I decided to be brave and venture out to paint without Kelsey's company. Usually it is nice to have another partner in crime because in China there are so many people and invariably when you are out painting people congregate. We find it a little unnerving to be under so much public scrutiny. People at home tend to be alot more inhibited about disturbing artists at work.  I guess here in China people are used to very little personal space and think nothing of privacy because they are used to living in such crowded quarters--which I must admit has its advantages.  There is always someone around who would like to play a game of mahjong or sit with you and drink a cup of tea!

We also attract attention in this area as there are so few foreigners and I have light coloured hair (mostly fake these days) and people are amazed at Kelsey's blue eyes.

So I ventured to the east of our hotel along the river. I found a spot that had very little foot traffic behind some of those blue construction barriers. I figured I would be able to hid back there and I could get a view of the Nanjing Bridge over the river that has the Marco Polo Restaurant and is lit up so beautifully at night. I set to work and wouldn't you know it--construction barrier and all I still got found. A couple of groups of guys came over while I was working and continued to try to converse with me even though it was totally clear I couldn't speak or understand Chinese. Unfortunately they also had to touch my stuff, fiddle with my camera, and they were all constantly smoking and I had to gesture to get them to finally back off when I couldn't stand the fumes. After what seemed like some curious comments--not sure if they liked what I was doing and a few thumbs up of approval, it was threatening a wind and rain storm. I was also working on a wicked sore throat and headache and decided I'd better get home before their was a downpour and I caught pneumonia

In the Chongqing China Rail station

In the morning Tommy had arranged for us to take a tour of Sichuan Art Institute's beautiful new campus, almost an hour's drive out of the centre of Chongqing.  The niece of one of his printmaking collegues worked at the school teaching English and also in administration. Apparently there is an American student here.  She took us on a tour of the fantastic gardens and ponds and then we visited the oil painting, traditional painting and printmaking department.

It was great seeing the students working en plein air painting live models. Kelsey was definitely intrigued and yet again inspired to paint and wondering how she can arrange her future to include a year at the Chinese Foreign Language University learning Chinese, a year in France learning french, time to study painting in China, time to teach and work in China and a few years ago at the Sichuan University Art Institute studying painting. Sounds like she's got an interesting and busy life in front of her!

After the long drive back from the art school another delicious Chinese banquet lunch was yet again hosted by Mr. Song.  He refuses to let us pick up a bill.  Then we wandered around the downtown pedestrian mall. We ate dinner(did in their food court which consisted of a huge number of kitchens that had many many selections of so many dishes it was hard to chose. Not your typical fast food mall foodcourt like you'd find in Canada. There was an amazing range and variety of vegetables and tofu even to chose from and not a burger in sight! We love the huge variety and availability of vegetables in restaurants here in China--no wonder they've typically been healthier than people in the west. Then it was off to the rail station to catch our return highspeed train back to Chengdu.

We were so fortunate to have Mr. Song at our disposal. He drove us out to the South Hotspring Chongqing so we could paint. We were looking for a scene of a local waterfall that I had
seen in photos on the internet. Alas we found the waterfall site but there was no water. They seem to be in a draught and the spring above was dry. There was also a pagoda
with a waterfall that I had seen and was hoping to paint.

Mr.Song did find the pagoda for us at a resort at the Hotspring but again the waterfall was dry. I did improvise and used some
artistic liscence and painted in the water. We enjoyed a lovely morning painting especially thanks to the portable picnic table and umbrella that Mr. Song brought along and set up for us.  Here is the completed watercolour--I used artistic liscence and added the water.

After another wonderful Chinese banquet at the resort we headed back to the city.

The plan for tonight would be a cruise on the Yangtze River after we have dinner. 

We were so fortunate that our hotel, the Somerset Jiefangbei was in the best central location right downtown.  After we arrived and got checked in we went out for lunch in a mall under the street right by our hotel.

Luckily the restaurant was airconditioned.  We had all worked up an appetite and ordered a fairly extensive lunch with fruit smoothies like bubble tea and we even thought we should each have a bowl of soup--almost everyone has soup with all of their meals here.  Normally you get a small single serving size and the gal did comment that we ordered a fair amount of food--she neglected to tell us that we had ordered 4 table size bowls of soup, one for each of us.  Oh dear!

We were able to walk out in the late afternoon and were just a block from the Huangya Cave and it's local crafts shops and restaurants

After a visit Haungya we met up with Tina's cousin Mr.Song and his daughter ZhaZha. He had kindly agreed to show us around while we were there. What a kind fellow and wow, talk about Chinese hospitality!
He picked us up in his airconditioned Mercedes (very nice in this heat) and then drove us to the classiest vegan restaurant we have ever eaten in. The decor had a very sophisticated environmental theme using many natural material elements such as wood and stone. The food was delicious and so beautifully presented using many organic materials for decoration, such as leaves, rocks as chopstick rests and many flowers decorating our food plates. What a pleasant meal. At dinner we found out that Mr. Song had in his life been a musician in a traditional Chinese orchestra and played the erhu, my favorite two stringed instrument. He had also written a major musical production about a buddhist story featuring animals--perhaps this is why he is so knowledgeable about the local vegan restaurant! A very multifaceted talented person.

As if we haven't seen and done enough today we were whisked off (however at a very modest and safe speed--Mr.Song is the only driver we met who actually drives slowly and

carefully, allowing other cars to merge and waiting on pedestrians) after dinner to the shores of the Yangtze River for an evening cruise to see the night lights of Chongqing. It was wonderful and we got so many incredible pictures. The skyline and shore were covered with the most amazing selection of changing lights that ranged from some very very long tailed lit-up kites,

and riverside changing light displays, moving lights covering entire sides of buildings, movies showing on the side of 50 or more storey buildings and on  the massive Performing Arts Centre next to the amazing Blue Globe of the Museum of Science and technology.

We enjoyed a drink of our favourite medicinal herbal iced tea Wang Lao Ji and had a wonderful night! Thank you Mr. Song!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

Another tasty dinner with lots of great vegetables.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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