Wednesday, January 20. Up early this morning to get ready to meet taxi at 8:15. Still not feeling great but definitely better than i have the last few days. What a marathon of exam grading and feeling punk. It is warm and very humid, as it has been the last few days. Nothing seems to dry. So I shower, have breakfast, throw the last few things in the suitcase, and am downstairs waiting at the small gate right on time.
My nice black unmarked car with driver appears, but it isn't Mr. Qi. It's too bad because this young man, although cute, speaks no English. At least with Mr. Qi, we could exchange a few words - between my chinese and his english. Oh well, just as long as i get to the airport. Arrive at Huang Hua exactly at 9:15 and check-in is uneventful. Pick up a green tea on the way to the gate - I hate paying airport prices for this stuff. it's robbery.
I'm flying Xiamen Airlines, the first time for this one. It's a one hour flight to ChongQing, leaving at 10:15. Plane isn't huge but it's full. i'm in the middle seat between a man who sleeps the entire way and a university student who finally gets up the courage to speak to me in English. He's a student at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, studying chemical engineering, and he's going home for Spring Festival. His home town is in Sichuan, about 3 hours by bus from Chongqing. The flight is perfectly on time, so by the time i've hit the loo, collected my luggage and found my guide "Charlie" , it's about 11:45.
It's unbelieveably foggy in Chongqing. In fact, as we were landing, we could see nothing until moments before we hit the runway. The visibility is incredibly poor. In fact, when we cross a bridge, i cannot even see the river below. Charlie says that it is often foggy in winter. Chongqing sits at the confluence of the Chang Jiang (Yangzi River) and the Jialing River, one of its tributaries. Mountains rise from the river on all sides, so this is not a city made for cycling. Or for good weather. Although it never snows or freezes here (lowest temp is 1 degree C), in the summer it can get as high as 45 degrees C - and with 80% relative humidity. Ouch. (Normal summer temps maybe only 35 or 36!!) Average annual rainfall is 1000 mm. Not many sunny days in Chongqing apparently.
Charlie gives me some facts about the city. First, which I knew already, is that Chongqing is the fourth municipality in china reporting directly to the central government (the others are Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin). Chongqing is 82, 200 sq km in area, making it about the size of Austria. The population of the municipality is 32 million, with about 6 million in the downtown area. The lowest point in the city is the dock, which is 160 m above sea level, and the highest point is 382 m above sea level. The city is very very hilly. The Yangzi River, at 6,380 km, is the third longest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon). BTW, ChongQing means "double celebration" because some dude called Zhao Dun was first appointed governor of Eastern Sichuan (?) and then later became Emperor during the Song Dynasty (about 1189).
CQ is a heavily industrial city (and heavily polluted as a result). There are three major industries: Machinery (automobiles and motorcycles), Chemical (natural gas and pharmaceuticals) and Metallurgy (quality steel and aluminum).
First stop (about 40 minutes by car from the airport) is Ciqikou, the old part of town, most of which is now filled with tacky shops for tourists. But if you can look beyond it to the old houses, it's quite charming. The flagstone lanes are flanked by old timber, adobe and split-stone buildings with carved stonework, latticed windows and grey tiled roofs. Many teahouses. It runs along the Jialing River, but of course you can't see the river because it's too foggy. It's impossible to take photos that have any depth because the fog encompasses everything. We meander along the little streets, i buy some sesame/sunflower seed "brittle" and a little notebook to use for this trip. Later we see a man making sweet potato noodles so we sit down for a little (spicy) lunch! Cost: 10 yuan
Then we turn off the "main drag" to some of the little streets where people live. It's a way of life that is fast disappearing in China, except for its tourist value I'm afraid. I try to take a lot of photos but most will be poor quality because of the fog.
Back in the car to the Three Gorges Museum (San Xia Bo Wu Guan). Bad news for today: the Stillwell Museum is closed during winter as not many American tourists. Too bad because i wanted to see the exhibit about the Flying Tigers. But the Three Gorges Museum is quite new and sits on one side of a big square, Renmin Guang Chong, with the People's Hall on the other side. it is a lovely juxtaposition of the old facing the new, if you could actually see one from the other! The new museum building echos the round lines of the Peoples Hall.
