Chongqing
Furong Cave 
Situated in the tourist scenery area of the Three Gorges, connected by river and land with Chongqing, Fuling, Fengdu, Wushan, Yichang and Pengshui along Yangtze River and its tributary, Wujiang River, Furong Cave lies in the east of Jiangkou town, Wulong county, Sichuan province, less than 3 kilometers from the town, where Wujiang River meets its tributary, Furong River.
Furong cave is a large limestone cave with 1846.8 m in length, 30 - 50 m in width and the same in height, in which the biggest room covers more than 11000 m2. Inside the cave, every kinds of speleothem including carbonate and sulfate is a feast for the eyes, rich and colorful, widespread in distribution, pure in quality and perfect in shape. Many kinds of the speleothems have not been found before in China, especially coral and dog-tooth like crystalline calcite flowers which is developing in pond and a variety of heligmites (helictite) , calcites, crystalline gypsum flowers which developed in the wall of the cave are even much rarer in the country and seldom seen in the world. The cave scenery, composed of these speleothems, is so exquisite wrought glorious, gorgeous the single, magnificent the whole that the eye can not take it all in.
Furong cave, is set up with modern facilities such as acoustics and tape-recorded speaking system, and scientific lamp boards and lamp boxes, its light design reflects the whole effects and artistic dynamic characteristies,and the hue is restored to its natural colour, hose developing is made by Committee on speloeolgy, the Geological society of China, on the basis of scientific research and demonstration, in accordance with high demands and high starting point.
Visiting Furong cave is not only obtainment of happy moral enjoyment of natural art and magic but also enrichment of many useful serological knowledge.
Fengdu Xueyu Cave (Snow Jade Cave)
Fengdu is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, about 170km downstream from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Besides the name of "City of Ghost," Fengdu is also famous for Xueyu Cave, where the stalactites in the caves are as white as snow and keeps growing at about 33 millimeter every 100 years. Now the cave has been listed as the first State Key Cave Research Base
The Three Gorge
The Three Gorges of Yangtze River, which is worldwide famous, is actually comprised of seven smaller gorges, whose varied names—Military Books and Precious Sword, Rice Granary, Ox Liver and Horse Lungs, Yellow Ox, Bright Moon, Lantern Shadow, and Yellow Cat—are all based upon ancient legends. At its eastern end are the three locks of the current “big dam,” Gezhouba (Gezhou Dam).
Qutang Gorge
It is the first one of the Three Gorges. Qutang Gorge, 8 kilometers long, starts from White King City of Fengjie at its western point to the Daxi town of Wushan County at its east point. The span of its narrowest surface is tens of meters, and the span of its widest reaches is less than 150 meters. Qutang Gorge is famous for its grand, short, narrow features. The main attractions are as follows: Daxi cultural site, Qutang Old Path, Stele Wall, Phoenix Spring, Bellows Gorge, etc. because of the dam the ancient calligraphy is now eye level.
Wu Gorge
Wu Gorge is the second one of the Three Gorges. Wu Gorge, 45 kilometers long, starts from Wu county of Chongqing as its west point to Guandu of Badong County, Hubei as its eastern point. It’s named after Wushan Mountain. To one’s surprise, Wu Gorge, well known for its prettiness, delicacy and diversity, drizzle or mist all the year round, makes a fantastic sight. Wu Gorge is very long with strange and unique peaks, and the water flows in a zigzag. When passing Wu Gorge, you seem to go into a singular and beautiful gallery, the Goddess Peak and caves are now visible without strain.
Xiling Gorge
Xiling Gorge is the third gorge. It starts from the western point, the outfall of Xiangxi River in Zigui County to Nanjin Pass in Yichang, and the eastern point. Xiliing Gorge has got its name for being located in the west of Yichang. It contains Xin Beach, Kongling Beach, the Three Gorges Dam, Dengying Gorge, and Huangmao Gorge. It’s known for strange rock formation, speed and alarming danger. Passing Xiling Gorge is an adventure. The hanging coffins and Zhangfei Shrine are closer now.
