Chongqing

Friday March 27^th…

Caitlin, Helen, Abhinav, Andry, and myself woke up early to take QQ’s to the Pudong airport; we were headed for Chongqing, but just for the day. After a day in Chongqing we were going to get on a ship to float down the Yangtze River.

After arriving in Chongqing we took the airport bus to the city. On this bus ride we were able to see how different Chongqing was compared to other cities we have seen in China. Chongqing, like most cities in China, is huge! 31 million people! Chongqing is a municipality (The highest level of classification for cities used by Chinese governments with status equal to that of the provinces). Chongqing is built right into the side of the mountains. There is no subway system but the taxi drivers are even crazier than QQ drivers. The city was spectacular, nothing was clean, most buildings were old, and people were everywhere, foreigners really stood out. There was a very laid back feel, to this city with so much character.

So we got to the city and we walked around for a short time and then grabbed some lunch. Lunch was not so great, very oily and a weird sourish taste to it. After lunch we got in a few taxis to head to the zoo. This taxi ride was by far the most intense car ride I have experienced…ever! He was weaving in a out and turning across multiple lanes of traffic…quite frankly I am surprised we made it alive, but that is the thing about China drivers, there seems to be an understanding of looking out for people around you, and being more aware of your surroundings rather than relying on a bazillion laws.

We arrived at the zoo and it was dead. There was no one there. We went through the kids area with rides and things, and there were only old people walking around. It was bizarre. I realize I am not a zoo enthusiast but I thought there would be a few more people there. Later on in the day there were but when we first got there it was dead. After wandering for a little while we made it to the Panda Bears!! Man, were they adorable! They really don’t do anything; they sat and ate bamboo the whole time we were there. But they were so cute. I realize they are bears but they looked so cuddly.

In addition to the Giant Pandas, we saw a Lesser Panda…yes that is actually the name. It was really small…kind of like a raccoon with a red back. Very strange. They were climbing in the trees and down the trunks like squirrels.

We saw all of the other standard zoo animals. It was a beautiful zoo that weaved up and down the hillside. It was very green and I am sure in a couple of months it will be blooming with flowers. The cages where the animals were kept were kind of sad. The worst one was where the black bear was kept. It was literally a cement plateau with a really nasty 4-foot diameter pond in the center. I felt so bad for the little bear. He was a cutie and still wandered around the cement, but looking at the area you couldn’t help but feel bad for the bear.

After we were done at the zoo we headed to the city centre and saw the people’s Liberation Monument. It felt like Times Square being in the middle of everything, with lights and big screens everywhere. We walked around for a while and eventually went to a Sichuan restaurant for dinner. Sichuan province is next to Chongqing and the food is known for being very spicy. I didn’t eat the really spicy food that we ordered since it was Friday, and I was not eating meat, however the others said it was very intense.

After dinner we needed to get down to the river to board the ship. When we got down there we didn’t see our ship, we actually only saw ships that didn’t look like they were going to float. Some of the ships we saw before we saw our ship was what I was expecting. I was expecting some old rusted boat with bugs running around the floors but thankfully that is not what we got. Our Ship was gorgeous!!! It was called President No. 1. There were 5 decks and a sundeck. Carpet and molding throughout the whole ship…just gorgeous. Our room was really nice; two extremely hard twin beds, a bathroom, and a balcony with a fantastic view.

We were all exhausted from an early start so we just had a beer on the balcony and talked for a short while and then went to sleep.