Chongqing road trip

[pharvey]

Enjoyed the latest Report BG - certainly brings back memories. That side of the river after the "Cable Car" ride is not the best, but it's not exactly a great area of Nan'an District. Nanping (where the LHG and I lived) was a stone's throw away and far better - especially Nanbin Lu, the "Riverside Road" with countless restaurants etc. and an amazing night view of the city.

Have to admit though, I enjoyed the Cable Car myself - albeit 20 odd years ago!!

Great photo's once again

[buksida]

Fascinating place. Is that "fog" air pollution, and is it permanently present?

I would imagine you don't see too many Western tourists about?

[Bamboo Grove]

Is that "fog" air pollution, and is it permanently present?

I was there only for two full days so I can't say for sure. The weather forecast had promised rain so I would suspect that this fog was caused by it as it didn't really rain, at least during the days or evenings I was there. China has a pollution problem in many big cities so this could contribute to the fog.

I would imagine you don't see too many Western tourists about?

Correct, I didn't see many.

[Bamboo Grove]

After resting I had a quick look at the map and saw that Hongya Cave was very near my hotel. I had seen it in the taxi on my way from the airport and it had looked very interesting. It’s not a cave but a group of houses built on stilts alongside the steep cliffs of Jialing River. The history of the area is actually more than 2,000 years old. It looks very beautiful at nighttime when its lights are on. Lots of people there and all the restaurants were full.

This was certainly the most impressive thing I saw in Chongqing. I walked along the bridge crossing the river to take the photos. In the beginning there were lot of people and it was very crowded but luckily it thinned out so I got a spot to take the photos without having to push or being pushed by anybody.

Then I walked to the area but it was so full of people on a Friday night and also very noisy that I didn't feel like staying there for a long time.

WhatsApp-Kuva 2024-10-20 klo 19.57.27_e77372b0.jpg (90.4 KiB) Viewed 3804 times

It was getting late so I walked back to my hotel and had a bite to eat on my way.

As this was a quite short story I'll add my Saturday night's walk here as well and then I will write separately about the Saturday morning and afternoon.

On Saturday evening after some rest in the hotel, in the evening, I went to have a walk in the nearby pedestrian street area. It was full of people as it was Saturday evening, but it was very interesting to see the different local food shops, snacks and hot pot shops. Lots of the odd ones are also available in Thailand. The fragrance of chili floated to my nose from many hot pot places, and I thought, I would need a couple of days to have a hotel room near me if I tried those. I was returning to Macau the next day, so I skipped the hot pots. Anyway, they are not as nice on your own as they are in a group.

[pharvey]

Great stuff yet again BG - the area you visited did used to have a number of "Sports Bars" (as you were discussing previously), but all disappeared. Certainly an interesting area and packed constantly, not just on Fridays - Chongqing City itself generally is as I'm sure you noticed!!

Your comment regarding Hotpot being a group event is certainly true - we Brits have our pubs, those in Chongqing have their Hotpot Restaurants!!

[pharvey]

Fascinating place. Is that "fog" air pollution, and is it permanently present?

I would imagine you don't see too many Western tourists about?

Certainly not wanting to hijack "Bamboo Grove's" report, but just from my side: -

The Fog was permanent in Autumn/Winter months and to be honest, summer wasn't the best years ago. The reason I was there many years ago was installing equipment on 2 huge Coal Fired Power Stations to clean up the horrendous emissions/pollution there. These and other efforts in the area have certainly cleaned things up.

BG I'm sure will confirm traffic, but years ago you wouldn't believe what went on

Summertime can be clear blue skies, but stupidly hot. Chongqing being classed as one of the "Furnace" or "Oven Cities" - my first visit hit the odd record - 47 degrees C being my real memory!! There was a rule/law in Chongqing, that you didn't have to work when temperatures rose above 40.. I wasn't told!!

[Bamboo Grove]

These are good points, pharvey and certainly add to to information about the place as you've been there personally. I have read about the place being extremely uncomfortable during the summer months. During my trip, it was around 20 C so that was pleasant. As I mainly travelled by metro, I didn't get an idea what it was on the roads. The taxi trip from the airport on Thursday night wasn't bad.

[buksida]

It also looks extremely crowded; I forget that some Chinese cities have a larger population than many countries!

[pharvey]

It also looks extremely crowded; I forget that some Chinese cities have a larger population than many countries!

I think in some respects I was destined to go there - the Welsh Government signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with Chongqing! The strange fact regarding Chongqing, is that the "Municipality of Chongqing" actually has a similar land mass to that of Wales, but 10 x the population (30 million plus)!! The city itself is something like 16 or 17 million from memory.

[Bamboo Grove]

Last part

Saturday
On Saturday I went out at around 11.00, my plan was to visit the Eling -park and then see what the weather would be like and make more decisions about where to go. I didn’t want to go anywhere too far. I first had breakfast in the area where I had had my dinner the night before. Bought two different dishes and they cost me about 1€ with a bowl of rice.
The Chinese cities nowadays are quite similar to each other in my eyes: plenty of characterless high rises so I was positively surprised as the park reminded me what China was in the late 80’s when I first travelled there. I walked around the park and had a coffee in a charming building. It was still foggy but no rain, so I decided to go to the Raffles City center. That’s where the Yangtze -river cruises start towards the Three Gorges area. It was not far away by metro and the center was very big. I walked to an area where you could see down the docks and across the two rivers and it was actually quite a nice view there.

Sunday was just a lazy morning in my hotel room, lunch and then the metro to the airport. The flight back took about 1 h 40 minutes and I flew to Zhuhai as there was no return Air Macau flight to Macau on Sundays. Anyway, Zhuhai airport is near Macau, and I had pre-booked a taxi to take me to the border. That took about 40 minutes and cost me 14 Euros, very reasonable in my opinion. Crossing the immigration at Hengqin border post has always been swift and so it was also this time. A 20-minute bus ride from the border and I was at home.

All in all, although I complained about the similar looks of the big Chinese cities, I felt Chongqing was nice. Built on the hillsides rising from the two rivers, it has a certain charm. It’s one of the biggest cities in the world, with around 34 million people living in its area. Perhaps one day, I will take the 4-day Three Gorges Yangtze-river cruise and then I will return to Chongqing. However, next I want to see something smaller and some countryside. Christmas holiday, I have a plan to fly to Jinghong (Thai Chiang Rung) in Xishuangbanna (Thai Sipsongphanna), where they have Dai-minority people living. These are quite closely related to Thai and Lao. From there a train trip to Luang Prabang and then if the plan remains as it is to Malacca in Malaysia.

[caller]

Great report BG, thanks very much. Very informative and it certainly looks worth visiting.

[STEVE G]

It also looks extremely crowded; I forget that some Chinese cities have a larger population than many countries!

I can imagine that some suburbs of that city have a larger population than Luxembourg!

[Bamboo Grove]

Trying to add a youtube video. This is the Liziba station, which is inside the building.

[Big Boy]

Not trying, succeeding

[Bamboo Grove]

Seems like it. It was the first time, I tried to download my own video on youtube.