The Renée Review

April 25 – 28, 2006

Greetings from Chongqing, China, population…well it’s 6.6 million in their immediate urban area, with a municipality consisting of 27 counties and cities, 16 districts and a total population of over 33 million.  Chongqing is one of China’s four central governing municipalities that directly administers to its cities and districts.

Chongqing is home to the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, a hub for all those beginning or ending a Yangtze River cruise.  Several companies operate vessels on the Yangtze, Victoria Cruises & Viking River Cruises are the most popular western brands.    

Our hotel selection was the JW Marriott, a wonderful choice for luxury, value received, location and view.  This hotel has fantastic guest rooms and suites that are comfortable in every way.  The city center location allowed us to walk around freely to explore the local food market & snake skinners (really gross), live animal stocks, flower market, pedestrian walk mall, department stores, etc.  

The people of Chongqing are very nice and looked at our family with great curiosity.  I got the feeling that though most westerners begin or end their Yangtze voyage here, not many actually stay here wandering the city.  We had three nights in Chongqing and know we should have been better tourists, but were really just more inclined to wander around, shop and take in the local flavor, sights and sounds of every day life.  It was nice to take a break from being a super tourist and the things we saw were just as fun!  

One dining experience worth mentioning was a visit to a delicious Thai restaurant on the sixth floor of the up-market Maison Mode Times Department Store located on the pedestrian mall near the monument.  The restaurant is called Parkway Thai Sharkfins Fine Cuisine, located at number 100 Zourong Rd., Yuzhong District, Telephone (023) 63831119.