Chongqing China

China

Two rivers meet at the foot of the towers. The Jialing, greener, blends into the Yangzi, yellower, and the line dividing their waters remains visible for a long time. It is at this point, the Chaotianmen Dock, that Chongqing welcomes and dispatches the Yangzi's ships. For most travellers, the metropolis marks the beginning or end of a voyage toward the Three Gorges, and it deserves far more than a mere passage between the airport and the gangway.

Chaotianmen: The Gateway of Rivers

Boarding generally takes place late afternoon or evening, leaving an entire day to take the measure of the city. The dock backs onto the Chaotianmen Plaza, a vast viewing terrace turned toward the confluence. Just above, the Raffles City complex raises its towers linked by a horizontal walkway; its observation platform embraces both rivers and an urban landscape built vertically, in successive storeys on the hills.

A City in Three Dimensions

Chongqing resembles no other Chinese metropolis. Streets pass above roofs, stairways serve as pavements and the metro sometimes crosses buildings. To grasp this geography, the Yangzi ropeway remains the most direct means, an aerial crossing of the river offering minutes of birds-eye view over water laden with barges. As night falls, the Hongya Cave complex illuminates the neighbouring cliff, a stack of pilings-built houses reinvented as galleries of restaurants and shops, a short distance from the dock.

The Memory of Navigation

To understand what the voyage is about to show, the Three Gorges Museum, facing the Great Hall of the People, displays the river's history, villages engulfed by the reservoir and the cultures of eastern Sichuan. The models and photographs give particular relief to the landscapes the ship will traverse in the following days. It is a step that transforms how you read the voyage.

Ciqikou: The Older Town

About eighteen kilometres from the centre, the older town of Ciqikou lines its lanes from the late Ming dynasty above the Jialing. Restored wooden houses, calligraphy workshops, tea merchants and the scent of roasted peppers; the place is popular, but it retains the human scale of an old hillside quarter. Line 1 of the metro in fact serves a Ciqikou station, a few streets from the old town's entrance. There you taste local cuisine, including spiced noodles and Sichuan hotpot, provided you acclimatise to the Sichuan pepper that slightly numbs the lips.

Before Casting Off

It is best to arrive at the dock one or two hours before boarding, to find your ship among the vessels lined up. From the upper deck, the spectacle of departure merits settling in early; the city lights gradually and façades transform into luminous screens that mirror in both rivers.

When the ship finally moves from the confluence point, the towers shrink and the hills reclaim their due. Chongqing will have been a dizzying introduction; the river now promises the calm of the gorges. Between the two, the traveller understands that in China, excess and contemplation often travel on the same river.