Museum is generally a nicely designed building (but why do so many Chiinese buildings use glass/plexiglass on the exterior when it's only going to get filthy?). Interior is all white marble. It reminds me a little of the Shanghai museum in layout. Fortunately or unfortunately, i have a separate guide (Ivy) for the visit. Part of the museum is dedicated to the Three Gorges Dam project, the changes that have been wrought on the landscape, sojme of the cultural relics that were saved, and the people who were displaced. it's actually a little sad. I had always thought that the people who lived in the area that would be flooded were just moved to higher ground, but the vast majority of them were uprooted and relocated to other provinces. There's a chart in one of the rooms showing the names of the groups and the provinces to which they were moved. of course, it's all in chinese, as is so much in this museum. Here's the typical guide speech: "Now we can enjoy . . . . " whatever it is she wants you to look at next.
Of the three gorges, the first two "belong" to Chongqing and the last is in the province of Hubei. the first is 8 (?) km long, the second is 40 km and the third is 100 km long. This exhiibition could be stellar with before and after photos but i don't see anything like that. mostly, it's a memorial to a lost way of life. The Chinese are being radically and forcibly uprooted from their previously communal ways of living into high-rise apartment buildings where everyone's door is closed.
the "guided" portion of the visit continues from the Three Gorges section (1st floor) to the history of ChongQing (2nd floor) and then ends on the fourth floor where there is an art gallery - and everything is naturally for sale. maybe if this were your first stop in China, you might be impressed by a few of the things but most is second rate (or worse). My guide points out to me the special painting that is done on banyan leaves (side bar: banyan is the official tree of Chong Qing. it is heat and pollution resistant which is a damn good thing. the official flower is the camellia). Ok, so it's cool that they dry the banyan leaves, strip out the chlorophyll (?) and then paint on the skeleton of the leaf, but bad art is bad art. "You can have one as a souvenir," she suggests. Price 180 yuan but "you can get a 20% discount." Thanks but no thanks. Xie xie, bu yao.
Charlie meets us at the gallery, the guide departs (after receiving a gratuity naturally - it really irks me to tip someone whose primary job is to sell me something), and now we can look at some of the other exhibitions. My favorite is a series of Han Dynasty stone relief carvings with what i think are charcoal rubbings of each stone displayed above them. The stones themselves are beautiful but the rubbings give them a lot more depth, and some of them are exquisite. Now if the museum were smart, it would sell reproductions of these rubbings instead of the crap on the fourth floor. They are unlike anything I have seen heretofore in China.
At 4:45, Charlie and I are virtually chased out of the museum by the guards. It would be nice if there were more English explanations of things in the museum because many of the exhibits seem very interesting. It almost makes me wonder if the chief purpose of the museum is to "white wash" the flooding of the Chang Jiang by the Three Gorges Dam so it is all a form of propaganda. It is frustrating when you come so far in an effort to try to understand the country better and your efforts are thwarted by the language barrier.
So we're back out in People's Square. I go close to People's hall to try to get a good photograph but with the fog and the fading daylight, it's impossible. Deng Xiao Peng (my hero!) was responsible for the building of people's hall (1951-1954), and it is a throw-back to traditional chinese architecture with elements of The Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Gate all rolled in for good measure. Nonetheless, the central portion is relatively graceful, if the overall structure is less successful (a little monolithic at the sides).
ChongQing served as the wartime capital of China after the japanese occupied Nanjing. (Note: Beijing was the capital during Ming and Qing dynasties, but Sun Yat Sen moved it to Nanjing for the ROC, then ChongQing during the war, then it was moved back to beijing in 1949 with the PRC.) Somehow, Deng Xiao Peng (who was from Sichuan) thought it would be a good idea to have a big meeting hall in Chong Qing so he is responsible for it being built. The two wings now house a five-star hotel. The central section can hold 4000 people.
