Big Cities, West and East (China)

One arriving in Chongqing we made our way to the apartment complex where our Couchsurfing host Daniel and his family lived.  We waited for him to get home from work in the gardens outside. While there we saw the confusing spectacle o two women (mother and daughter maybe?) apparently arguing about the division of a bag of bananas. They eventually departed, leaving about half a dozen behind on the bench where they were sitting then after about ten minutes the older lady returned and picked them up. No idea what that was about.

We eventually met Daniel's wife who brought us up to the flat and in short order we'd me their son Mango (he was about 3 or 4 years old) and Daniel's parents who also lived there.

Almost straight after the introductions it was time to go out for dinner.  This being Chongqing, it wasn't surprising that dinner was Hot Pot. This spicy, sociable cook-it-yourself meal is popular all over China and especially in Sichuan province.  But nowhere is it spicier or more popular than in Chongqing. Daniel told us that many of the city's residents will eat it two or more meals a week. 

Our version was consumed at a fun, brightly coloured restaurant where you chose your own items to dip in the fiery/mouth numbing Ma La broth.  They also plonked a crate of beer down next to the table, and at the end of the meal they simply counted the number of bamboo skewers/plates you'd gone through and the number of missing bottles and charged you accordingly.

Chongqing is supposed to be the hottest city in all of China, so we were lucky that this mid-June evening was still pleasantly cool and perfect for a walk along the Jialing river.  (Chongqing sits at the confluence of the Jialing and the  Yangtze, though depending on who you ask, the Yangtze River only properly begins in Chongqing).

Chongqing's skyline across the river was pretty darned impressive. Masses of skyscrapers and neon had me thinking it almost out Hong Konged Hong Kong. Meanwhile, down by the river bank, much dimmer lights marked people fishing illegally, as massive declines in fish stocks in the city's rivers led the government to enact a total ban.

The next day was probably our busiest in Chongqing. We started out taking the subway across the river where we explored Hongya Cave, a complex of old-style Chongqing buildings whose brilliant lights were one of the highlights of the previous evening's river promenade. It's meant to mimic the stilt houses that covered much of the city until about 10 years ago. It's a bit cheesy touristy, but was still fun.

After this we walked across a bridge spanning the Yangtze and, after a bit of work finding the stop, took the cable car back across (Pro tip: the queues for the cable car on the city centre side are huge, while they're almost non-existent on the south side of the river.)

Back on the peninsula we took the metro to Ciqikou Ancient Town. The architecture is pretty neat, but pretty much all of the buildings were filled with (domestic) tourist focused shops and eateries. And this being the Friday before a long weekend the tourist hordes were out in force.

After a bit of an explore we headed home to begin preparing for the dinner we'd promised our hosts. Home made tortillas, spicy-sour peppers and onions, salsa fresca and a sweet corn and coriander salad made a Tex-Mex feast that everyone (even, to our slight surprise, Daniel's parents) thoroughly enjoyed.  An for once I didn't need to stay my hand when adding chilies, as Chongqingers are probably the biggest Chili fans in all of China.

The next morning we had breakfast with Daniel's wife and son before they left town to spend the long weekend with her parents. I was very rapidly becoming a major fan of the simple but spicy noodle soup called Chongqing Xiao Mian.

On our own again we tried and failed miserably to find our way into a hilltop park (we ended up walking through an abandoned part of town that seemed to be scheduled for demolition!)

This gave us enough time to find our way to the Chongqing Sichuan Opera Theatre. We bought our tickets and took our seats for what proved to be a very entertaining show. It was a series of short sketches, each of which got more elaborate. We could barely understand a word of the singing, but the over-the-top costumes and acting made it pretty easy to follow each act. Some included well acted battle scenes, but most were comedies.  Daniel and his father were quite entertained to hear what we'd got up to when we arrived home.

Dinner that night was one of our most memorable in China: two big bowls of fresh water crayfish, one in a savoury garlic sauce, and another in a fiery Sichuan broth.  After dinner, Daniel even pulled out some frozen Cordyceps caterpillars to make tea for us with. I'd seen people selling them all over Nepal and the Tibetan parts of China, but never thought I'd actually consume one of the dusty-tasting creatures, that the Chinese believe bestow a vast array of health benefits.

On our final morning in Chongqing we bid farewell to our great host Daniel and his dad.  One more meal of Xiao Mian, some shopping for train snacks and drinks and it was all aboard for our final train journey of the trip, bound for Beijing.

Thirty surprisingly quiet hours later we arrived at Beijing east railway station and made our way to Sarah's friend Amy's home. Amy was actually away on holiday, but had very kindly offered us the use of her apartment while we were in town.

This was a great luxury, but also made me feel a bit nervous, as without her we wouldn't have access to the documents required to register our stay with the local police.  (Hotels normally do this for their guests, but if you're staying in a private residence you need to do it yourself.)

My concerns ended up being unfounded, and we had a very relaxing last couple of days in Beijing. 

These largely revolved around food and drink.  Lots of yummy Jian Bing and lots of yummy beer too.

We spent a whole afternoon and evening checking out the neighbourhood's brewpubs.  We made it to (three? I think? Or was it four?) and mostly enjoyed the beers, especially at Great Leap Brewing's second location.

Our one bit of sightseeing was on our final day in Beijing, when we finally made it to the National Museum.  It had been closed for renovations on our 2011-12 visit, and we'd missed it on our first stay this time as you need your passport for admission and Sarah's had been at the Mongolian embassy until the day we left.

The museum was even heavier on party propaganda than most government run museums. But the architecture of the place was truly grandiose, and there were some fun elements to it. Most notably was the collection of gifts given to Chinese premiers and Chairmen by various world leaders. These ranged from tastefully beautiful (few and far between) all the way up to ridiculously, over-the-top garish.  Even these almost invariably showed great artistic skill. A couple o favourites were the a painter relief plate of Ulugh Beh (an Uzbek astronomer) presented to Li Peng by (unsurprisingly) the Uzbek foreign minister and, the piece de resistance of the whole exhibition, two lifesize ceramic swans presented by Richard Nixon to Mao himself.

It felt a bit odd to be heading to the airport on the day of our departure. I was still feeling a bit nervous about the fact that we'd not properly registered our accommodation for five of our last six nights in the country. And save for eating one last delicious Chinese meal, we didn't have much to do with the day, so we headed off to the airport early.

As noted before, there were actually no problems with our departure, so after a bit of hanging out at Beijing airport we were winging our way home for a brief revisitation of familiar friends and places before setting out on our next adventure.