The Shapingba District 沙坪壩

On our second day in Chongqing, we decided to head out to the Shapingba District, as there were a few tourist places we wanted to visit there.

Our first stop was the Red Cliff Martyr’s Museum (紅巖魂陳列館) and the adjacent Red Cliff Square (紅巖魂廣場). It was on this morning that I discovered how patriotic the city of Chongqing is.  At this point, I had already been living in China for 1.5 years and never have I seen such a display of pride and patriotism as I did that morning in Chongqing.  The area is lined with displays showcasing the pride people have for their government and their country.  Red communist memorabilia was also sold everywhere. 

The exhibitions within Red Cliff Martyr’s Museum touched on political prisoners, revolutionists and the history between the Communist party and the KMT.  Outside the museum, displays of communism continued around Red Cliff Square.

Our next stop was the White Manor (白公館).  We were walking behind a huge crowd of people towards the White Manor and upon reaching it, there were so many people inside that you could barely walk around.  It didn’t make for the most pleasant of experiences and we ended up leaving fairly quickly after making a quick peek at the place.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too big and didn’t require too much time. 

Next, we made our way towards Cinder Cave (渣滓洞).  Again, this place was packed and we lined up behind hordes of people trying to get through the entrance. This was the place where hundreds of Communist prisoners were massacred.  The cells have now been converted to display information (in both English and Chinese) on the prisoners it once held.  Of course, as with everything in this area, there is ample propaganda praising the communist regime.

There were many of these shops in the area selling communist merchandise.

We were now starving and came across a little shop selling tofu noodles.  I had no idea what tofu noodles were, but it just turned out to be quite literal – tofu in noodles.  It was absolutely delicious, and fairly cheap as well!