Tuesday 18th November 2014
Chongqing – Cable Car Ride Across the Yangtze River
Buddha Zen Hotel
We will have three guides today; Marco who was born near Hong Kong will take us to the airport here in Guilin. Another guide will meet us in Chongqing and take us sightseeing in the city and then accompany us to the train station and then a third guide will meet us from the train at Chengdu and take us to the Buddha Zen hotel.
We have our happy smiley driver back this morning after his couple of days off and we are all pleased to see him. We are going directly to the airport. All our rucksacks are very heavy, as we have all put some extra things into them so that our main luggage is not overweight. However, at the airport we learn that each couple had 2 kilo to spare. Thank goodness that our hand luggage wasn’t weighed!
Today’s original schedule was altered just a few days before we set off. Due to the flight no longer going direct to Chengdu, we must now fly to Chongqing and then take a two-hour bullet train ride to reach Chengdu. When we heard about this unfortunate change we were disappointed. We realised that we would be spending more time travelling instead of sightseeing. The four of us got together and did some research about the city of Chongqing and we learnt that the Yangtze River, the third largest river in the world runs through the city.
We also learnt that it was possible to take a cable car across the river. So we contacted our travel agent and they agreed to add some sightseeing in Chongqing into the itinerary as recompense for the change from our original schedule.
Gerry our guide met us at Chongqing’s airport and took us directly to the Yangtze River. He was informative and told us that 30 million people live in the city compared to a population of 8 million in the capital Beijing. However, research on the Internet agrees with neither of these figures…
‘As well as the river there are also mountains in the city and therefore it is not a place for bicycles’ advised Gerry.
The cable car passes so close to an ugly block of high-rise flats, that one can almost reach out and touch the washing hanging on the tiny balconies. Many multi storey accommodations stand closely together and the cable car offers a view of a shanty town below as well as ultra modern skyscrapers on both sides of the Yangtze River.
The overcast weather today in Chongqing is apparently typical for the city. During the Second World War, the city was chosen as the country’s capital as with it being constantly overcast, it was difficult to bomb. It was during this time that it gained its nickname ‘The Foggy City’.
After a stop for lunch, Gerry our guide took us to the Huguang Guildhall that was built during the 18th century. This complex of buildings was used as a social, business and cultural centre for more than two hundred years.
The young lady who showed us around the institute told us some of its history and said that in the past people had prayed in the Guildhall’s temple for good harvests. People also worshiped the first emperor there but apparently this usually only happened on ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’, an annual festival where people visited their ancestors graves. She spoke too about everyday life in the city and how expensive it is to purchase an apartment; she added that even if you did manage to buy, it was only a lease for seventy years. She said that lots of people said that CHINA stood for Cheap Houses in (China) Not Available.
Gerry then took us for a short visit to the Hongya Cave, Folk and Customs area. This is a tourist area with shops and restaurants built into the side of a cliff, which overlook the river. Just as Gerry was telling us it was time to leave Pete spotted the sculpture of the stilted buildings that we had seen while researching the area. The rest of us ran to have a look too, leaving Gerry alone in the lift with a bewildered look on his face.
We then went to the train station to get the 4.30pm train to Chengdu. The train was expected to take 2hours to cover the 160 kilometre journey.
During the journey the train stopped for about 20 minutes in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea why but joked that if it was engine failure that at least this time we were on the ground!
Our third guide of the day Luna was waiting for us and took us directly to our hotel. We arrived around 7.30pm. We discussed our itinerary for tomorrow with Luna and agreed to a 7am breakfast and a 7.30am pick up time to take us to the panda research base, which opens at 8am. We will have just four hours in the panda place before we need to return to the hotel and then the driver will collect us once more at 2.20pm to take us back to the train station.
The Buddha Zen hotel, which is situated in the Wenshufang Folk and Custom Area, is amazing. The hotel blurb says that it is the first choice for Buddhist dignitaries, Buddhist worshippers and also business people. It states that a Nepalese monk prays for the hotel’s Kora and blesses it. It adds that one can debate Buddhist doctrines in the hotel’s Jian Cha tearoom. A four faceted Buddha is the courtyard’s centrepiece for the Kora.
The hotel also boasts a roof garden, a feng shui garden, and a spa. The spa offers oohh so many tempting treatments for the price of just £8.80!
There are rare Thangkas and antiquities in the hotel; this includes the oldest man made embroidery from the Qing Dynasty in Sichuan.
Our room is extremely nice and the bathroom has another beautifully decorated porcelain washbasin. This one is cream and blue with orange and green dragons painted on it. We were amused to find that apart from the usual array of complimentary toiletries there was also a packet of condoms.
We have the Tibetan Permit – Hurrah! –We would be unable to enter Tibet without this precious piece of paperwork. We photograph it and then pass it on to Anne and Pete.
Dave and I went for a short walk in the area the hotel was in. There were stalls selling souvenir items and jewellery. There were some fabulous shops with jade sculptures and crystal shops with enormous beautiful geodes on sale. I could have easily wandered around these shops for quite some time, however time is what we are short of here in Chengdu so we returned to our hotel for dinner.
The hotel’s restaurant was comfortable and pleasantly decorated. We ordered noodles, chicken with pineapple, and sweet and sour (yeah I know, you guessed) pork tenderloin and a couple of beers to quench our thirst.
The Buddha Zen hotel is a wonderful retreat but we only have a few short hours here. I wander around the hotel, admiring the Thangkas and other Buddhist relics. I walked around the tiny Kora clockwise three times (as the hotel’s information suggested) before finally returning to our room.
We have an early start tomorrow, a morning visit to the Panda Base, a train early afternoon to return us to Chongqing and then early evening we will be boarding the train to Tibet.
lindaruddstravels.com 