. The people were all dancing in unison, obviously with moves that were well known to all the locals.
After walking around the dancers we plucked up the courage to join in which amused the locals no end. I had a hard time keeping up and so dropped out during the second number and took photos instead. After about ½ hour we left the dancers behind and continued on our tour. Apparently the dancers have been coming to the square for 5-6 years now and is a unique activity in the whole of China. It became so popular that the authorities took note and laid on the music for the dancers. Dancing now takes place every night of the week, with over 8000 people expected at weekends.
Our next stop was the highest point of the city, a hill on which stands a pagoda from which we had a good view of the lights and could quite clearly pick out the Waile River and the Yangtze despite the murkiness of the valleys. While we were at the top of the hill we also went to an art gallery featuring a painting several hundred feet long that portrayed the Yangtze River Valley from Chongqing through the gorges down to the Three Gorges Dam. The painting was completed fairly recently by an artist that had spent many years researching and visiting the many parts of the valley to try and ensure the accuracy of the painting. Seeing the scale of the picture gave us the first indication of what damage will be done by building the dam. I boufght a copy of the picture to remind me of what the valley will look like. All the way round a young girl told us how important the dam would be and casually brushed over the negative aspects of the project.
Our last stop was back in the city centre where we had some free time to look around the shops. We were dropped in what looked like the richest part of the city, where all the western shops could be found. It didn’t hold too much appeal and certainly wasn’t as interesting as the city centre of Beijing. After ½ hour of wandering around we assembled by the coach. While we waited for everyone to join us, a fight started just by us, evidently caused by a gambling debt. It was just another example of the aggression that simmers just below the surface here.
When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the cocktail bar and sat on the balcony and passed the rest of the evening with Christine and Robert, a couple that we had become quite friendly with.
Our first stop was Chongqing Zoo, just the other side of the downtown area. We were here ostensibly to see the Pandas, and learned on our arrival that one had recently given birth to twins. Despite the level of protection Pandas get, they are probably one of the most deserving animals to become extinct. Their diet consistsmainly of one type of bamboo shoot, the Arrow Bamboo and they will other foods only as a last resort. They are solitary animals and don’t like each other, a serious problem when it comes to mating. When eventually they do give birth, the females are notoriously bad mothers frequently rejecting their young, or killing them through negligence. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Chongqing female was a case in point. She had rejected one of the twins and it was being cared for in an incubator. There has never been a successful case of hand rearing and this was not to be the first as the baby had refused all attempts to be fed by the keepers. Looking at the little scrap of Panda, it was conceivable that by the end of the day it would be dead from hunger. The adult Panda that we did see performed for us for a little while, feeding while lying on his back and browsing round his enclosure.
We moved on to have a look at the Red Pandas next door. These were quite different creatures and clearly did like living together as there were a number of them in the enclosure. Less picky about their food, they were also quite frisky and it was hard to pin any of them down for a picture. Lastly we went over to have a look at the other famous Chinese large mammal, the Tiger. In a very large enclosure, there only seemed to be one animal (presumably the others were asleep inside), and he welcomed us by having a big pooh when he saw us! Unfortunately, there was not time to look at any of the other animals but as we left we did see some fairly upsetting sights, a lion cage that was far too small for its occupant and some kind of circus. Perhaps not having time to look was to protect our sensibilities on such matters.
Our next stop was just outside the zoo, a small art gallery that had a resident English artist who had come to Chongqing some years ago to study Chinese art and stayed. He was the first (and last) foreigner that we had seen who was actually living in China. He was strangely unemotional about the art in the gallery, although he did explain that it is considered to be very good to stay within the conventions of Chinese art. There are several themes that run throughout the pictures, various animals that signify different meanings (cranes = longevity, bats = wisdom etc). Most of the pictures were of course for sale and when we were let loose to have a look around, Erin and I had a young chap shadowing us to find out if we were interested in purchasing anything and suggesting things we might like! Erin was drawn to one particular picture but unfortunately one of the other girls was also attracted and started bidding before we had a chance. She treated it as a little bit of one-upmanship with us, which didn’t go down too well. We did eventually go for some hand painted leaves that had been plucked from a rather attractive tree outside the gallery. Stripped of their leaf tissue, the leaf skeletons were hand painted with various scenes of China and we bought one depicting cranes, one with a tiger and one of the Yangtze River gorge.
By the time we left it was raining but surprisingly the rain appeared to have very little effect on the thick atmosphere and it was then that we realised the extent of the air pollution that bedevils the city. The traffic was appalling and so we had to take a rather convoluted way of leaving the city that involved us crossing and recrossing the mighty Yangtze on a huge suspension bridge.
Our next destination was a town called Dazu, a town almost 100 miles northeast of Chongqing. On the way we drove along a fairly new motorway heading for Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province before heading along a much older and more traditional highway. On the way we got to see some fabulous countryside, largely dominated by rice paddies and carp pools. As the land undulated, the rice paddies had been terraced to use as much space as possible. When we got to Dazu, just over two hours later and after some fearsome driving it was time for lunch. We went to what looked to be the best hotel in town and had a very enjoyable lunch. One of the more memorable items on the menu was a large river fish that looked a right beast, but which tasted absolutely divine, being cooked in soy sauce and chillies.
