One of the fascinating aspects of China is the enormity of its population and how little we know about most of the cities where its people live. Asked to name some cities in China, most westerners could rattle off Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and maybe two or three others. That would account for about 70 million Chinese people. So where are the other 1,230 million? They are located in the other 600 cities and a myriad of towns and villages, all largely unknown to most outsiders. Who’s heard of Chongqing? Not many foreigners have (we hadn’t until the first time we came here), which is a little surprising considering that it is home to over 20 million people. Located in central China, Chongqing (pronounced Chong-chin) is perched on steep hillsides at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers. The streets are so steep that Chongqing is rare amongst Chinese cities and towns in having almost no bicycles. The steepness also means that carrying things around is an issue, with the result that there are many porters on the streets each armed with a short stout bamboo pole and length of rope, ready to carry packages and luggage to wherever for a fee.Along with Nanjing and Wuhan, Chongqing shares the dubious title of being one of the “Three Furnaces of China” in recognition of its baking temperatures and stifling humidity in summer. It was the latter that hit us the most when we arrived here yesterday on a very comfortable express bus from Chengdu and caught a taxi into the city centre where we checked into the Yu Du Hotel at the end of the glitzy pedestrian shopping mall. On the scale of world cities, Chonqqing is a monster of monsters. It is also a place where gleam meets grime, where shiny soaring skyscrapers happily rub shoulders with dark decaying buildings from previous centuries (and that given the pace of development here, are not much longer for this world).
The section of the Yangtze downstream from Chongqing is the most scenic on the river, with the result that Chongqing is a major terminal for tourist boats plying the waters between here and Yichang about 800 kilometres downstream. Boats of various classes and sizes cast off from the Chaotianmen Dock near the city centre for the two day, three night journey down to Yichang, passing through the famous Three Gorges on the way. We did this short voyage in early 2006 on a Chinese tourist boat for a very reasonable fare of about 1,300 Yuan each. It was a lot of fun, although with about 400 passengers crammed onto a relatively small boat, the trip threw up some challenges and crazy situations to deal with.
There were only about ten westerners on the boat; we two and eight young European backpackers - six Germans and two English brothers sent by their parents to travel alone around China before starting University. They all spoke very little Chinese and gratefully accepted Lee Tuan’s offer to keep them informed on the more important messages periodically broadcast across the decks from the boat’s crystal clear (in Mandarin) loud speaker system. This was after they missed the first message that we would be travelling through the first of the big Three Gorges at dawn. Boy, were they angry when they woke up in the morning to discover that we had already passed through the first gorge! Later we transferred for a couple of hours to small boats to do a side trip down the Little Three Gorges, every bit as scenic as their bigger brothers. Back on the big boat we frequently stopped along the way to see sights on the river bank and to buy food. At one stop I bought and ate a whole Yangtze River fish that tasted good but that night my digestive system had a sudden and complete cleanout within the space of 30 seconds. Luckily I was in our cabin at the time. That was the only significant stomach upset I’ve had in several longish trips to China. Others on the boat though had the fish without any problems.
The journey ended just upstream from Yichang at the site of the massive Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze, the biggest civil construction project in China’s history (with the possible exception of The Great Wall). This development will provide a large amount of much-needed hydroelectricity and will largely eliminate the occasional floods that have historically bedeviled the downstream towns and killed millions. Our boat then entered a lock and we emerged what seemed like a hundred or so feet lower, docking soon after. Although it was only 4am, everyone had to leave the boat at this point and time. Along with many other passengers we boarded a bus to Yichang, then transferred to another bus for the four hour trip to Wuhan, a large city with a major regional airport. A few photos from this river journey are included in this post.
But that was in 2006. This time we spent our brief time in Chongqing looking around the city centre and checking out the developments since our last time here. The city centre is gleaming with massive buildings and modern shopping centres, and this growth is radiating outwards to consume the suburbs that look decades older. The contrast between new and old, rich and poor, is particularly stark in Chongqing. The Liberation Monument in the city centre square commemorates the end of China’s war with Japan in 1945. A huge screen plays celebratory historical wartime footage to the crowds in the square, and all around are dazzling neon advertising displays.
We caught a cable car across the silty Yangtze River that bisects Chongqing and had dinner on the restaurant strip on the other side, admiring the colourful night skyline reflected in the river and the brightly lit restaurant boats that motored slowly along it. The following day we caught a bus about an hour into the western suburbs to visit Ciqikou ancient town overlooking the Jialing River, passing through a firmament of high-rise apartment blocks and flocks of construction cranes on the way. Somewhere in Chongqing there must be a fabulously wealthy crane mogul. Ciqikou is a well-preserved settlement initially established over 1,000 years ago during the Song Dynasty. It later became an important commercial river port during the Ming Dynasty and famed centre of production of fancy blue and white porcelain early in the Qing Dynasty. These days it is a very touristy village of craft, jewellery and food shops, but still worth a visit (just).
The humidity was near total again and after we returned to our hotel late in the afternoon we didn’t relish the prospect of facing the saturated air outside again that day. So we took the lift to the 29th floor and sank into the comfortable chairs of the Nine Level Heaven Restaurant where we watched the Chongqing night skyline rotate very slowly around us as we ate our dinner. This restaurant is very Chinese and the menu contained some wondrous English translations. We could have ordered Rude Fat Cow or The Godmother Fries the Crisp Stomach or Peacock Gizzard or Cow Physique Frozen, or the only one that caused us some unease, Pakistan Person Meat. Hmmm, I thought, possibly putting two and two together, we haven’t seen any Pakistanis around here apart from that anxious looking guy who scurried past downstairs yesterday. We ordered the Ginger Fever Duck and the Crisp Pepper Fragrant Beef, and they were both very good. We were too full for dessert, but had we not been, we would have ordered the Nuclear Crisp Peach Cookies.
