Speaking of which, I haven't been to Chongqing for 36 years. I remember that it was 1985. At that time, on business trip, I took a boat from Wuhan to Chengdu. In four days, the boat arrived in Chongqing. I got off the boat at Chaotianmen Wharf. I took a bus to Caiyuanba Railway Station and stayed for the night. It rained that night, and also wrote a poem:

On an autumn night in Yuzhou, the mountain city is brightly lit. There are many cries in the streets and alleys, and flutes on the river wheel sound.

The vast darkness of Shushan Mountain, the feeling of hometown, and I look up to the north. When is the day to return?

On April 20 this year, after being trapped under the cage of the epidemic for two years, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. So I packed my bags and went on a trip that I said I would go.

I originally planned to fly directly to Chongqing, but when I thought that Beijing's newly built Daxing Airport is the largest and most beautiful airport in China, and I am over seventy years old, so I won't have many opportunities to fly past Daxing Airport when I go out. So, I specially bought a ticket to transfer at Daxing Airport.

As the plane gradually landed, I seized the opportunity to press the shutter and take a photo of the airport.

Viewed from the sky, she looked like a phoenix spreading its wings and ready to fly.

Walking inside, she seems to be a big x-shaped, with four extended arms that can dock planes on all sides. That's equivalent to eight terminals. I remember going to the United States in 2019. In Los Angeles, I flew to Hawaii on a plane in Terminal 8. At that time, I thought that the airport in Los Angeles was really big. However, its design is only eight single buildings. Daxing's airport terminal is the world's first single and multi-faceted terminal.

This is the patio in the center of the airport.

The ceilings are all streamlined and elegant.

In the middle of the Great Cross is a place that looks like a skylight. The roofs around the shed are all streamlined, which is quite eye-catching.

This is the layout diagram of Daxing Airport.

When I got on the plane and took off again, I still couldn't help but look back at the airport.

I didn't get off the plane until after ten o'clock that night. Get on the bus and rush to the destination I chose when I was doing my homework-Jiefang Monument. It was nearly twelve o'clock before I rested.

I am a lazy tourist who regardless of cost and time. The next day, because I was too tired yesterday, I took a day off. So, it was almost noon, I went to Jiefang Monument and took a tour.

Jiefang Monument is the center of Laozhong City. It is also the most prosperous place in modern Chongqing.

During the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government moved from Nanjing to Chongqing, which became the political center of all China and the command center of the Anti-Japanese War. On March 12, 1940, in the midst of resisting the artillery fire of the Anti-Japanese War, Chongqing began to prepare for the memorial. On December 30, 1941, the monument was officially completed and named the "Spiritual Fortress" to inspire the Chinese people to fight hard to win the War of Resistance.

The "spiritual fortress" at that time was black and the tallest building in the mountain city. Therefore, when Japanese aircraft bombed Chongqing, the black fortress was bombed repeatedly and was almost razed to the ground.

When the Anti-Japanese War was won in October 1945, the Second and Fifth Provisional Council of Chongqing City of the Republic of China Government decided that in order to commemorate Chongqing's important position in the Anti-Japanese War and ensure that this position could continue after the war, it was decided to build a "Monument to the Victory of the Anti-Japanese War" on the former site of the "Spiritual Fortress. On October 31, 1946, under the chairmanship of Zhang Dulun, then mayor of Chongqing City, the foundation stone of the "Victory Monument of the Anti-Japanese War" was laid and started. The monument to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War was presided over by special committee member Liu Daren, designed by architect Li Lunjie, and the project was won by Tianfu Construction Factory.

In August 1947, the main body of the Victory Monument of the Anti-Japanese War was completed. Completed on October 10 of the same year, the stele is engraved with the "Victory Monument of the Anti-Japanese War". On July 7, 1950, after the liberation, the People's Government of Chongqing City announced that the names of some streets in the urban area would be changed, and the "Anti-Japanese War Victory Monument" would be renamed the "People's Liberation Monument." On October 1 of the same year, Liu Bocheng, then chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, inscribed the name of the "People's Liberation Monument". In 1958, a round flower bed was built around the seat of Jiefang Monument, covering an area of 280 square meters.

