Old Walking Trails of Chongqing
Flying from Beijing to Lijiang we had an eight hour wait in the modern but uninspiring Chongqing Airport. Rather than hang about in the lounge we decided to have a look round the town.
Typically for Chongqing, the weather was overcast – it’s known as the “Foggy City” for its 100 days of fog a year. This, coupled with one of the lowest annual sunshine totals in China to make a somewhat dreary looking place, livened up by the exceptionally spicy food created to keep the chills away. Chongqing is the largest city in China, and its population of 31.5m is higher than Peru or Malaysia and approaching that of Canada.
Just 45 minutes from the airport a taxi dropped us off at one of the highest points, an area called Tongyuanmen, which takes its name from the city gates at its centre. Atop these gates are the Drum Tower and a series of inscriptions explaining the history of the area dating back 2200 years. Chongqing was once a walled city but unlike most Chinese walled cities the original Ming walls followed the steep and irregular topography of the peninsular formed by the two rivers that cut through the city. Today, just a handful of the original eighteen gates of the city wall still stand and the Dong Shui Men East Water Gate is the most intact of them all.
These old and worn flagged stairways have a thousand tales to tell
if only they could talk.
Chao Tian Men (Turn towards Heavens Gate) on the tip of the peninsular is the most famous of the city's gates and has been rebuilt. Today it is hidden beneath the viewing plaza where you'll find a map of the layout of the city wall, gates, temples and ancient buildings. The new Planning Museum unveils bold plans to redevelop much of the older sections of the city.
A walk can commence at any of the remaining gates but is best begun from Chao Tian Men (see map) walking upstream along the north bank of the Yangtze towards Dong Shui Men and the beautifully restored Huguang Huiguan (Guild Hall). From here continue walking to the left of the Huguang Huiguan up the slope via Wang Long Men towards Chu Qi Men - The gate is no longer here but there's an interesting set of stairs which climb up to the archways supporting Kaixuan Rd. Only one of the archways is open, the others are boarded up or have become houses hidden beneath the road beside the Chongqing Daily Newspaper. Kai Xuan Elevator covers the same climb just beside this gate from Xinhua Lu to Jiefang Xi Lu.
Carrying on downhill, we reached a viewing area on the edge of a roundabout. From here, we could see the remnants of the old city and one of the last surviving Diaojiaolou, or stilt houses. As the city is so hilly, the builders used varying lengths of stilt to create a larger floor area. These houses are often five or six levels high to maximise ground use and are a low-tech precursor to the skyscrapers that are so rapidly replacing them.
The hilly nature of the city also led to it being unusual for its lack of bicycles, and may be why the oldest part of town centres on the Eighteen Stairs. This series of staircases was historically the fastest route from the Chaotianmen docks up the hill to the main town. A human chain of people (known as BàngBàng), for the characteristic bamboo pole they carried over their shoulders) would carry goods up the stairs. Today, as then, hole-in-the-wall restaurants and repair shops line the stairs. The food here is cheap and the owners welcoming, making it hard to stick to our decision to try Chongqing hot pot in the area in which it was supposedly invented.
Reaching the bottom of the Eighteen Stairs, we arrived at Chaotianmen Docks. The port is the meeting point of the jade green Jialing River and the muddy brown Yangzi River. Despite the cold and drizzly day the little plaza was full of old men flying kites and young couples taking wedding photos against the rather industrial background.
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