Chongqing, the Mountain City

Xiao mian of Chongqing was in the previous post about noodles so let’s talk about Chongqing. The final trip of 2019 happened in Chongqing, after a friend’s wedding took place in Chengdu in Sichuan province. Chongqing is one of four municipalities under direct government rule in China (the other three being Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin), which means that it is not part of any province (though it used to be a part of Sichuan). J and I had wanted to visit Chongqing for a while (well, it was mostly me), and because it was less than an hour and a half away from Chengdu by train, we had the perfect opportunity to visit. Chongqing is known as the “Mountain City” because it is built around hills and its elevation is constantly changing. As a result, there were a lot of stairs and layered views involved in this trip, as you will see.

It was quite cloudy during our two-day visit but thankfully it didn’t rain. The sky was gray and visibility was low, but you could see what I mean by varied elevation. Some buildings were established at ground level (by the Yangtze River, which traverses Chongqing) while others were constructed on hills. Walking around the city became a real workout at some point!

Another wide river that traverses Chongqing is the Jialing River, and this bridge was still under construction when we were there. Still gray all around…

City trips in recent years have become more relaxing as I’ve stop chasing landmarks and prefer slow, spontaneous explorations. J and I wandered around random streets without really knowing where we were going, turning corners here and there. This is a sign that says “Beautiful Zhongshan 4th Road” 🙂

There is a walking trail that runs through the hills along the Yangtze River known as the “Mountain City Alley”. Along the trail you could see some old houses and remains of the past. I especially like how it is hidden within a forested area, and people below in the streets can’t really see the trail above, making it almost like a secret tunnel.

There were some fantastic murals to be seen along the trail and here are some of my favourites. I think in the one with the dog and the chessboard, the front part of the chessboard was actually real and sticking out from the wall…which means that only half the chess set was present. Ooo and the cat’s eyes…they stare deep into my soul as if it knows everything about me…meow.

By the way, you know what Chongqing is most famous for? Spicy hot pot, of course!! The Chongqing locals love their hot pot and have a million ways of eating it, but it must be as spicy as you could imagine. We met up with a friend of J who works in Chongqing and went for hot pot one evening. Yes those are chili peppers in the red hot boiling water. The round part in the middle is the clear non-spicy soup, which was severely needed. It’s not that I can’t handle the spiciness, but I feel that immersing the food in chili peppers kind of ruins the original taste of the food (what a Cantonese thing to say). Thankfully there was the choice to alternate between the two. And yes there were veggies, they were on a cart beside the table 😛

You see how much Chongqing loves its spicy food? They even have a chili pepper statue as a mascot in one of the public squares! The information below the statue reads: “CAPSICA RedLight – A giant bronze red chili pepper sculpture, crafted by the famous Italian artist Giuseppe Carta, with height of 6.5 m and weight of 2.3 tons. The miniature sculptures of the ‘CAPSICA RedLight’ and of the ‘World’s Biggest Hotspot’ were firstly exhibited at the 2015 World Expo in Milan, Italy.”

Now we continued our city exploration and I wanted to find a cafe to sit down and write. Upon searching on the Internet, I found a place that was supposedly hidden in local residential complexes but offered a magnificent view of Chongqing. The instructions said that we had to climb steps to go up approximately nine storeys…what!!! I was ready for a workout but the serendipitous thing was that we by chance took the bus that dropped us off at the TOP of the steps, which meant that we missed out on the anticipated intense uphill walk…to my delight! Here’s the view looking down and you can bet that I was super thankful for my streak of luck!

And what we found was a chic little cafe where we spent some time chilling and relaxing. I ordered a matcha latte and J ordered an original one. Then I took out my journal to write while J napped a little 😉

Looking out to the left, I could see what my colleague told me about: if you were at the bottom of the hill, you’d think that you could see the top of a building, but from another angle, the “top” might be the ground floor of another building. And this is the norm in Chongqing. No wonder you’re called the Mountain City!

Ah, yes, this is the view from the cafe that I was talking about. Again it was SUPER cloudy so it was less impressive than it should have been. I surprised myself by not taking the cable car across the river. It was something that I had planned to do, but in the end we didn’t want to be too rushed. We certainly will come back to Chongqing some day – after all I have to come back to this very cafe to catch a night view of Chongqing, which is bound to be amazing.

