Chongqing February 2025
This trip was mainly a family visit trip but off course it was a holiday, and the timing was good since we also were in time to celebrate Chinese new year. For me this will be the first time to see this for me as well. Normally I want to post locations, but since this might be a bit hard to find back I will not be able to do this for all events we did.
We did arrive in Chongqing from our short layover from Beijing late at night. We were picked up by the family, and no matter the time we needed to have some hotpot first with family friends. After that we went back to the parents home to catch up on some long needed sleep, as I am sadly never able to sleep on the planes.
The morning after and during the day my girlfriend needed some time to catch up, so we only went out during evening to see a fire throwing show close by in the Beibei area we stayed.
The day after, still battling a bit of jetlag, we went down in the BeiBei area to roam the streets a bit, do some shopping and get the feeling from China back again. We walked down to the JialingJian River.
Since Ming cached a cold and I have some trouble making myself clear in China, we decided the day after not to go to far with exploring. We found a place close by to explore. We went to a old part of the Beibei Region town where everything is still in the style of the old years and give an amazing vibe. We walked down the streets, and had a coffee while having the feeling of being in old China, surrounded by nature. It is also a hot spring location, but since we already had hot springs planned, we just enjoyed the feeling. With a high spirit we decided to have a walk down the Jialing Jiang River till we arrived at a old monk monastery. Since it was close to new year a lot of the locations had beautiful decorations. After the long walk we needed to head back for a dinner gathering.
The next couple of days it was mainly about catching up with friends from Ming, since we try to go back ones a year, this is part of the duty of visiting the people. We went downtown to the city centre and spend some time in the biggest mall there is in Chongqing. This is made in a copy of the famous Singapore Marina Bay Sands. It is a huge building with 3 towers and a “ship” connecting the 3 tops. After this we went to Longmenhao Old street roaming new buildings that are made in the old style. This old street looks famously over the Yangtze River. We spend the night and dinner at our friends place and the day after we went out early to catch up with other friends back in the Beibei region, spending some time playing in the arcade hall and playing some pool.
It now it time to celebrate new year and the next few days we spend more at home. We needed to meet some family friends, spend time together, eat dinners and Ming had a lot of catching up to do with them. The new years celebration is almost the same as here. many places firework is not allowed anymore in the city centres so we did not see that much. We spend time being with the family, watching the new years eve on tv till the countdown. The next few days we stayed at home quality time with the family. After a couple of days we went out to a location where they rebuild similar old places in China for people that can not travel to see. Here again everything was nicely decorated and everywhere was extremely busy since the public holiday had started meaning everybody was free.
The day after we went to meet some friends again, We started with a morning coffee and a few days before we heard in a bar about a place high in the mountains to drink some tea. So we went out on adventure to go find the place. After a taxi ride up the mountain we were dropped in a little residential area. After some searching we spotted a little sign pointing in the right direction. We had to cross rivers, steep hills with unpaved paths in the middle of the forest to reach the place. After arriving at the top we had a lovely tea, spending to much time we had to get back in the dark. After surviving the down tour, we were still on top of the mountain, far away from taxi service. So our walked downtime started. After crossing some places and catching some weird looks, a friendly man stopped and gave us a lift back down the mountain. On the way down me and Ming spotted a street we ended up exploring the day after. Again very touristy, but it gave a good old feeling again that you have in sharp contrast to the very modern city. We walked down the street down the mountain back to the Yangtze river, and crossed it by foot on one of the bridges that had traffic closed. We found some food and continued to the very busy Hongyadong Area. It was very beautiful, but since we have been to China before on a trip, and the huge crowd from the New Years holiday we decided to go around it and head back home.
The last couple of days arrived for us in China, so we went one last time to downtown to meet some friends we did before. We went to a old art area where small artist come together. We went crazy with a big photo booth, got some massages and roamed down time just to spend some time together. After meeting the friends we spend some time with the family before we needed to go back to work life.
