BTC Chongching. Double happiness

Warm and sunny

Early plane ride to Chongching and the giant pandas.

With mountains on all sides it was heavily bombed by japan but not occupied. Remained the capital from 1937 to late 1945. Now the area has 32 millions with 10 millions in the inner city. Has invested very heavily in trees and pollution control equipment. Very hot, very humid summers and cold humid winters. Buildings looking like they are growing as we fight the traffic from the airport.

Hilly city,sitting between two rivers, yu and yangtze, providing many jobs for porters, bamboo stick men, to carry even daily shopping home. Easy city to get a job in restaurants or porters and start you climb from the village to business or education prosperity.

First a tour of the old city with its outdoor markets. Traditional Szechwan lunch, nice mixture of warm to very warm to hot dishes. Some items from the south, canton area.
Pandas in the zoo were not so nice to see. The zoo is of a style we used 50 years ago. More like large caged pens. Many photos will be on Flickr.

Short lecture on Chinese painting and methods, mostly as an introduction to the art gallery and their hope for some sales.

Hot pot dinner – both a mild and spicy broth. Then off to the ship. We start a 800 km trip on the Yangtze. Chongching looks exciting all lit up-from the ship before it gets going. Safety talk first as one can easily understand.?