14. Chongqing and our flight to Xi'an


General Stillwell Museum -- Fighting Tigers

Day 12

When we ultimately disembarked, we had to walk on floating ramps to shore and then up a hundred or more steps to reach our bus. Even if we could have taken a picture of this, no one would believe it.

Chongqing (say Tsoon-CHING) is beginning and end for Yangtze River cruises. Even the crew will get off here ... if only for four hours to see mom and dad. This city-province could be called the largest municipality in the world -- it has a population of 33,000,000 and a land area of 82,365 square kilometers. You do the computing -- that's a bunch of people per acre! That's amazing considering its apparent isolation. One more time: "It's harder to reach Chongqing than Heaven itself."

About 800 years ago, Emperor Zhao Dun in the Song Dynasty was made the first Prince here. And later, he was crowned Emperor here. To celebrate these events, he gave the city its present name, which means 'double celebration'.

Chongqing - lunch
We had lunch here

Lunch was at a very elegant restaurant. After our many courses were consumed, our group was surprised with three birthday cakes. For people who seldom eat baked sweets, they did a masterful job on these cakes. We had been missing our USA sweets, but these cakes seemed to be among the best we ever ate. Wonderful!

An Elegant Restaurant

Chongqing - Chinese spaghetti
The Chinese invented it!

From there, we went to the museum commemorating General Stilwell in the CBI theatre. This was home to the Flying Tigers. Virginia's brother-in-law had served in the Army in the China-Burma-India Theatre during WWII, so she bought him a commemorative tee-shirt. There was an interesting video showing, but we didn't have time to watch all of it. 

This museum, like much of Chongqing, was tucked high on a steep hillside. The street was so narrow that we just knew there would be no getting around other parked buses to exit ... but, with some maneuvering, we did! 

Our next stop was the City Square. There were fountains, beautiful buildings, landscaping and flowers, not to mention a jillion people. Young people gather here in the plaza from 8:00 'til 9:30 PM to line dance. It would have been a real treat to see that ... but it also was not within the constraints of our schedule.

Chongqing public square
Young people line dance here in the evening

Majestic Chongqing State Building

Not very far away was a silk factory. We went into the building complex, but no one was working. The workers here make about $4 per day and only when there are cocoons to process. The availability of work is completely dependent upon those silk worms ... and they won't be hurried. Nevertheless, we were given a very good indoctrination on the process of harvesting silk and making fabrics.

Touring a Chongqing Silk Factory

Our next stop was an art gallery. There were beautiful paintings and many other Chinese art forms. In the basement was a very nice restaurant, but the fare did not appeal to either of us. We really didn't eat much of anything that day, besides breakfast on the ship ... and that birthday cake.

Since we had still time to kill before our flight to Xi'an, we were taken to a wedding museum. The Chinese are so proud of their heritage that they have a museum for everything. This museum was very interesting.

In ancient China, the parents arranged all weddings, but a "match-maker" decided if the couple was compatible by the dates they were born and perhaps some other seemingly unimportant facts. If all went well, there was a banquet arranged by the parents. Friends and all the relatives were invited. This banquet served as an official ceremony. 

Bed in Chongqing Wedding Museum


Famous Painting in Chongqing Wedding Museum

The girl was brought to the banquet in a very elaborate red sedan chair with shades on all sides. The first time the boy saw his wife's face was in the couple's bedroom on their wedding night. Her face had been covered with a red veil until that time. After one month of marriage, the boy brought gifts to the girl's parents. How about that?

From the museum to the airport took about 20 minutes. Our tour director gave us our tickets and told us to have our tickets and passports ready at the security point.

The airport at Chongqing was very clean and very modern. While we waited to board the plane, Virginia went into the lobby to find a snack. Chinese do not believe in "junk food!" On the counter, there were fresh fruit and packages of dried fruit, rice cookies, mushrooms and other indescribables identified only in Chinese. She was running on empty, but just not feeling that adventurous.

The flight from Chongqing to Xi'an was about an hour. The plane, an Airbus, was much nicer and roomier than that which brought us to China from San Francisco.

Still more fun ahead!

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