Chongqing, Real China, 7-9 January 2011

Countryside passing by

The high speed train service was an incredible experience, especially after chugging through Siberia at 50km/h this seemed supersonic. In my half drunken state, I sat there watching the green fields and small villages shoot past the window. The scenery was beautiful and it installed excitement in me that overthrew the hangover. Every time I get on a train or a bus, I feel the excitement build within me as I'm heading further than I've every been and going to somewhere I don't know. Before I entered China, I had no idea where I wanted to go. The country is so vast and having only thirty days to explore it is not enough time. When I was thinking about the whole voyage back at home, I was thinking to heavily into details and looking at train times, booking hostels and creating a route. Now I have completely changed my attitude, I only think about one stop in the future and then from there I will find out where I should go next and how I should get to there. My top tip is, don't do too much planning, you will bog yourself down with too much information and will not be able to enjoy the freedom that spontaneity brings you. To a certain extent, I would even say get rid of the guide books and discover with your own eyes, ask people about things and if you want to know more check on the internet.

The train pulled into the station around 8pm and it was already pitch black. The station had been recently revamped to allow for the increase in passengers from the high speed route. I paused for a minute to catch some fresh air before hoisting my backpack on and exiting the platform in search of quick easy food as my appetite was now back to where it should be. After getting some food from a fast food place, I followed the signs towards the taxi rank and was shocked when I saw the huge queue that stretched across the concourse. I must have waited in line for thirty minutes before finally barging my way through to get a taxi. The taxi driver drove out of the station nearly colliding with another whilst looking closely at the small address written on the flyer I gave him. He picked up his mobile phone and dialled the number to the hostel for better directions. In hindsight I now understand why as the streets of Chongqing are incredibly maze like, there are many levels rising, falling and interweaving heading to different locations. The taxi driver thought he was a formula one racing driver as he always drove as fast as he could squeezing in between cars which made you breath in and close your eyes. Needless to say I made it to the hostel alive and in super fast time and I wasn't concerned about the fee as the hostel had agreed to pick up the cost of a taxi in a previous email to me.

Chongqing is usually visited by tourists that are either on their way down the Yangtze River or have just come upstream on a cruise. I was myself there to get on a cruise and head downstream towards Shanghai, so the first thing I did was look at the options and decided to book a two night three day cruise down the Yangstze, through the three gorges towards the Three Gorges Damn ending in Wuhan.

Sandwiched between the banks

Chongqing was an interesting city that is perched on the banks of the Yangtze and Jialing River. The city is a mixture of high rise buildings and shanty towns. It is a perfect example of a failing communist society where they feel it is OK to spend millions of Yuan on building skyscrapers but leave the poor housing to slowly rot away. Surely communism is about the fair and equal distribution of wealth so instead of building skyscrapers they should have built smaller mediocre buildings and brought the standards of the housing up at the same time. Walking through the streets of the poorer streets of Chongqing is far more rewarding than the modern, corporative streets as the people are friendlier and there is a real sense of living.

Whilst sitting in the hostel restaurant enjoying some sort of spicy beef dish and reading the outlawed Lonely Planet I became aware that somebody was staring at me. I looked up and it was Raymond, whom I met it in Ulan Bator when he was in my hostel looking for people to go on a trip with him. I asked him to join me and we spent a while catching up with each others experiences since we last met. He told me that he tried to contact me in Beijing via the hostel as he bumped into Caué at the train station who told him I was there, unfortunately the hostel staff misunderstood and said that I wasn't staying there. Raymond was in Chongqing for the same reason, he wanted to get on a cruise down the Yangtze, I told him that I had booked my ticket so he went ahead and got on the same one.

One evening a group of us decided that we should go and enjoy a traditional Chongqing Hot Pot which is supposed to be even hotter than the illustrious Sichuan Hot Pot. I was joined by; Michael, a Chinese entrepreneur who seemed to trade in anything that would make money from pens to wine. Michelle, a Chinese girl from Hangzhou who had lived in Brighton for years working at a casino. Raymond and another Dutch man who was travelling round Asia for a while. The phrase, 'It's nothing serious', got coined as a classic as Michael uttered these words many times. On one such occasion the waitress was looking at the flame heating the pot, she had left the gas seeping out whilst looking at it and the Dutch men and I created distance as we thought it was going to blow. Michael, being very confident, assured us that it was 'nothing serious' and she lit it and an explosion erupted from under the table sending a fire bowl out through the gaps next to the bowl.