Here we were at Chaotianmen (Chaotian Gate), which is the point at which the Yangtze and Jiangling rivers converge. Bad-angle selfie time!

This is a scene that is unimagineable in COVID-19 times but was anticipated for many as it was new year’s eve. There was some event that was happening here, but we were just passing by and we weren’t joining the crazy crowd. Definitely a good idea that we got out of there as fast as we could…

The next destination was Hongyadong (Hongya Cave), which sort of went viral as the tourist hotspot in Chongqing. I guess it’s clear why – it looked splendid at night! The area was supposedly a reconstruction of historical architecture that is now overly commercialized, like any other tourist destination. We didn’t go into the actual lit up area and preferred this view from the Qiansimen (Qiansi Gate) Bridge.

The Qiansimen Bridge crosses the Jialing River and this is the view of the other side, facing Hongyadong. Love the night views – it’s got some Shanghai vibe to it, doesn’t it?

The official we-are-spending-new-year’s-even-in-Chongqing-and-Hongyadong-is-behind-us selfie. I don’t get to travel as much anymore but trips like this remind me that I love travel, I love traveling with this man, and I love this man!!! ❤

Final look at Chongqing after we’ve crossed the Qiansimen Bridge. Hongyadong is now on the other side with the gleaming metropolis as its backdrop. Regrettably J and I were only able to spend two days in Chongqing and we barely scratched the surface of what this sophisticated city has to offer. There aren’t many places that I say I’d go back to after traveling there, but Chongqing is one of the few that I’d like to return to and explore more in-depth. Shouldn’t be too out-of-reach as it is right next to Hubei Province, but the limiting factor here is vacation days. Oh well, hope to see you again sometime, neighbour!

Beyond V-Day

I had been contemplating the idea of investing in a better camera for a long time. At one point in time I was seriously looking into a purchase within the next three months. This week, I gave it a little more thought. My final decision is that I will not be buying any fancy camera any time soon (that probably means at least not this year). I will stick to my basic Canon A2000 (and my Sony Ericsson K770i cell phone camera, if I don’t have my Canon) for my day-to-day photography.

Many friends have encouraged me to get a DSLR for my adventures in Europe, and I do admit it’s going to be quite a loss if I were to insist on getting the perfect images, but really, anything beyond a pocket camera is simply impractical for me at the moment. Not to mention the cost of getting one of these babies, but having to carry a large camera around everywhere I go would be a hassle in the first place. I don’t think a DSLR would be on my list of things-I-bring-to-work-in-my-backpack-every-day, and it certainly is not something I’d like to lug around my neck most of the day. (Maybe I just need to be convinced that they’re not all as inconvenient as I imagine them to be.) My little A2000, however, conveniently fits into my coat pocket and I can draw it out any time when I see anything interesting that catches my attention (examples to follow).

I have no intention of becoming anything near a professional any time soon, although I have definitely developed a strong interest in photography after observing the works of my peers. However, I think I have also underestimated the amount of time that is needed to dive into the field and truly experience the essence of professional photography. I realize that this is time that I am unable to afford at this stage, and so I will remain as an outsider and retain this interest until much later, when I feel that I have the time to take on the challenge.

In the end, my purpose for taking photos is not to have gorgeous colours and effects, though that would be an added bonus. Photographing daily life is a pleasure in itself and does not require any extensive equipment beyond a small camera for an amateur. Of course, travel photography is much more thrilling, but to get a DSLR just for this purpose – with the constraints of budget and time in mind – is not worth it, in my opinion.

Enough about cameras and on with the photos 😛 By the way, happy Valentine’s Day or Singles Awareness Day, whichever one applies to you. Personally I think V-Day is immensely overrated anyway.

 
We start off this post with some adorable animals that I’ve encountered in Bordeaux. The first two photos are of a cat that happened to be staying at a friend’s house for a couple of weeks when I was visiting. It was a shy fellow, always hiding in the corner like a spy observing our every move. It has such sharp and beautiful eyes though, and no, it is not dead in the second picture. Next, friend and I met a small puppy during a walk. This little guy was tricky; I was never able to capture a picture of it from the front, but it was cute, nevertheless. (Click on photos for full-sized version.)