Longchang to Chongqing to Shanghai

A travel day with many segments.

Leave hotel at 10:15AM and walk to bus stop. Take local bus #7 (1 yuan each) to Longchang Train Station. The 11:07AM (41 yuan each) is on time and arrives in Chongqing at 4:15PM. Walk up a hundred (more or less) steps to a Chongqing Rail Transit (CRT - aka Chongqing Metro) Line 3 station. Ride 21 stops (6 Yuan each) to the end of Line 3 and it's a short escalator ride up to Domestic Departures at Chongqing Jianbei International (CKG). Our Spring Airlines flight (400 yuan each) leaves on time at 8:55PM and we arrive in Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) at 11PM. Our bags come right out; the taxi rank is humming, and we are home at Sun-Ling's parents at 00:06 according to the fare receipt.

For our fellow independent travelers we present

How to get from the Chongqing Train Station to the Chongqing Metro (CRT) and Chongqing Jianbei Airport as of April 1, 2012.

On exiting the train station there is a medium-sized plaza. The bus station and official taxi rank are to the right (signage in Chinese and English). To your left and slightly above you (almost due north if you have a compass) is a local bus stop. There may also be taxis at this bus stop. And if you keep looking up you will see a long flight of steps with a monument at the top. That monument is your goal.

Walk across the plaza and up the steps to the bus stop. Then, cross the road via the pedestrian bridge and walk up the steps to the monument. At the monument, take a right and go up the steps under the arcade (or maybe its the underside of the road above). As you start up the dim, arcaded steps, keep looking to your left and very soon you will see the bright modern interior of Lianglukou Station with immediate access to lines 1 and 3. Go in. A ticket vending machine will be to the right. [As far as we could tell, there were no signs, in Chinese or English, in the arcade (or anywhere) pointing to the metro station, so stay alert.]

A ride/ticket to the airport is 6 yuan. Take Line 3 all the way to the end to Jianbei Airport Station. The ride takes about 70 minutes and the station is short escalator ride from Domestic Departures. Not sure how far to International Departures; check the signs to take the correct exit from the station.

Notes:
1 - Touts at the train station told us (they were lying) that it's a long walk from the metro stop to the airport, so "take our bus". Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's amazingly short to the domestic check-in counters.
2- We had no trouble getting ourselves and our backpacks into the metro station or onto the cars. Plus folks were friendly.
3- There are no signs (that we could see) at the train station pointing the way to the metro station and don't expect anyone to know where it is.
4 - The steps up to the monument are not trivial, but not daunting either. However, if you are dragging wheeled luggage, give yourself some extra time.
5 - I assume you can follow these steps in reverse to get from Jianbei Airport to Chongqing Station (not to be confused with the Chongqing North Railway Station).

Longchang Gates

Our first time in AC Hard Seat from Zigong to Longchang was not bad as the attendant was attentive, our seat companions quick to laugh, the "hard" seats comfortable, and the 25-minute break in the Neijiang Station let me catch plenty of rail yard action as some trains are heading north to Chengdu and some like ours east towards Chongqing. Our train changed locomotives. Woohoo!

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.

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.

Gongjing - Sister City

The Gong in Gongjing is the same Gong in Zigong as the cities of Gonging and Ziliujing were combined in 1939. So after day-tripping to places outside of town for 4 days in a row, we finally rode the city buses over to Gongjing on consecutive days to see the sights.

Basically it's the same story as the previous days: salt wells, waterways, guild halls, old buildings, bridges, and the Old Road, but with enough difference to not be a waste of time. And Gongjing is much less urban than Zigong. One can walk to Aiye Village and back along the Fuxi river, enjoying the dams and sluices, fisherman, and rural scenes.

Fuxi River with dam at left and salt well at right.


Fuxi River.


The old wharf in Aiye is impressively "well worn".


The riverwalk between Gongjing and Aiye.


It's possible to make out the dam (actually behind the field of vision in this photo), sluices, and locks from the bridge in Aiye. There were once 17 sets of such "waterworks" on the Fuxi River to facilitate the movement of salt.


Guangdong Guild hall - Gongjing.


Guizhou Guild Hall - Gongjing.


Old Post Office - Gongjing.


This old well is no longer producing salt brine, but is producing natural gas.


This derrick is huge and now produces natural gas - check out the meter.



The old road from Changtu to Aiye


Great lines of the Post Office in Aiye.


A section of the Old Road with worn sandstone blocks that's right in downtown Gongjing.

Xianshi Ancient Town and Shenhai Salt Well

Day-tripping from Zigong to Xianshi is easy. We walked for about 30 minutes to the Zigong Train Station. Just west of the station, buses to Xianshi (2.5 RMB pp) leave from almost right under a sign that says "Xianshi 11 kms". The end-of-the-line is at the top of the Xianshi Old Street.

Xiasnshi has spruced itself up for tourists and is building a river walk. Highlights are the 2 old guild halls, each with a temple and stage, that are bisected by a street instead of being inside compound walls. Neat! The guild halls are almost adjacent and both face the river. And no admission fees for any of the attractions.

Heading back to the top of the Old Street, we took the bus back to the train station and walked home, taking a pesdetrain tunnel that was full of posters explaining what to do during a nuclear attack. Hmmm.

After a quick lunch of boiled corn-on-the-cob, salted duck eggs, and oranges, we rode bus #35 east about 8 stops to the Shenhai Salt Well, admission 22 RMB pp. This well is over 100 years old, reaches 3000 ft deep, and still produces salt, mainly as a working museum. The wooden winch is idle except when energetic tourists give is a spin. The water buffalo have long been retired, replaced by a modern motor.

Salt brine is not pumped out of the well. A steel rope lowers a slim tube, about 4 inches in diameter and 30 feet long, that fills with brine. The tube is then winched up to the surface and the brine discharged into a tank. The brine is then transfer to the rendering house where it is boiled down into salt crystals.

The vats of salt brine are boiled over flames powered by the natural gas that also comes out of the well. At one point in the process soybean paste is used to draw off impurities. The Shenhai Well is well worth a visit.

After the well, we rode bus #35 4 stops west to a site with 4 more wells; none are working but they are in pretty good shape with derricks intact. At least one wooden winch survives as well. We poked around a bit. Having just visited a working well, we knew what to look for. The government owns the site and it looks like it will be developed for tourism as rubbish has been removed, and a distillery has been thrown out of one of the buildings.

Guild Hall Stage - Xianshi.


Old street.


Woman carries a child on the street that bisects the guild hall.


The wedding banquet will fill the street. At back is the "tunnel" through the guild hall.


The kitchen for the wedding banquet spills out onto the riverside path.


Shenhai Salt Well.


The old wooden Winch.


Wellhead and brine tube.


Boiling down the brine looks to be a mellow job.


The brine tube is dangling from the derrick (left). The brine rendering house in at right.


Three non-producing salt wells.


Capped and idle.