The hot pot was spicy and interesting as we were eating all sorts of different things including sheep's brain. I didn't like the brain, mainly because of the texture as it slimmed its way down my oesophagus towards my stomach. It didn't taste of anything much but it may have also been that it was sitting in front of my for at least thirty minutes before we started to cook it. The whole concept of hot pot is a good one but it is a little too much hassle for my liking as I would rather go to a restaurant where my food is already prepared for me and I can sit back and enjoy it instead of having to cook it myself.

On the walk home Michelle asked me a question that had been bugging her since living in the UK. She asked me why people in the street shouted out “big tissue!”. For a moment I was unaware of what she was talking about and thought she had gone crazy as I had never heard that. I asked her who shouted this and she replied poor people with magazines. Now I completely understood and revealed that they were shouting “Big Issue!” not “Big Tissue!” and told her that it was a magazine created by homeless people and sold by homeless people for homeless people. I could tell that she was very relieved to have finally discovered the truth behind this mystery.

The last day was a day of walking, a day of exploring and a day of dog eating. Raymond and I decided that it would be a good idea to get a cable car over to the other side of the Yangtze River and have a look at what's over there. Initially it took us a while to actually find the cable car station as we headed up and followed the cables but kept finding the maze of streets coming to a dead end. Eventually we made it and boarded the cable car across the river. The other side was a lot quieter than what we had left behind which was nice and we ended up walking around for a long time. We visited the Chinese version of the KL towers which were being finished off and will be home to an international trading centre as Chongqing is one of the biggest shipping and distribution centres in China. After making a loop and returning back to the under construction promenade on the river, we decided that we were going to head to the bridge and use it to get to the third part of Chongqing across the Jialing River that plays host to the opera house. A gentleman from Hong Kong, who I met in the hostel, was telling me about Chinese architecture and informed me that China didn't like to create their own unique buildings, instead they would copy other notable buildings of the world, such as the KL tower. This is also true when it comes to Chongqing's opera house and bridge, which they have tried very hard to recreate a modern version of Sydney harbour. 

The walk to the bridge, however, was a lot further than imagined and it seemed as though we would never get there. Even when we got to the bridge we discovered that we would have to walk further up the hill to get on it but on our way up beneath the bridge we stumbled across a small local market selling food so we stopped to enjoy some kind of pizza slices. Whilst digesting the slices, we were joined by a rather poor looking local who wanted to know what we were doing. He spoke no Chinese and we barely had a conversation but managed to create humour between us and he graciously offered us nuts but wouldn't accept anything in return from us. This is an example of generosity that I am continually finding across the world. Poor people offering what little they have to perfect strangers.

Once we finally made it across the bridge to the other side we were aware that the we still had a long way to go to get to the opera house and the cable car station which would take us back to our third of Chongqing. The shortest route seemed to have been through a construction site. The terrain was not the easiest, as soon as we hopped the fence we were confronted with a steep slope which we needed to descend by using the drainage pipes. At the bottom we realised we had gone the wrong way because we were confronted with a sheer drop of at least three metres. How were we going to get down, Raymond had an idea and that was to climb down a man hole cover but before he did I made sure I got his last words just in case it ended badly. He soon returned stating that there wasn't a way down and the ladder just ended. We stood there for a while considering our options, we were both reluctant to head all the way back to the main road and there was no way we were going to jump down but we saw a group of workman over to our left and made our way to them as they must have got there somehow. It was the right move, the way we should have gone to start with as we found a track which took us down through the wasteland towards the road along the river.

After visiting the enormous opera house which exudes white light out over the river, we made our way back across the Jialing River and towards our hostel. We stopped at a local restaurant to grab a meal before reaching the hostel. Not being able to read anything is always an issue when it comes to ordering food but there is usually somebody having something that you can just point at and say I want that one. This time, we seriously wish we hadn't done this as it may or may not have been dog... The meal was disgusting and we felt as though we were cheated!

We returned to the hostel to find the karaoke had begun but the only people participating were the Chinese girls that worked there but it was fun to watch them.

