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WHAT TO SEE IN CHONGQING
Chongqing, always a trading city,
was never noted for its cultural heritage or
architecture. However, unlike most northern
Chinese cities, Chongqing and other Yangtze
River towns are very lively at night. On summer
evenings residents stroll about in the hope
of a refreshing breeze. Street markets, sidewalk
restaurant stalls,herbalists and calligraphers
can be found on Wuyi Lu and Bayi Lu. In formal
Sichuanese opera can be heard at the Workers'
Park on Saturday evenings.
The narrow streets near Chaotianmen
Docks, flanked by clothes and noodle stalls,
narrow streets, thread their way down to the
harbour. At the waterfront, a busy panorama
unfolds--steamers, tugboats, rows of pontoons,
even a cable tramway to ease the ascent from
shore to street. The Jialing cable car starts
its journey from Cangbai Lu to Jinsha Jie on
the north bank on (Jiangbei).The five--minute
ride is fun on a clear day. Another cable car,
at Wanglongmen, spans the Yangtze to the south.
The Chongqing Zoo has several pandas, which
are native to Sichuan Province.
•
CHONGQING MUSEUM
Located at 72 Pipashan Zhengjie,
it houses a good collection of earthenware figurines
and brick reliefs from the Eastern Han period
(AD 25--220). They came from tombs, most 
likely
of wealthy and important men. As was the custom,
the deceased were buried with objects recalling
the preoccupations of everyday life--farming,
hunting and entertainment. While Han tombs were
elaborate affairs, the people of Ba, who roamed
the plains of Sichuan 2,000 years ago, disposed
of their dead in an even more singular fashion,
encasing corpses in canoe-shaped wooden coffins
and suspending them from cliffs along the river.
Two of these huge coffins and the artifacts
found inside them are on display here.
•
T
HE
LUOHAN TEMPLE
This 19th-century temple is glimpsed
through an ornate passage whose walls are encrusted
with rock carvings in the manner of Buddhist
grottoes. Luohan are Buddhist saints; they traditionally
number 500, although in this temple there are
actually 524 statues of them. They are of recent
vintage, the last of the originals having been
destroyed in the Cultural Revolution (1966--76).
The present statues were made by the Sichuan
Fine Arts institute in l985.
•
PAINTERS' VILLAGE (HUAJIA ZHI CUN)
Both Painters' Village and the Sichuan
Fine Arts institute, located in Hualongqiao,are
often on tour-group itineraries. However, they
are some way out of the city and difficult to
reach by public transport. Both establishments
maintain galleries and offer pieces for sale.Painters'
Village was established in the l950s to nurture
artists who would create paintings and lithographs
to glorify the Revolution. These state--sponsored
artists came from all over China and included
members of minority nationalities. They are
mostly elderly now and enjoy what, for China,
are excellent conditions. They have their own
studios and produce an impressive range of work.
Since China embarked on economic reforms, however,
they have had to become commercial, since the
government no longer buys all their work.
•
SlCHUAN FlNE ARTS INSTITUTE (SICHUAN MEISHU
XUEYUAN)
This is the only residential undergraduate-
and graduate--level fine arts college in southwest
China, with a student enrolment of around 300
a year. Students come from all over China as
well as from abroad. The college was founded
in 1950, and has departments of sculpture, painting,
crafts (including lacquerware, textile design,
packaging design and ceramics) and teacher training.
The institute is particularly proud of its gallery
which displays the best work of its students.
Many of the items are for sale. The institute
is located at HuangJiaoping, on the northern
bank of the Yangtze, about half an--hour's drive
from the centre of the city.
• RENMIN
HALL
Built as the administrative offices
for southwest China in the early l950s, it is
now used as a hotel and venue for performances
and meetings as it has an auditorium with seating
for 4000. The architectural style is a combination
of the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City.
It is certainly the most spectacular building
in Chongqing.
•
STILWELL MUSEUM
The museum, which was established
in conjunction with the Stilwell Foundation
in the USA and the Foreign Affairs Bureau in
Chongqing, is dedicated to General Joseph Stilwell
and the time he served as Commander-in-Chief
of the American forces in the 'China-Burma--India
theatre', between l941 and l945 when the threat
of the Japanese Imperial Army was finally overcome.
General Stilwell was instrumental in ridding
Asia of that threat.The museum is located at
33 Six in Road in the actual house occupied
by General Stilwell during the war. The house
is a tribute to his daughters, Alison and Nancy,
who devoted so much time and effort in bringing
this project to fruition in l992.
•
RED CRAG VILLAGE (HONGYAN CUN) AND GUI YUAN
Both
these are now memorial museums to the l949 revolutionary
activities in the city. In the 1930s and '40s,
during the period of co--operation between the
Guomin-dang government and the Chinese Communist
Party against the aggression of the Japanese,
these buildings were the offices of the Communist
Party and the Red Army.Mao Zedong stayed in
Gui Yuan House during his brief stay in Chongqing
in 1945.
• ChongQing
Introduction
• What TO See In ChongQing
