Friday, September 23: Chongqing and Dazu

  It was a long trek in the rain, but well worthwhile.  We drove two hours or a bit more to Dazu to see the stone wall carvings. 

Chongqing is in a very hilly area and apparently it rains about 110 days a year.  It's damp, misty and foggy ( or smoggy ) most of the time.  With a population in the large "regional municipality" greater than Canada's, it's pretty dense and busy.  The outskirts are agricultural and we saw rice paddies, fields of lotus and corn, and artificial ponds where fish are raised.  People working in the fields have large flat straw hats and simple tools.  We saw a man ploughing a field on foot (barefoot) with his pant legs rolled up walking behind a water buffalo.  Every yard has chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs.  The wealthy farmers have 2-storey houses and the poorer ones single-storey.  Their fields are terraced.  There are orange groves, pear , pomegranate and apple orchards and vineyards. We were stared at by residents, kids waved and so on -- especially when we stopped to photograph one farm area.      

At Dazu  

We took trams to the entrance to a grotto, then gradually descended to the bottom, admiring 1000-year old Buddhist carvings on the walls of the valley and in little caves.  Originally they were coloured and covered with gold, but much of that has worn away.  The last few are unfinished because either a war or an argument broke out and the sculptors fled for their lives.               

Also the foundation there was a bit shaky.  It was wet and slippery and there were few handholds but everyone in our group made it through ok.  Several people have "touristitis" today, and a few others are just recovering. Thank goodness for Imodium!  The trip to and from Dazu includes a couple of long tunnels.  Since traffic is very chaotic in China, those were a bit of a relief because for 2 to 4 minutes at a time most vehicles stayed more or less in their own lanes.  

As usual we saw a great deal of constructions and lots of buildings being torn down.  Thousands of unoccupied apartments in new-looking high-rises.  We hear much about the 'one family 1 child' rules and we see evidence of both dismaying poverty and tremendous economic growth.  People seem to be happy with their life style even though we can't imagine living as they do.  We also learned today that we're in the general area of a Panda bear reserve.  We'd have loved to go there, but it's a 12-hour drive, so out the question.  Tonight many of us have skipped the group dinner in favour of the hotel bar fare.  It's western and we're ready for that.  Every lunch and dinner seems similar, (though much better than North American Chinese food) so it was an easy choice to make.

Bar food and drink made us quite the lively group in the bar with much chatter and laughter.  The live music started, so we were up dancing before our food even arrived, and carried on 'til we wore out the band [ and me ].  We were joined in our frolic by some Aussies, and even some locals.  What a riot, and what a good way to spend an evening!!

Photos 23 Sep Chongqing  Dazu