Chongqing

We awoke early in our room at the Intercontinental and prepared for our trip to the big city of Chongqing. We would have happily stayed in Lijiang longer but we needed to catch the bus to the airport at 10:30. After distributing our passports and boarding passes, Patrick led us through security at the Lijiang airport. Mark’s checked bag was pulled for inspection but otherwise there were no issues. Security at Chinese airports is a little different than in the US. You can wear your shoes and coats but the wanding and hand checking are more involved. We walked in the small Lijiang airport briefly but didn’t have a long wait. We had a bag lunch from the Intercontinental but the airline gave us a small lunch as well.

The flight from Lijiang to Chongqing was very rough but took only 80 minutes but when we landed the difference in climate was immediately noticeable. Being out of the mountains and in the Yangtze River valley, Chongqing is very’ hot and humid. Of course, we were still dressed in long pants for the cooler Himalayan climate so we were uncomfortably warm.

We learned that Chongqing is a very large city with a population of over 8 million but the municipality has a population of over 31 million people. 

View of Chongqing from Gen. Stilwell's residence

Our first stop of the day was to the home and headquarters of General Joseph Stillwell who was the US point of contact for China before and during World War II. Stillwell was known to be a tough character leading to his nickname, “Vinegar Joe”. It is said that Stillwell had more power and influence than the president of China. He is still revered in China because of the prosperity that he helped to bring to the nation.

General Joseph Stillwell

After leaving Stillwell house we walked cross the street to the “Flying Tigers” museum. This small group of pilots played a very important role during World War II in flying “over the hump” from Tibet to Chongqing, then known as Chungking. It is estimated that half of all airplanes shot down in the Pacific Theater were on the “hump road”. The air force painted the noses of their aircraft to look like sharks but the local Chinese thought they looked like tigers so they called them Flying Tigers. When airplanes were shot down by the Japanese all surviving airmen were taken in and protected by local Chinese people. The US Air Force still honors the Chinese people of the area for assisting the US forces.

A local artist was at the museum demonstrating traditional painting on rice paper. Her paintings as well as other local art was available to purchase with proceeds going to the Flying Tigers Museum.

We checked in at the Chongqing Westin Hotel around 5:30 then went for a walk around the downtown. We had no idea what we were in for. The municipality of Chongqing has over 31 million people. It seemed like all of them were downtown when we were walking. Since this is a long holiday weekend, many local people come to fairs, festivals and concerts in the cities. It turns out that there was a major concert near where we were walking. Because the area was so crowded and noisy we didn’t stay long but returned to the Westin to shower and dress for dinner.

The dinner buffet on the 51st floor of the Westin was huge. There were selections from several areas of China as well as India, Italy and the US. We all enjoyed our meals and returned to our rooms on the 40th floor.

Our sleeping rooms were spectacular. We had a great view of the city with the buildings doing a spectacular light show. The king sized bed was very comfortable and the bathroom was unbelievable. There were two sinks, a large soaker tub and a shower with regular and rainfall heads. The toilet automatically opened when the door to the water closet was opened. The toilet included a bidet with several spray and dry options. The toilet flushed and closed the lid when you left the room.

Since we needed to be on the bus at 7:30 am we packed before bed and hoped to get a good night’s sleep.