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Off we go to Chongqing with Tommy and Tina for the weekend on the high speed train. We travelled at 200 km per hour and were there in 2.5 hours.


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Angie and Kelsey on Fast Train
We went through many tunnels. One seemed to take us a several minutes, but they slowed down to 160 kph. It must have been very long!


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Sunset over the Jialing River in Chonqing China
When we got to the city we were amazed at the heat!! At 35 degrees celcius it really is one of China's three ovens (along with Wuhan and Nanjing). It has a huge population--the whole of Canada (30-40million people) in the one region. I was expecting a much different place and was very surprised with how beautiful the area is with it's hills and concentrated skyscrapers at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers. Unfortunately we were in a very hot taxi and suffered major delays going over the bridge to the centre of the city. We were shocked to drive by a horrendous accident scene where a fellow on a motorcycle or scooter had been run over by the back wheels of a dump truck and he was still lyiing on the blistering pavement with his severely damaged leg pinned under the rear tire and was clearly either in
shock or having seizures. We are hoping that he will survive!


 
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We were here a few days ago but forgot to bring the camera. We actually just stumbled on this amazing spot the first time. So Kelsey and I asked our Chinese friend Sherry if she would like to go there with us to have dinner.


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Kelsey McIntosh's Drawing of Night Lanterns
This gave us a chance to take our pictures and this time we would be there to see the night lights.  When we got home my daughter Kelsey who is doing her University of Victoria Faculty of Education Practicum in Chengdu did this beautiful drawing of the night lanterns in the alley.  She is a fine artist!  You can check out her interesting blog that is chronicalling her practicuum experiences in a Chengdu Chinese Elementary school at www.EducationPracticums.weebly.com.


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Another tasty dinner with lots of great vegetables.

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China's national flower the peony
As we walked out of the restaurant I saw this beautiful bouquet of fresh peonies which are the national flower of China.  Then we  wandered around the lovely streets we found a fantastic earring vendor. Many beautiful styles for only 10 yuan each and because we bought several pairs she further reduced the price to 8 yuan which is about $1.30 a pair.  She had so many unique styles I should have bought more. My family knows I am an earring fanatic!


 
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Girls in Boat Watercolour By Angie Roth McIntosh
Today I decided I would paint a watercolour which hopefully I could complete today and I know it will dry thoroughly in
a day so I won't have to worry about packing this one. I painted this lovely lady playing and singing on the pond in Suzhou.

Yesterday I worked on my Traffic Garden Hotel painting the courtyard pool in oil. It is going to take alot of work to complete and is danger of not drying before I leave. In the evening I decided to start a painting of a yellow rose in acrylic--this one I can work on in my hotel room in the evenings as I can't work on the oils or they'll never dry enough in time to pack.


 
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I saw great little sets of Windsor Newton oil paints manufactured in China and decided to try my hand at them after I purchased my own set for 18 yuan ($3). I wanted to
enjoy the soft blending and transitions that cannot be achieved using acrylics. After I got the paint I went to get some liquid dishsoap and some vegetable oil that I could use instead of toxic solvents. I painted a 12x16 underpainting of the little shop interior that I saw in one of the Unesco World Heritage designated villages near the Huangshan
Mountains last September. I was pleased with the paint texture and workability.


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However I have one problem. Oils dry very slowly at the best of time but because I thinned my paint with oil instead of turpentine it is going to take even longer for the paint to dry because turpentine can evaporate while the oil has to oxidize. I guess I won't get to finish this one in China and am hoping that the oil paint will dry out enough that that I can roll up the canvas when I leave to travel on May 22nd.


 
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It was with great disappointment when we arrived in Chengdu that I saw that the view for miles along the north and south side of the River were blocked from view by a huge blue construction wall (including in front of our hotel). They were building new walking paths and parks all throughout the central downtown area. It was with total delight that we stepped out of our hotel to finally see the landscape. In time for the May holiday they had completed most of the local construction and we would no longer have to risk life and limb walking down the roadway. They even put in new grass and thousands of pots of yellow and pink flowers all along the wall for miles.


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Sidewalk tea gardens were springing up along the walkway in front of the Bar Street restaurants so Kelsey and I stopped for a pot of chrysanthemums tea on our way back from the Bamboo Park. The tea is made from white chrysanthemum, goji berries and a few pieces of rock sugar. I saw the plantations with the white chrysanthemums ready for harvest last September when I was driving back from the Huangshan Mountains to catch the bus to Hangzhou when hubby Rob and I were in China.


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Earlier when we were in Bamboo Park besides rides there was an area devoted to children's arts and crafts.

 
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Today we walked along the river east of our hotel to the Bamboo Park renowned for it's 100 species of bamboo.  It is the Monday Long weekend holiday for May 1st People's Day.  We have heard that so many Chinese people travel this weekend to be with family that it has had documentaries made about it was the world's largest temporary mass migration.  So we decided to stay in Chengdu and went to explore this lovely park.  We found a beautiful troop of youth in traditional costumes that would be performing during celebrations in the park posing with some very cute children.

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The other name of the park is Wangjiang Tower Park is located by the south bank of Jinjiang River in the east gate of Chengdu. It's 188 acres are famous for its historic relics that commemorate Xue Tao, a famous female poet in Tang Dynasty.  She was the daughter of a minor official who moved to Chengdu when it was the ancient capitol of China 618 to 907 AD. Her father died when she was young but she and her literary talents attracted the attention of the Chengdu general and she was registered as a courtesan and entertainer. 

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Amazingly after his death she was able to live independently and continued writing her peoms, associated with local renowned poets and  also made special paper for caligraphy.  She produced a large collection of poems, 100 which survive to today.

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We wandered around the lovely park and saw many people performing on instruments, drinking tea, playing mahjong, and in a pond area at a tea garden little children were feeding the many gold fish with a baby's drinking bottle on a stick.  It was all good until this little fellow decided to bop the little girl over the head with his bottle instead of feeding the fish.

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In our wanderings Kelsey and I found a little lake and a surrounding moat.  We decided to go for a paddle.  For some reason they wouldn't let us go out in the big duck boat but for 30 yuan ($5) we were able to go paddle around for an hour.

 
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We finally found our way to "People's Park".  It is renowned for its tea houses and free gardens.  There are small hills you can hike up, boats you can rent, a children's amusement park and a large monument.  There were some lovely old pavilions too.  We saw people making music and dancing and others were practicing the art of chinese calligraphy with a large bucket of water and a very large paint brush, the size of a broom. 

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We wandered around and had dinner there in the restaurant at the tea house.  It was very hot out and our only disappoinment was that the restaurant staff wouldn't let us take our food outside to eat to enjoy in the park.