33 Ciqikou Ancient Town

"People always say: “If you weren’t on Ciqikou, you weren’t in Chongqing”. Ciqikou Ancient Town, or called Ciqikou Old Town, is a great place to stimulate the taste buds and find unique souvenirs (wooden knickknacks, porcelain, clothes, foods to bring home, etc.). The area is also very suitable for picture taking and enjoying traditional architecture and street performers."

Well I couldn't describe it any better myself.  By now we were pretty tired and it was suggested that we buy something to eat before we start our 4 hour drive back to Chengdu and our flight home..  

This would have had to have been the busiest ancient town with it's small lanes feeding off the main cobbled street.  Artisans in all types of art forms were on display and for sale... 

While the contiki kids went searching for burgers, I settled for street food, so good I went back for seconds.....

Entrance

There is always spruiking for theatre

Lane ways branching out in all directions

View from one of the tea houses..

Artisans of all types at work

looks good but not for me.

Now we are talking

 Once we arrived at the airport it was a mad scramble for everyone to prepare their bags and squeeze in that last lot of shopping for the flight home.

32 Hongyadong

Hongyadong is an 11-storey, 75 meters (245 feet) stilt house abutting a steep cliff.

The Hongya Cave with the cliff was once an ancient military fortress, sitting right next to the river is was also the site of the earliest and most developed pier of ancient China

Now a popular tourist hub with each floor filled with bars, restaurants, street food and stores filled with handicraft.

Stilt House

It was fun watching this gentleman make noodles.... 

31 Chongqing Three Gorges Museum.

This building is massive..Enter the building and you are face with floors and floors of exhibits..

 Glorious Three Gorges - reflects the cultural and historical spirits of the Three Gorges

 Ancient Ba-Yu - introduces the ancient civilisation of Chongqing and origin of the more than 3,000 years of history by showcasing cultural heritages in the Stone Age and Bronze Age.

 Chongqing: the City Road - describes the changes and challenges this city experienced in the 20th century.

 Years of the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945) - records the wartime ordeals people in this city had gone through.

We were once again left to our devises and we explored the exhibits that interested us.. William did give us some suggestions

here are a selection of my favourite pictures:

Entrance that represent the walls of the Dam

Spectacular interior.... where to first!

Reminded me of the Natural History Museum in New York

30 Debarkation, Chongqing and the long drive back to Chengdu

We were now docked in Chongqing where we disembarked the ship. This was our last day in China and our hosts wanted to ensure that we fit in as much as we could before a four hour drive back to Chengdu Airport for our flight back home at 2 am...   yes that is right 2 AM!

That would be a total of 5 places visited throughout the day.  I will split this post up, only because there will be pictures ... lots of pictures .... only cause I can't decide which are the best ones.

Peoples Assembly Hall

The weather was not the best today

Jiefangbei Business District.

Here we were given free time to walk around, I spent my time wisely looking for a pair of tracky pants to wear on the way home... Now although China is the home of industry... the shops are not cheap....  better off waiting till you get home,  no wonder you see the Chinese tourists running around with designer bags when they are in Sydney.  Any how... H & M came good with the goods.