A Stilted City. Chungking. China

Life among the limpet-like buildings clinging to the steep banks of the Yangtze in southwest China.

In a film of many contrasts, the precarious dwellings which jut out of the mountainside in this vertical city seem somehow futuristic and ancient at the same time. Those who make a hard living on these steep steps also seem a world away from the Western navy men who are carried on their backs. The jokey intertitles offer a further disparity in making the scenes entertainment for cinema audiences.

Chongqing (then Chungking) is today almost unrecognisable from the ancient city seen in this film, though the mighty Yangtze river remains an unchanging feature of life in one of China's major municipalities.