Under a banyan tree in the square, a group of people are playing traditional instruments and singing. So we wander over to watch and of course get all caught up in the "action." see video clips and photos! very joyful and fun.
as we're waiting for the car, i duck into a little market to buy a NutriExpress. then we drive to the hotel. There is a lot of traffic in the city, especially at rush hour. Because of the two rivers, there are now 16 bridges in the downtown area (with a 17th under construction) but get this: the FIRST one was built only in 1966! Before that, you could only get across the river by ferry.
The hotel is a Holiday Inn, of all things, but it's actually quite nice; my room is great, internet hook-up, English language television, nice bathroom etc. After settling in and washing hands, I wander out to stroll down the street where Charlie said there were little shops and restaurants.
So this is what I love about China: I'm staying at this swank hotel, i go outside, turn left, and a few steps down the street, there's a night market with food stalls set up! So I order one skewer of cauliflower, one of eggplant and one of mushrooms. The ladies first grill it over charcoal, brushing on oil and sprinkling about 9 different spices, then stir-fry it in a pan before putting it into a takeout container with a pair of disposable chopsticks. All for 4.5 yuan! Then I go over to a fruit stand to pick up oranges and a banana. So I'm done. Dinner: one NutriExpress, plate of veggies, three small sweet oranges, and a piece of sesame/sunflower seed brittle. Perfect.
So now it's 9:30 p.m., I'm tired and think i'll just relax and try to find something on television besides CNN with it's depressing news about Haiti and the Republican victory in Massachusetts, with what's-his-name Brown capturing Ted Kennedy's senate seat. Sarah Palin, move over. Or maybe I'll read a book on my Kindle!
I've taken the last of the penicillin but still coughing. Definitely better though. Trying to decide whether to start Azythromycin.
Note: try to find film about friendship between north/south korean soldiers, josh hartnett, and korean (?) actor Lee Byung Hun
Taxi to airport 200 yuan
Green tea at Changsha airport 10 yuan
Noodles for lunch 10 yuan
Water 2 yuan
Sesame/sunflower seed brittle 5 yuan
Notebook 10 yuan
Tip to guide at San Xia Museum 10 yuan
NutriExpress 5 yuan
Dinner (eggplant, cauliflower and mushrooms) 4.5 yuan
Oranges and banana 4 yuan
My nice black unmarked car with driver appears, but it isn't Mr. Qi. It's too bad because this young man, although cute, speaks no English. At least with Mr. Qi, we could exchange a few words - between my chinese and his english. Oh well, just as long as i get to the airport. Arrive at Huang Hua exactly at 9:15 and check-in is uneventful. Pick up a green tea on the way to the gate - I hate paying airport prices for this stuff. it's robbery.
I'm flying Xiamen Airlines, the first time for this one. It's a one hour flight to ChongQing, leaving at 10:15. Plane isn't huge but it's full. i'm in the middle seat between a man who sleeps the entire way and a university student who finally gets up the courage to speak to me in English. He's a student at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, studying chemical engineering, and he's going home for Spring Festival. His home town is in Sichuan, about 3 hours by bus from Chongqing. The flight is perfectly on time, so by the time i've hit the loo, collected my luggage and found my guide "Charlie" , it's about 11:45.
It's unbelieveably foggy in Chongqing. In fact, as we were landing, we could see nothing until moments before we hit the runway. The visibility is incredibly poor. In fact, when we cross a bridge, i cannot even see the river below. Charlie says that it is often foggy in winter. Chongqing sits at the confluence of the Chang Jiang (Yangzi River) and the Jialing River, one of its tributaries. Mountains rise from the river on all sides, so this is not a city made for cycling. Or for good weather. Although it never snows or freezes here (lowest temp is 1 degree C), in the summer it can get as high as 45 degrees C - and with 80% relative humidity. Ouch. (Normal summer temps maybe only 35 or 36!!) Average annual rainfall is 1000 mm. Not many sunny days in Chongqing apparently.
