Summing up Zigong

We spent 8 nights in Zigong, the most ever in any city in China outside of Shanghai. Granted, one day was "wasted" when we were both out with Stomach troubles and also had to change hotels.

Our first impression of Zigong was "wait-and-see". Zigong is what SL calls a "3D city" having hills, tunnels, rivers, and not on a grid, thus it takes a few days to get ones bearings. However, it turned out to have a friendly city bus system; frequent buses to the places one wants to go, and some unique sights like the salt wells. Not to mention that Zigong is known for its Lantern Festival and parts of town are lit up every night. And we did not visit three of the top four attractions: the Dinosaur Museum, the Salt History Museum, the Lantern Museum and Park, but still found plenty of things to do.

Excursions to Xianshi, Sandouzhai, Fu Shun, and Gongjing were also very interesting (although we would not recommend Rongxian and its Giant Buddha) and with easy transport.

Overall we rate Zigong as an excellent destination for the independent traveler.

The Guild Hall near our hotel is now a pleasant, leafy, tea house.




The old waterfront with folks enjoying the nice weather in riverside tea houses.


The Dinosaur Museum. We did not go in, just changed buses, but I just had to take this photo.


At dusk, we were walking a section of the old road when this train came by.


One of the pedestrian tunnels that connect various parts of the city. This one happens to be the least attractive one we saw.


The old semi-circular Catholic Church.




The old cinema is now a warehouse.


These portable restaurants appear around the Zigong downtown in the evenings.





A couple of night scenes along the Fuxi River. I like the reflection pic because I see a guitar.