Dazu Stone Caving
Dazu, a small mountainous town west of Chongqing, is famous for its stone carvings, with more than 100,000 pieces left over from the Tang (628-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. The whole county has more than 40 stone carvings and over 50,000 sculptures. These rock carvings are famous for their high quality art spanning various subjects. From secularity to religion, these rock carvings reflect the Chinese daily social life of that period. Among them, the most famous and largest are Baoding Hill and Beishan (North Hill). The two hills are under national key cultural protection and is the art masterpiece of late Tang Dynasty. Dazu County was built in BC 758.The well-preserved carvings are representative of an ancient Chinese art tradition. They also take a very important position in the religious, artistic and cultural history of China. Stone carvings are found in more than 70 places scattered throughout the county of Dazu. The largest, richest and most exquisite collection of statues is at the foot of Baoding Hill and North Hill. The stone carvings along the Baoding Hill were hewn out from 1174 to 1249. The row is 500 meters long and consists of nearly 10,000 statues, of which the most distinctive and majestic are the "Thousand-arm Goddess of Mercy" and the 31-meter long sleeping Buddha. These stone carvings are unparalleled works of art in the world and were included by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 1999.
Chongqing People's Hall
Chongqing people's hall and people's square are the architectural symbol of Chongqing . The hall is designed in the traditional symmetrical and beautiful proportioned style of Ming and Qing dynasties' palaces.
The construction of the hall began on June in 1951 and finished on April 1954. The auditorium consists of three parts: the great hall, the north wing and the south wing on each side of the hall(an east wing was added to it in 1986), and the perilous archway by the street. It has the area of 25,000 square meters. The highest point is 65 meters and the hall is 55 meters high. There are 5 levels. Four of them are taken into use. It can contain a 4000-seat auditorium.
Eling Park
Located it Changjiang lu, yuzhong district, eling was originally named Edingling (goose nape hill), for its narrow and steep shape resembling a nape of a goose.
Eling park was built in 1909, which was originally a private garden and was originally the home of lee Yaoting and his son, a rich businessman, also known as ‘courteous park', with special plant species and newly built tower(LiangJiang pavilion) providing the view of the whole city. In 1958, large-scale of restoration was carried out on the site of lee garden and the park was ‘ Eling Park '.
The park office used to be the Britain and Australia embassy during the anti-Japan war, the flat houses in the park used to be turkey embassy.
Ciqikou Ancient Town
Ciqikou is an old town preserved in sprawling modern Chongqing , about one hour's drive from the city center. It's an old sleepy town built in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The town's name, ciqikou, means porcelain harbor, and the community prospered from the porcelain trade. With a history of more than 1,800 years, it has some typical traditional and cultural characteristics featured in mountainous areas.
The old street has only two main streets and they've been taken up by all kinds of shops. Anytime the teahouse puts on diverse rang of entertainment with shows staged, which is the famous Sichuan show, “ Chongqing the face'.
HuGuang Guild Hall
This grand building complex can be found in Eater Shuimen Street in the city of Chongqing . The building group was first built in 1759 under the regime of Emperor Qinglong in the Qing Dynasty and was extended around 100 years later. The complex covers around 8500 square kilometers and contains many halls such as Guangdong Hall, Jiangnan Hall, Lianghu Hall , Jiangxi Hall and there are also 4 other towers for opera shows. The wooden building walls, doors and windows were delicately carved. The theme of these carvings includes human figures, and animals and various plants. It's amazing that they were so vividly sculptured.
This batch of halls was originally built for the immigrants who moved here from Huanguan Areas - today's Hunan , Hubei , Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces . At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty the population in Sichuan declined dramatically and the rulers of that time ordered people living in the Hu and Guang areas to move there to cultivate the fertile land. This was the famous Huguang Filled up Sichuan Movement.
There is a Yuwang Temple in that complex, which was the place to pray for a good harvest for the coming years. Dating back to 300 years ago, people gathered at the temple to sacrifice Yuwang, a local god, for happiness, good harvest and fortune in the coming years.
The temple was first erected after that movement by the local businessmen and it was repaired and extended three times with the basic style without many changes. From then on the black title architecture has stood through war flames and natural erosion for more than a hundred years.
The towers there are still in active use. Local performances are shown here daily such as the famous Magical Face Changes in Chuan Opera.
Particularly, in the autumn, 1945, the late chairman Mao Zedong, in a revolutionary indomitable spirit, personally cane here to negotiate with KMT in an attempt to bring about a bright future for China.
The places where comrades Mao Zedong and Zhou EnLai lived and worked have turned to the 'Red Crag Revolutionary Memorial Hall'. |