Charlie gives me some facts about the city. First, which I knew already, is that Chongqing is the fourth municipality in china reporting directly to the central government (the others are Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin). Chongqing is 82, 200 sq km in area, making it about the size of Austria. The population of the municipality is 32 million, with about 6 million in the downtown area. The lowest point in the city is the dock, which is 160 m above sea level, and the highest point is 382 m above sea level. The city is very very hilly. The Yangzi River, at 6,380 km, is the third longest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon). BTW, ChongQing means "double celebration" because some dude called Zhao Dun was first appointed governor of Eastern Sichuan (?) and then later became Emperor during the Song Dynasty (about 1189).
CQ is a heavily industrial city (and heavily polluted as a result). There are three major industries: Machinery (automobiles and motorcycles), Chemical (natural gas and pharmaceuticals) and Metallurgy (quality steel and aluminum).
First stop (about 40 minutes by car from the airport) is Ciqikou, the old part of town, most of which is now filled with tacky shops for tourists. But if you can look beyond it to the old houses, it's quite charming. The flagstone lanes are flanked by old timber, adobe and split-stone buildings with carved stonework, latticed windows and grey tiled roofs. Many teahouses. It runs along the Jialing River, but of course you can't see the river because it's too foggy. It's impossible to take photos that have any depth because the fog encompasses everything. We meander along the little streets, i buy some sesame/sunflower seed "brittle" and a little notebook to use for this trip. Later we see a man making sweet potato noodles so we sit down for a little (spicy) lunch! Cost: 10 yuan
Then we turn off the "main drag" to some of the little streets where people live. It's a way of life that is fast disappearing in China, except for its tourist value I'm afraid. I try to take a lot of photos but most will be poor quality because of the fog.
Back in the car to the Three Gorges Museum (San Xia Bo Wu Guan). Bad news for today: the Stillwell Museum is closed during winter as not many American tourists. Too bad because i wanted to see the exhibit about the Flying Tigers. But the Three Gorges Museum is quite new and sits on one side of a big square, Renmin Guang Chong, with the People's Hall on the other side. it is a lovely juxtaposition of the old facing the new, if you could actually see one from the other! The new museum building echos the round lines of the Peoples Hall.
Museum is generally a nicely designed building (but why do so many Chiinese buildings use glass/plexiglass on the exterior when it's only going to get filthy?). Interior is all white marble. It reminds me a little of the Shanghai museum in layout. Fortunately or unfortunately, i have a separate guide (Ivy) for the visit. Part of the museum is dedicated to the Three Gorges Dam project, the changes that have been wrought on the landscape, sojme of the cultural relics that were saved, and the people who were displaced. it's actually a little sad. I had always thought that the people who lived in the area that would be flooded were just moved to higher ground, but the vast majority of them were uprooted and relocated to other provinces. There's a chart in one of the rooms showing the names of the groups and the provinces to which they were moved. of course, it's all in chinese, as is so much in this museum. Here's the typical guide speech: "Now we can enjoy . . . . " whatever it is she wants you to look at next.
Of the three gorges, the first two "belong" to Chongqing and the last is in the province of Hubei. the first is 8 (?) km long, the second is 40 km and the third is 100 km long. This exhiibition could be stellar with before and after photos but i don't see anything like that. mostly, it's a memorial to a lost way of life. The Chinese are being radically and forcibly uprooted from their previously communal ways of living into high-rise apartment buildings where everyone's door is closed.
the "guided" portion of the visit continues from the Three Gorges section (1st floor) to the history of ChongQing (2nd floor) and then ends on the fourth floor where there is an art gallery - and everything is naturally for sale. maybe if this were your first stop in China, you might be impressed by a few of the things but most is second rate (or worse). My guide points out to me the special painting that is done on banyan leaves (side bar: banyan is the official tree of Chong Qing. it is heat and pollution resistant which is a damn good thing. the official flower is the camellia). Ok, so it's cool that they dry the banyan leaves, strip out the chlorophyll (?) and then paint on the skeleton of the leaf, but bad art is bad art. "You can have one as a souvenir," she suggests. Price 180 yuan but "you can get a 20% discount." Thanks but no thanks. Xie xie, bu yao.
