I decided to join the line and offer some money. The monk looked at me when it was my turn, then said something and smiled. I too smiled and he wrote some characters on the paper. Now I wish I had kept it. From here I walked and walked through street markets with colorful and intriguing displays of edibles, brand-new glimmering modern shopping centers and, as usual, great crowds of people.
Business seems to be on the rise in Chongqing.
Chongqing is famous for its artists' village set up in the idealist communist vision of the artist as a state functionary. The place is a lovely grouping of small buildings with patio gardens and covered walkways connecting them. The artists working and selling their work are all well-established older artists. A few of them had been on the Long March with Mao in 1934 and thus had very special status since the March came to be known as the beginning of the Communist Revolution in China. I was immediately drawn to a small painting of the poet Du-fu.