A few remarks after a few April days in Chongqing. The terrain is no joke. The geography is astounding. The visibility is routinely terrible. It is hard to make sense of its confounding layers and segments. Too many paths going other ways- I never end up taking the route I planned for. But it is impressively crowded with historic texture and interaction. Every neighborhood seems somehow as lush as it is unnatural. There is an abundance of supersized engineering marvels (bridges, dams), which I think seriously deserve recognition over the usual gaudy highlights (of which there are quite a few).

Even though it is distinctly urbanized, the natural characteristics of the area are unchangeable: the mighty river, the steep ravines, the overlapping slopes, creeping precipitation. And a very constant haze that is always oscillating between dry pollutants and mountain moisture.