After lunch we headed into the mountains on a very small road to the Buddhist caves. By the time we got there the sun had come out and it was the more usual scorching weather that we had become used to. We parked at the village near the caves and wandered through the usual hoards of vendors before getting another golf cart to take us down to the site. The caves were in a fabulous setting, a narrow wooded gorge and this had clearly inspired the carver all those years ago. Unlike the Longmen Grottoes the other day, the carvings were there to tell a story about various aspects of Buddhism, Taoism and Confusciousism. The carvings were highly coloured and showed some very interesting depictions of the variou
s levels of heaven and hell according to their belief system.The specific temple of Baoding Shan (Precious Mountain) is one of the four major sacred mountains in China. The carvings at this site began to be shaped during the Tang Dynasty and continued until it was completed in the Qing Dynasty. The main temple of Baoding Shan is constructed on a ridge above a mountain stream. Beyond the entrance lies the great Buddha Crescent (Da Fu Wan). Zhao Feng, a monk who was well versed in Tantric Buddhism, began this project seven centuries ago. The entire crescent is over a third of a mile long lined with 90 foot sheer cliffs. The oldest temple here, Sheng Shou Si, was built in 1179 and the carvings were completed in 1249.
One of the most artistic carvings in the crescent is the Wheel of Life. The decorative wheel is carved into the solid rock and the scene reflects death in life. The outer two rings of the wheel show the cycles of birth and death as animals live, die and are reborn. Divine figures are cast out from underneath the wheel as it turns. At the midpoint of the crescent there is a Sleeping Buddha (Prince Sakyamani). Further along are thou
sands of bright sculptures of coloured Chinese figures in the cliff walls also common to the Song period. Notably there is a scene of Heaven, Earth and Hell. Buddha represents Heaven and is devoted to filial piety. Carvings reflecting Earth are based around nurturing and caring for children. Hell is torturous and for those not living piously and who fall away from the teachings of Buddha and Confuscius.Apart from the wonderful carvings, we had the amazing din of the cicadas once again and the most wonderful display of butterflies that we saw on the whole trip. The butterflies were absolutely huge and were all sorts of colours, including sulphur yellow, black and fritillary-coloured.
After our tour round the caves we headed back up to the golf cart to take us back. We drove so fast that one of the girls lost her hat in the wind and had to run back for it. When we got back to the village, we were among the first and Marco took us over to the edge of the car park to look out at the view. It was truly amazing; we were really high up and overlooked the valley that we had travelled up earlier. All we could see before us were crops growing in terraces up the side of the mountains. Of course we were bombarded with more vendors on the way back to the bus, but I had a new tactic – I had no money in my pockets. I repeatedly showed them my empty pockets but they continued to laugh as if to say ‘I don’t believe you’.
Going down the mountain in the coach was almost scarier than going up as many tourist coaches were coming our way and there was little room to pass. When we got to the bottom of the mountain we stopped at a small cluster of houses to see how the locals lived. I felt slightly uncomfortable about this, especially as this practice is apparently frowned on by the authorities and we were not allowed to stop for long in case the police came and moved us on. There were two different types of house; one was obviously owned by someone who had managed to become fairly wealthy while the others were much more ramshackle and presumably were rented. In the courtyard, there were several women in evidence – presumably the men were all out in the fields or the city working. In the middle was a large mat covered in dry chillies, a very colourful and probably common sight in this province. After nosing about in the houses for a few minutes we got back on the bus and made our way back to Chongqing.
Most of us took advantage of the long ride back to the hotel and had a bit of a kip on the bus. When we got back to Chongqing we were very surprised to see that the smog we had left behind in the morning was still there and hadn’t burned off in the sun as would have been expected in a place of such intense heat.
When we got back to the hotel there was time for some wash and brush up time before going across the road for some dinner. We had some proper Sichuan cooking, which was a nice change but we didn’t have the famous hotpot from these parts, which was a bit disappointing. One dish that really stood out was very colourful, consisting mainly of chilli (or so it seemed). There were pieces of chicken in amongst the chillies although it was almost hidden. The chillies themselves tasted rather odd, with a distinctive slightly soapy taste.
After dinner we decided to go out on the night-time outing – Chongqing by night. The first part of the tour took us to the main square in the city centre where we stopped for a look around. What we were greeted with shocked us. There were something like six or seven thousand people (the majority seemed to be women) all dancing to music playing over a loud music system. The people were all dancing in unison, obviously with moves that were well known to all the locals.
After walking around the dancers we plucked up the courage to join in which amused the locals no end. I had a hard time keeping up and so dropped out during the second number and took photos instead. After about ½ hour we left the dancers behind and continued on our tour. Apparently the dancers have been coming to the square for 5-6 years now and is a unique activity in the whole of China. It became so popular that the authorities took note and laid on the music for the dancers. Dancing now takes place every night of the week, with over 8000 people expected at weekends.
Our next stop was the highest point of the city, a hill on which stands a pagoda from which we had a good view of the lights and could quite clearly pick out the Waile River and the Yangtze despite the murkiness of the valleys. While we were at the top of the hill we also went to an art gallery featuring a painting several hundred feet long that portrayed the Yangtze River Valley from Chongqing through the gorges down to the Three Gorges Dam. The painting was completed fairly recently by an artist that had spent many years researching and visiting the many parts of the valley to try and ensure the accuracy of the painting. Seeing the scale of the picture gave us the first indication of what damage will be done by building the dam. I boufght a copy of the picture to remind me of what the valley will look like. All the way round a young girl told us how important the dam would be and casually brushed over the negative aspects of the project.
Our last stop was back in the city centre where we had some free time to look around the shops. We were dropped in what looked like the richest part of the city, where all the western shops could be found. It didn’t hold too much appeal and certainly wasn’t as interesting as the city centre of Beijing. After ½ hour of wandering around we assembled by the coach. While we waited for everyone to join us, a fight started just by us, evidently caused by a gambling debt. It was just another example of the aggression that simmers just below the surface here.
When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the cocktail bar and sat on the balcony and passed the rest of the evening with Christine and Robert, a couple that we had become quite friendly with.
Wow! That article was so beautiful and informative. China's natural beauty and heritage are unique but as you mentioned the level of pollution and mismanaged traffic volumes.... thats quite a setback.
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