Day 6: Chonqing (“chong shing”)
This city is awesome! My favorite, so far. If we ever come back here for vacation, I would make sure we had a week at this place. There are several really neat places to go see that are a few hours away. So, unfortunately, we don’t get to see them. There are the Three Natural Bridges, Wanzhou Qinglong Waterfall, Fengdu Ghost Town, Dafo Temple, and Dazu Rock Carvings. Sigh.
Some fun facts about Chongqing:
There are ~30 million people here!!
Chongqing means “double happy”
It’s a mountain city. Tons of hills. Like San Fran meets New York.
Two rivers intersect at the city’s center. The Yangtze and Jialing
It is 3,000 years old!
Famous for it’s Szechuan cuisine and hot-pot dishes
Anyway, today I started my day in the most normal way yet.
Coffee and blogging. I found some coffee from Malaysia at a store, and some packets of creamer. I brought my handy, dandy aeropress with me. It’s a pretty good cup of coffee. Yay! Actually, the coffee served at breakfasts here has been pretty good too. It’s different.
Breakfast was at the hotel, buffet style. Pretty good. They cooked noodles for you right there. It’s their specialty dish here in Chongqing called “dan dan”. Skinny egg noodles (like ramen) with a spicy sauce. Yummmmm. It’s a totally different type of spicy here. It stays on the tongue and lips instead of the throat. It actually numbs your mouth. It’s cool. I have never enjoyed spicy food, but I’m loving it here. I just avoid eating any of the actual peppers!!
It was a free day – no show! First free day that did not involve travel. Phil, Ellie, Adam and I headed out to see the Hua Yan Temple. I had done some research on things to do before I came, and this was one of the things mentioned. No one else wanted to come with us, and boy did they miss out. It was incredible!!!! I took too many pics for here. Maybe I can get them on flickr later. Here are the highlights:
A giant, golden Buddha! Enormous. This pictures doesn’t even do justice to how tall it was. So beautiful.
All the buildings in this complex were beautiful.
This structure went super high. Like 9 or 10 stories high.
We got to eat with monks! There was a vegetarian restaurant in the complex. Awesome! And I use the word “restaurant” losely. It felt more like a little cafe that was there mainly for the people who live and work in the complex. And for the occasional tourist that wanders in, too. Buddhists don’t eat meat, so we were set! Adam and Ellie like vegetarian food too. Through our Lonely Planet phrase book app, we asked “What would you recommend?”, and the waiter ordered us 4 incredible dishes. Best food yet.
After that, we wandered to the Seven Steps Lotus Pond.
It was such a cool experience. This place is in the middle of this city, urbaness all around, and yet you feel cut off from the world in there.
Next, we took a cab ride over to Red Rock Village. This is the location where the Chongqing negotiations between Mao Zedong and Jiang Jeishi took place. So, basically, it was a historic site from the 40’s and 50’s. It is set into a mountain, and it is beautiful. There wasn’t a whole lot of English translations, so we couldn’t learn much. Mostly, we just walked around, climbed a lot of steps and enjoyed the scenery.
It offered a beautiful view of the city.
We went back to the hotel after that and just rested until dinner. Dinner was at the hotel, and honestly, not very good. Especially after our incredible lunch. But free food is free food :) We both fell asleep at 7:30 haha. I woke up at 4:30am and went to the lobby to access the wifi. We are up and about now, getting ready for breakfast and the day. Phil has to head over to the theater at 8:30. I’m not sure what I’ll do today.