Once in Longchang, Sun-Ling took an hour to settle on the Long Chang Hotel, while I cooled my heels in the lobby of the 3-star Golden Swan Hotel using their free Wi-fi. Many of the hotels had raised their rates for the Qingming Holiday, including the Long Chang which turned out to be a well-run place.
With only a day-and-a-half of sightseeing before our train to Chongqing and flight to Shanghai we set out right away for Longchang's famous 6 Southern Gates and then on to a white pagoda we had spotted from our hotel window where we also bagged a Buddhist nun printing paper money, a 7th gate,and a section of old road.
The next day we made a quick trip to Longshi Village, then returned to Longchang and bagged 4 of the 5 Northern Gates (a surly security guard prevented the 5th), the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, a Buddhist Temple, and the Mosque.
The China Railways salesman hawking...er...what exactly is that ?
At Neijiang Station.
The 5 Southern Gates/Archways straddle the Old Road.
Nun printing fake money for QingMing.
The Old Road - Longshi Village
Re-fluffing a cotton comforter - Longshi Village.
Checkout the similarity in the design of the Catholic Church, Protestant Church, and Mosque. Neat!
The 4 Northern Gates (3 shown here) will soon be surrounded by a new park. Until then construction workers live in the unfinished buildings and the Old Road is lightly trod.
3 comments:
Wow, great pix, especially the first gate one. But what is this Qingming Holiday?
Thanks Kathy! Qingming, aka a Tomb Sweeping Festival: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival, is a 3-day National Holiday. So many folks are traveling to actually clean their ancestors' tombs, others are just enjoying the 3 days off from work or school.
-john
Longchang 's where mu home town. It's imteresting to read your blog and hope you had a pleasand time in your stay there.
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