Chongqing

Hongya Cave

Hongya Cave, in Chongqing. The first time you see it lit up at night, you think 'wow, an old quarter'. In fact it is a recent reconstruction, designed to look like an ancient tiered town clinging to a cliff. Openly touristy, openly instagrammable. And yet the Chinese themselves come here in droves, without irony. This distinction between the authentic and the reconstructed, I think it is something that obsesses us. Not them.