Wednesday, July 20, 2005
We had a very relaxing day today. We spent the first half of the day doing some light sightseeing, and the rest of the day at the hotel. This morning, after breakfast, our guide Eva took us to a park overlooking the rivers. Chongqing is at the confluence of 2 rivers, the Ja Ling and the Yangtze. Actually, the Ja Ling is the largest tributary of the Yangtze, and flows into it here, much like the Missouri and Mississippi in St. Louis. However, this town is over 3000 years old! The park is more like a courtyard or square on the bluff over the river. The city buildings rear up like mountains behind you, as you overlook the water.
The Yangtze River where the Ja Ling River flows into it. The piece of land in the picture is part of the old city that dates back over 3000 years.
After a while, we left and went to a special theater that was built about 50 years ago. It seats 4000 and was originally a political meeting place. Today, it is used for live entertainment. As you can see in the photos, it is a beautiful building and, like most everything around here, has symbolism in its form. The top is round, signifying the sky. The base is square – the shape that symbolizes the earth.
Our group on the steps of the theater - Justin, Lily, Dilla, Rey, Sage, Lynn and Royce.
Justin with theater building in background
This building also houses a working art gallery. Some very talented artists turn out beautiful oil paintings, sculptures and impressionistic pieces. They gave us a little talk about how the inks are made and we watched one of the artists create a flowering vine. We spent quite a bit of time there. Not only was the work beautiful, but also it was air-conditioned!!
We headed back to the hotel afterwards for lunch, and to spend the rest of the day. With the heat, it’s tough on the kids (and some adults) to be out touring all day. No matter, it isn’t often in our work-a-day lives that we get to do nothing for half the day, so it’s a welcome break. At dinnertime, we did venture out for a short walk. I took Dilla and Lily to the pedestrian mall where I’d been last night to get the pizza. Lily LOVES going out in the stroller. At one point, Dilla tried to take her out of it, but she fussed, so we left her in. We looked in a few shops and also went into a department store (more air conditioning!), but went back to the hotel to eat. Later, in the room, we played with Lily until she finally got tired and we were able to put her down for the night. She is sleeping through the night, by the way – BONUS!!!!
At about 9:45 PM, Justin headed back to the pedestrian mall, cameras in hand to capture some night scenes. Eva said that it is brilliant with all the signs lit up, and she was right. The stores all close by 10:30 PM and most of the sign lights are cut off shortly thereafter. Eva explained that electricity is expensive and not always plentiful, so they don’t burn a lot of signs after business hours.
The streets began to thin out quickly, so I packed up my cameras and headed for the Marriott, a few blocks away. I stopped at one street vendor for a couple of cans of beer (the local “Chongqing Brewery Co.” brand is pretty good) and at a flower stand for a couple of lilies (what else?) for my girls. 22 Yuan (less than $3 US) and a few steps later, I was back in the room. Dilla and I toasted our precious little bundle asleep in the crib, and called it a night.