Friday, 23 September 2016
China: Day 11 - Chongqing
We were up fairly early, expecting a departure from our cruise ship by 8:00 AM in Chongqing. At 5:30 AM the ship stopped and we assumed it was docked, but a short time later we were moving again. The river traffic appeared heavy so progress was slow. We docked along side another cruise ship, and had to wait for their passengers to disembark before we could make our way to shore. Docking was not what we are accustomed to seeing. There are limited dock spaces, so the ships tie up to one another, and then passengers have to walk across the lower level of another ship to actually reach the dock.
Due to construction we had to walk a ways to reach our bus, and then off to downtown Chongqing where about half of our tour group visited the zoo to see the pandas. This was an excursion we didn't pay for, so we took the time to walk around Chongqing.
Lunch was in a restaurant at almost the same location where we got off the ship and boarded the bus. Lunch had a distinctive Szechuan flavour as the Chongqing area is where the culinary style originated.
Later in the day we visited the Ciqikou Old Town, a revitalized shopping district along with seemed like thousands of of other people. It was alongside a canal, and the area's history can be traced back 1700 years.
That evening we boarded a short flight to Beijing.
