Chongqing

   Hello from home

  This is the weirdest trip yet as far as the way I’ve blogged. I couldn’t get an email out of mainland China so I sent 5, rapid fire emails from Hong Kong in 2  ½ days. These 5 emails took us through to the end of the Yangtze River which left Changqing, Beijing, and Hong Kong. I figured I would wrap things up in 2 more emails but Joani and I are just now, sitting at home drinking tea and going through photos and with the pictures I’m seeing, I want to write 4 more stories. For anyone that’s finding it boring or tiring, remember the delete button is a great option.

 When we left the Yangtze River we traveled through a city called Chongqing which I hadn’t even heard of before heading for China. The wonder of that, is that it is one of the largest cities in the world with an encompassing population of over 30 million people. To put that into context, the entire population of Canada is slightly over 36 million!!

 We only had one day in this enormous city but our guide wanted to show us as much as he could in a short time. I have attached a few photos that I found fun and/or interesting.

 The first one is a panoramic shot of the city from a elevated viewpoint.

Then a couple from inside the city,

Next a shot of Joani and me with a couple of Peacocks which was very fun!

And then there are three from a market our guide took us to. The first shot is just to show you how crowded the market was.

 A funny little story about the second last shot. As usual I wanted to see everything, so I dragged Joani down this side street which turned out to be a back street to nowhere!! We ended up in a sort of sketchy area, almost lost and happened upon this old man,  playing the violin.

( Very well I might add, Joani donated to his cause). It took us a while to get back to the market, but an interesting side trip.

 The last shot was of people dressed up in costume to honor the year of the monkey.

Very fun!

 Garry