The starting point of our Yangtze River cruise
Four days in July 2006
It is hard to choose one word to describe Chongqing. Surrounded by waters on three sides, and by the mountains on four sides, Chongqing is known as 'mountain city', 'foggy city' and 'furnace city'. People call Chongqing “Mountainous City” because of its hillside building, “Fog City” for its brumous weather, and “Furnace” for its high temperature in summer.
The "Mountain City" of Chongqing clings to steep cliffs at the confluence of the Yangtze and a major tributary, the Jialing River. This bustling city rises high above docks held in the rushing currents by cables lashed to anchor holes cut into the rocky shore. Cable cars glide across to opposite banks and giant bridges carry creeping waves of trucks loaded with the city's varied industrial output. Caves perforate the steep hills, once built as bomb shelters and now busy as garages or naturally cool restaurants and hair salons.
For centuries the main commercial and transportation centre for Sichuan Province, Chongqing is now under rapid transformation due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The city was granted national status in l996 as a municipal region similar to Bejing, Shanghai and Tianjin with an administrative region that includes the eastern Sichuan counties downriver for a total population of some 30 million people. Chongqing is now proud to be the world's largest metropolitan region.
Main Departure Ports on Yangtze River
From the west upstream area to the east estuary on the Yangtze River, there are three main departure ports for Yangtze cruises, namely Chongqing, Yichang, and Shanghai.
Prior to our cruise, we spent four days in Chongqing exploring. Gill, a Canadian colleague who worked with me in Shanghai, shared this hotel room
Views of Chongqing from our hotel room
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| Day-time view towards the river |
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| Day-time view of apartments and other housing |
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| Day-time view of apartments and other housing |
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| Chongqing Housing |
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| Day-time view towards a mall |
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| Night-time view towards the river |
Chongqing scenery
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| Chongqing accommodation |
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| Chongqing accommodation |
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| Street scenery |
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| Street scenery - Old versus the new |
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| Street scenery - Old versus the new |
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| Commercial district |
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| Shopping |
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| Street scenery - colorful apartment block |
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| Transportation |
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| Less affluent section |
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| Street scenery |
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| Less affluent housing |
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| Poor housing |
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| The informal commercial sector is booming in Chongqing |
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| Street cleaner cart at a bus stop |
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| Every space is utilized - These street food vendors chose steps |
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| Tunnel community |
The Bang Bang Jun (Porters a.k.a. "stickmen")
What really caught my eye and my camera lens was the amount of porters transporting various goods on poles all throughout the city.
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| One of the porters selling his fruit and veg |
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| Negotiations |
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| Sidewalk restaurant & porter |
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| Taking a break from hard labor and searing heat |
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| Hard work - can see why they are called stickmen |
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| Hard at work |
Street scenes, vendors, food and restaurants
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| local delicacies |
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| A street food vendor in his minutely small kitchen |
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| Many options are available |
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| Fruit and veg market place |
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| Public pay phones .... to call home. I guess many can't afford cell phones. |
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| Fruit and veg stall |
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| Small street shop about 2 meters by 1 meter, selling almost everything from batteries to phone cards |
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| Sidewalk tailoring |
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| This guy fixed my shoes |
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| Step vendors |
Locals
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| This disabled man is probably unemployed and dependent on charity |
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| Girls begging for money |
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| Motherly love |
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| Jiefangbei Square |
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| Jiefangbei Square |
Chongqing at night
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| Jiefangbei Square |
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| Jiefangbei Square |
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| Porters taking a rest |
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Giant electronic notice/advertisement board -
on which they showed football matches of the 2006 Soccer World Cup |
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| Jiefangbei Square |
Chaotianmen port in Chongqing is where the Yangtze river ferries depart from, and we boarded our cruise ship here. It is very close to the downtown of Chongqing, and it is the only port to get aboard in the ‘mountain city’. There are a total of 13 docks.
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| A Hazy view of the port - air pollution in Chongqing is quite bad |
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| A Hazy view of the port |
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| Elevators from city to docking platforms |
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| Dock advertisement board |
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| Our cruise ship and home for the next 3 days |
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| The docking gates |
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| The ramp on the dock to our ship |
We spent about 4 days in Chongqing while waiting for our Yangtze river cruise to commence. We boarded our cruise ship late afternoon for a three day cruise of the Yangtze River.
Join me on the Yangtze River Cruise here ...
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