In 1985, I went to Chengdu on a business trip and passed through Chongqing City. When I took a bus to the railway station and passed through Yuzhong District, although I didn't see Jiefang Monument at that time, I only saw the buildings along the way. Most of them were old houses with black tiles, white walls and wooden lattices. Buildings above five or six floors were hard to see. When I came to Jiefang Monument today, I looked up and saw that there were all high-rise buildings. I seemed to have traveled through it all at once.

The most shocking thing was the scenery I saw when I climbed Huixian Tower three days later.

Huixian Tower is located not far from Jiefang Monument. There are many tall buildings here, but it is taller than other buildings. An observation deck around the building for a week has been built upstairs for people to visit.

This is a picture of Yuzhong in old Chongqing in the corridor on the first floor of Huixian Building.

I have climbed two tall buildings to see the city. One is Building 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, and the other is Building 1 of the Twin Towers renovated after September 11 in Manhattan, New York, USA, to see a panoramic view of Manhattan. Chongqing Huixian Building can only look stronger than those two visual impacts. The confluence of the two rivers and tall buildings on the three banks demonstrate Chongqing's new charm.

The picture above shows the Chaotianmen Raffles Building, which seems to be right in front of you.

See the small round pattern in the bottom of the picture above? That is the flower bed of the Liberation Monument, with the Liberation Monument in the center. Although it is a 27-meter-high building, it looks very small.

In Chongqing, there is no straight road. When asking for directions, there is no north, south, north, south, and west, only answers, front, back, left and right. On that street, there are few flat ones to see, and all are undulating corners. I don't know where the alleys hidden in the building will turn. When you walk into a building, go upstairs, and go out of the building without saying a few floors, it may become the first floor. Because, on the back of the building, there is a cliff leaning against it. The door came out of the cliff. The most typical one is Hongya Cave. You enter the building from the lowest floor, take the elevator, get to the 11th floor, and when you come out, it becomes the first floor again.

Because the mountains are high and steep, the buildings are dense, and the traffic competes with the buildings, an Internet celebrity attraction has appeared in Chongqing-light rail passing through buildings. It is said that when the light rail was not built here, real estate was developed, and the developer also started construction and built it to the third floor. Just at this time, the newly built light rail was going to pass through here, and this is the narrowest place on the bank of the Jialing River. Therefore, the government ordered the developer to give up two floors and build a light rail station-Liziba Station in the middle of the building. As for the residents of the two-story building that were pre-sold in advance, the government gave high subsidies and bought houses elsewhere.

Below is the moment when the light rail train at Liziba Station passes through the building.

Another Internet celebrity attraction in Chongqing is Hongyadong. This was originally a rocky cliff on the edge of the Jialing River. It is said that a discerning female gold donor took a fancy to this place and wanted to develop it. The city leaders gave the land to her. When it was first developed, it was not very prosperous. Later, using retro and grabbing the stomachs of young people, many complex classical buildings were built here, attracting many small food vendors, which suddenly became popular and spread across the country. Today, almost all foreign tourists who visit Chongqing have to visit here and taste a taste of delicious food.

Don't think that Chongqing only has modern high-rise buildings. She also has well-preserved classical buildings. The more classic one is the ancient town of Cijikou.

It is located on the edge of the Jialing River, under a Yinglong Gate, and up the steps into the ancient town. Due to the low terrain, one year the Jialing River flooded and flooded the entire ancient town. The gate is now being renovated on both sides of the gate.

Now the ancient town is crowded with people, and the streets are full of snacks.

If you walk in a deep alley and look up at everything you see, you will think you have arrived in the ancient city of Lijiang.

There is also another antique building, which is the Chongqing People's Auditorium. It was built in the style of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and also welcomed many people to visit it.