A walk down memory lane: Dazu town in 1994

Within the older areas I delved into the vibrant diversity of local markets and shopping streets. The range and colors of fresh vegetables was so captivating as were the bamboo products spread out on the ground - baskets, chairs, baby carriers, tables, domestic items. People were fascinated at me photographing what for them were everyday items. As a photographer I was transfixed with the photo booths - for a few yuan people could have photos taken with backdrops of worldwide exotic locations. In 1994 few Chinese travelled overseas and here were the precursors of today’s international selfie shots! Alongside porters carrying goods suspended from bamboo shoulder poles mothers transported babies within back baskets. Then there were the noodles, suspended over wooden frames to dry in the hot sunshine. Noodles, the length of which I had previously never come across. Then the spice stalls with their exotic aromas; watch repairs; shoes; clothes; firecrackers and even outdoor dental stalls!

Teahouses had long been part of Sichuan culture and along one older street I came upon several open fronted establishments where people, mostly men, chatted away the time or played cards while slowly sipping some delicate local teas. This was semi-rural China so different to even nearby Chongqing and a far cry from fast moving Guangzhou where I had lived the year previously.

As I walked, or stood captivated by the scene, a busload of international tourists passed the end of this old street. Some jumped up trying to film with their video cameras this scene of what would soon be a disappearing example of rural Sichuan life.

Next morning as my bus for Chongqing departed alongside the tranquil waters of the Laixi River, where people fished, I looked back over Dazu and up toward the Beishan Pagoda, feeling thankful for the now memorable experience that the town had given me. I had stepped momentarily into a rural China then in a “time warp” that retained much of earlier rural Sichuan. Thinking back I wished I could have stayed longer for as I looked around I could see construction of a new town emerging around the old. China was changing and I was there at a time when the rapid opening up of the coastal provinces was starting to impact inland. Indeed when I looked online about Dazu, as I wrote this piece, I saw a bright, modern, small city so far removed from my 1994 discoveries. My smartphone maps, I could not find the streets I had explored 24 years previously. My photographs, however, remain as records of that period of transition but I would love to return to produce a photo-comparison

It has been an honor for my 1994 photography of Chongqing, the Yangtze River and Dazu to be featured as part of a recent exhibition at the Chongqing Art Museum. That exhibition illustrated the changes undergone across the city and surrounding areas over the past 40 years.