Chongqing

Fly Beijing to Chongqing, for a lecture at Institute of Advanced Study at Chongqing University and the starting point for the Yangtze River cruise. CQ was the wartime capital during the Sino-Japanese war.  It is now the largest city in China (33+ million) and has a blade-runner type feel with closely-built high towers of apartment and office buildings. It was surely once very beautiful,  hilly and part of it is an island in the middle of the Yangtze (lot of bridges). Many of those displaced by three gorges dam were relocated here. Real estate is cheaper here than in Beijing and Shanghai, but someone from the univ. told us she too was a 房奴, fangnu, or slave to the house (mortgage).

Chongqing (Nan-an district) from our hotel

CQ is also hot -- one of China's three ovens (the others being Wuhan and Nanjing) When we arrived it was 99 degrees and the next day it was 104 degrees F.   Despite the heat we visited the Old City, built in Qing dynasty. It helps to carry an umbrella and to walk very, very slowly.

In the Old City there is a restored home of a high Qing official. In the study there are posters, "24 ways of filial piety."  Here, the filial son attracts the mosquitoes so the father may sleep undistured. Just sayin'.

A farmer walking through the Old Town with yangmei (楊梅), aka Chinese bayberry. We discovered this fruit in Beijing. Deep red, texture a little like a strawberry, at once tangy and sweet. Really delicious; I've never seen it in USA, though apparently the juice is sometimes marketed as "yumberry."  (See link left for more info.)  We are also enjoying dragonfruit, mangosteen, lichee (large and juicy, not like pathetic ones sold in USA Chinatowns) and of course, Chinese people's favorite, watermelon.

Hot and spicy -- here, some two dozen varieties of spicy chicken.  Another vendor was selling spicy beef jerky (辣牛肉幹, la niurougan）.  Unfortunately, cannot bring back to USA. But i did buy some fresh green peppercorns from this pepper shop.

selling freshly made noodles (not hot)

After lunch, a short visit to Nankai Zhongxue, where my mother and her siblings went to school during the war.  The school is still reputed to be the best high school in all of China.  Much of the campus is new, but the old library is still there, now nearly completely covered with ivy.  My mom and my aunt still visit their old school friends in Beijing, and my mom goes to monthly alumni luncheons in Queens. 

lecture at Chongqing Univ.