Charlie meets us at the gallery, the guide departs (after receiving a gratuity naturally - it really irks me to tip someone whose primary job is to sell me something), and now we can look at some of the other exhibitions. My favorite is a series of Han Dynasty stone relief carvings with what i think are charcoal rubbings of each stone displayed above them. The stones themselves are beautiful but the rubbings give them a lot more depth, and some of them are exquisite. Now if the museum were smart, it would sell reproductions of these rubbings instead of the crap on the fourth floor. They are unlike anything I have seen heretofore in China.
At 4:45, Charlie and I are virtually chased out of the museum by the guards. It would be nice if there were more English explanations of things in the museum because many of the exhibits seem very interesting. It almost makes me wonder if the chief purpose of the museum is to "white wash" the flooding of the Chang Jiang by the Three Gorges Dam so it is all a form of propaganda. It is frustrating when you come so far in an effort to try to understand the country better and your efforts are thwarted by the language barrier.
So we're back out in People's Square. I go close to People's hall to try to get a good photograph but with the fog and the fading daylight, it's impossible. Deng Xiao Peng (my hero!) was responsible for the building of people's hall (1951-1954), and it is a throw-back to traditional chinese architecture with elements of The Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Gate all rolled in for good measure. Nonetheless, the central portion is relatively graceful, if the overall structure is less successful (a little monolithic at the sides).
ChongQing served as the wartime capital of China after the japanese occupied Nanjing. (Note: Beijing was the capital during Ming and Qing dynasties, but Sun Yat Sen moved it to Nanjing for the ROC, then ChongQing during the war, then it was moved back to beijing in 1949 with the PRC.) Somehow, Deng Xiao Peng (who was from Sichuan) thought it would be a good idea to have a big meeting hall in Chong Qing so he is responsible for it being built. The two wings now house a five-star hotel. The central section can hold 4000 people.
Under a banyan tree in the square, a group of people are playing traditional instruments and singing. So we wander over to watch and of course get all caught up in the "action." see video clips and photos! very joyful and fun.
as we're waiting for the car, i duck into a little market to buy a NutriExpress. then we drive to the hotel. There is a lot of traffic in the city, especially at rush hour. Because of the two rivers, there are now 16 bridges in the downtown area (with a 17th under construction) but get this: the FIRST one was built only in 1966! Before that, you could only get across the river by ferry.
The hotel is a Holiday Inn, of all things, but it's actually quite nice; my room is great, internet hook-up, English language television, nice bathroom etc. After settling in and washing hands, I wander out to stroll down the street where Charlie said there were little shops and restaurants.
So this is what I love about China: I'm staying at this swank hotel, i go outside, turn left, and a few steps down the street, there's a night market with food stalls set up! So I order one skewer of cauliflower, one of eggplant and one of mushrooms. The ladies first grill it over charcoal, brushing on oil and sprinkling about 9 different spices, then stir-fry it in a pan before putting it into a takeout container with a pair of disposable chopsticks. All for 4.5 yuan! Then I go over to a fruit stand to pick up oranges and a banana. So I'm done. Dinner: one NutriExpress, plate of veggies, three small sweet oranges, and a piece of sesame/sunflower seed brittle. Perfect.
So now it's 9:30 p.m., I'm tired and think i'll just relax and try to find something on television besides CNN with it's depressing news about Haiti and the Republican victory in Massachusetts, with what's-his-name Brown capturing Ted Kennedy's senate seat. Sarah Palin, move over. Or maybe I'll read a book on my Kindle!
I've taken the last of the penicillin but still coughing. Definitely better though. Trying to decide whether to start Azythromycin.
Note: try to find film about friendship between north/south korean soldiers, josh hartnett, and korean (?) actor Lee Byung Hun
Taxi to airport 200 yuan
Green tea at Changsha airport 10 yuan
Noodles for lunch 10 yuan
Water 2 yuan
Sesame/sunflower seed brittle 5 yuan
Notebook 10 yuan
Tip to guide at San Xia Museum 10 yuan
NutriExpress 5 yuan
Dinner (eggplant, cauliflower and mushrooms) 4.5 yuan
Oranges and banana 4 yuan
No comments:
Post a Comment