My vacation in China Part 1
My vacation in China Part 2
Sit back with a cold one and enjoy!
After the train stopped at Chongqing Barry and I got a taxi. My brother, Brent gave me
instructins on how to get to the hotel in downtown near the People's Liberation Mounment.
When we found the hotel we went inside and found my brother, we were happy to see each
other, I introduced Barry to Brent and told him how things went on the train trip.
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Our suite within the hotel.
Barry had plans to book a cruise down the Yangzee river and head back to Shanghai, Brent
told him there was a tickets available not far from the hotel so Barry went to get the tickets.
Meanwhile me and Brent exchanged more stories of our experiences in China. I also took
advantage of the views to take my first photos of Chongqing from the windows of our suite.
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Polution is a serious problem in Chongqing, look at the grit on top of the umbrelas.
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A skyscraper visible from our window.
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Another skyscraper, under construction, on hold ...abandoned?? ...I don't know...
Half an hour later Barry came back and told us that he had to go on the boat in an hour so
we decided to get some lunch and check out the city. The three of us headed down towards
the Liberation Mounment in the center of the city. We saw a KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut but
Brent said that we should try to find something better. We were lucky to stumble on a
charming Irish pub nestled on the second floor of a small building. Barry and I had been in
Chongqing for 3 hours, besides my brother we didn't see any other non-chinese people which
was suprising considering that they were more abundant in Shanghai. Inside the pub was an
old english gent who owned and operated the pub, we sat down with him and ate some lunch
with beer. My brother kept telling about the serious problems China faces like polution and
over construction. The gent agreed with Brent that China is building more than it can
consume as could be seen by the large number of empty new buildings. I told them that
solutions will be found for the problems and that I had every conficence that China will be
alright. After lunch Brent and I bid Barry farewell and continued on exploring Chongqing.
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Me
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Same location, other direction facing the river.
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Looking down at the boats on the Yangzee river.
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Looking on the other side of the river.
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The old city below.
Brent was more fasinated with the poor areas of Chongqing than he was about tall modern
building. So we walked arround the poor areas of the city and ate from street vendors.
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Brent.
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I was amazed at how safe the old areas of the city are, no one threatened us. Unlike poor
areas in North America where you have to be on your guard at all times. I loved the curvy
pedestrian streets that winded up and down Chongqing. There is a strong sense of
community within these areas, something that North America severely lacks.
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We continued walking down to the river, notice the massive bridges under construcion in the distance.
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We noticed this gem while walking back up the hill. China should take more care of
beautiful buildings like these.
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We found people selling birds in a small park on the hill side.
When we got to the top of the hill we made our way to a skytrain, once we got on the
skytrain I went crazy and took as many pictures as I could.
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Traditional Chinese housing.
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The building with the cables sticking out is the station for the skytrain.
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Looking down.
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Looking towards the other side, it took about 5 - 10 min to travel across the river.
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Passengers on their daily commute across the river.
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There are alot of abandoned construction projects in the city.
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Looking back at the way we came.
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We are now on the other side.
We decided not to wander around on this side because it looked less intresting than downtown.
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There are some INCREDIBLE views, unfortunately the clouds and polution got in the way.
But oooooh!!!! imagine if the sky was clear!
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Heading back.
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If you look really close at the train you will find a steam locomotive at the end. I only noticed
this when I was back home editing my pictures, I would have went over to take a closer look
if I had known at the time. I have no idea if this train is used or just for display.
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This image hasn't been edited in any way, I tried to fix it up but nothing worked so here it is.
I agree that this is one of the most poluted cities in the world but I heard that other cities in
China are worse.
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Brent took this photo of the other skytrain passing us.
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Brent took this photo of me (the guy with the hat) on the other side of the skytrain.
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Barry might be on a white boat like that one.
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The square boat is actualy a dock.
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No, that isn't an accident but a detour around a construction site. There isn't much traffic on
those roads but I think they will become very busy in the near future.
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I wouldn't mind living in one of these because of the windows that wrap around the suite.
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I saw some parts of the city where there were streets on top of streets which reminds me of
the 1930's movie Metropolis.
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It looks like a construction crane fell over here or something....
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This kind of tile is everywhere through China along with red brick.
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Parkade? Condo? Office Tower?? I don't know but it looks abandoned.
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Almost there! Sorry for boring you folks with all those images!
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After the skytrain ride we headed back to the main square downtown.
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This place was full of people.
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The next day we decided to check out one of the hot springs Yes, a HOT SPRING! that is
within Chongqing's city limits.
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There were over 15 different pools with different temperatures, and they put different stuff in
each pool, for example one pool was blue and smelled like peppermint. Make sure to check
out the hot springs if you ever go to Chongqing.
After checking out the hot spring we went out to eat at an expensive restaurant. Brent told
the waiter to choose the meal. The restraunt employees and owner were very intrested in us
and treated us like movie stars! There was a large wok in the center of the table full of food,
enough for 5 people to eat. The food was bamboo shots and chicken and had a spicy flavour
because there were poppy seeds in it which made my mouth numb. Then the owner told us
to try the chicken, putting some in my bowl, it was chicken feet!!!! I ate it and it tasted
alright, there was even a chicken head in the bowl, brent said he would eat the head but
ended up not eating it... chicken!!! After eating we stood around for photo taking and left.
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The restaurant owner with an employee, I wouldn't be suprised if they have a photo of us
hanged up on a wall somewhere in the restaurant.
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Happy kids!
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These lights are on top of a freeway underpass, notice Santa and his reindeer.
Later that night we went out to the city's number one disco called "Falling" I've never seen
such high quality lighting in nightclub (discos) before, the interiors look like something from
Las Vegas but it was small and the service was incredibly slow. As with almost any
establishment that sell liquor in China, you have to be patient when ordering a drink. For
some reason there is a long proccess they go through for each drink (writing an invoice,
getting approval from manager etc.). Buying more than one drink per purchase solved the
problem. We bumped into some other tourists and had a good time chatting and dancing.
The next day we packed our bags and headed to the train station,
the next place we are going to is Kunming.
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On the way to the train station.
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We were at the train station and the train was leaving in 10 min, Brent told me to check this
out so I ran down there to take this photo and almost got lost finding my way back to the
train station, what a rush!
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Other people were looking at it too, the building with the big red sign on it is the train station.
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Up, over around and under, no wonder why I almost got lost.
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I took these photos when I came back a month later.
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I realize that there are lots of photos of Shanghai and Chongqing on the forum already which
means the next parts of my series will be of lesser explored regions in China.
Keep an eye out for part 4 of my China series, Kunming!>
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