Next Time... Yangtze River Cruise

Chengdu, Pandas and Opera, 4-6 January 2011

My first impression of Chengdu was that it was a dull, grey city, perhaps it was the severely overcast weather only time will tell. I wondered out further into the square outside the station and found the taxi queue which was thankfully very short. I got into the taxi and passed the address of the hostel over to the driver who took a while inspecting it. It turns out that the majority of taxi drivers in China have bad eyesight and the flyers are stupidly written with the tiniest writing. No matter what we thundered through the streets towards the hostel with the taxi driver saying 'happy new year' every ten metres.

I arrived at the hostel a short time later and headed inside to check in. A few moments after I checked in I bumped into Karin and June and it seemed like I hadn't seen them for a long time. They were told me the bad news that they had bought tickets onto their next destination leaving that evening. I suddenly heard another familiar voice approaching the entrance to the hostel. That was Kaela who had literally arrived thirty minutes after me. He told me that the police were really cool and provided him with cigarettes and tea whilst he was waiting for his train and when they escorted him onto the train the on-board police officer said that he didn't really care about the swords and handed them back to him.

June and Karin had decided to stay another night as Kaela and I had turned up. Since I had booked a ticket to go and see the Sichuan Opera and they had the relentless spiel from me about theatre and opera, they decided to book a ticket too. Later that evening we all climbed into the back of a people carrier that was going to escort us to the theatre. One thing I have noticed since being in China is that they cannot drive, or drive carelessly. Our driver refused to change gear even though the slow speed was causing the engine to groan and you could feel the gear box wanting to explode to freedom. We sat in the back urging the driver to change gear but he refused to listen and we had to listen to the engine moving along in agony.

We arrived at the theatre and were shown inside by our chauffeur where we were greeted by a Chinese girl and a fresh pop of Chinese tea for us to drink before heading into the auditorium. As we neared the auditorium doors we were provided a small bottle of water. They also provide you with water on certain buses across China and I have come to the conclusion that they give you this bottle of water to quell the need to spit. We found our seats and prepared ourselves for a proper Sichuan Spectacular. The lights faded to black and a spot light appeared on stage and a young lady appeared on stage shortly followed by two other girls with a roll of something. The girls proceeded to unravel the roll to reveal a painting while the other lady started bids off. Yes, it appeared to be an art auction. After ten minutes the several items up for bid were unsold which meant the show we all paid to see could begin.

A girl entered stage right and proceeded to introduce the show in Chinese and English which I initially felt was strange. The show turned out to be more of a variety show rather than a holistic performance. After each example of Sichuan Opera, they proceeded to introduce the next piece and it really disappointed me as it was unnecessary to introduce each individual part making the whole show void of any continuity. I must say, however, that the individual examples of the opera was quite spectacular. The fire spitters, face changes, musicians, puppeteers and shadow puppeteer were all inspiring. The skill they have was unquestionable.

Sichuan Opera - Face Changing

The example of Face Changing, Bian Lian, was remarkably intriguing. It is a traditional Chinese art that has become a major part of Sichuan Opera and requires the performers to wear brightly coloured costumes, decorative masks and move around the space to quick and dramatic music. Whilst moving around they continually change their masks in quick succession, so quick you are left there wondering how the hell they do it. The secret to the art form is highly contained within families and it is passed on through the generations. As a measure to protect the secret from spreading, only males are permitted to learn and perform Bian Lian because women marry outside of the family. Foreigners are definitely not allowed to learn this art so it's no use getting a marrying a performers daughter to learn the secret. An truly inspiring and rare experience indeed.

Example of Hand Shadow Puppet

Another fantastic part of the performance was the Hand Shadow Puppeteer who manipulates his hands to create different objects/animals/people to make a visual show. It is believed that general shadow puppetry originated is China during the Han dynasty (206BC – 220AD) when the Emperor Wu of Han's concubine died, he asked his court officials to bring her back to life. The officials made a cutting of her with moveable limbs, thus brought her back to life and created shadow puppetry. Over the years the art form became more popular and spread across Asia and into Europe. The shadow puppetry was accompanied by music and the performance was a continual transformation.

Other parts of the performance included fire spitting, a comical slapstick performance and a remarkable example of huqin playing. The sound the performer got out of the two stringed instrument was mesmerising and completely different to the common sound you hear from a street performer that hurts every bone in your body. Although I was upset that I was sold a ticket to see a traditional Sichuan Opera and all I got was a variety show, the examples of the style were very interesting and impressive.

Panda Watch

The following day I had to drag myself out of bed especially early as I had arranged to visit the pandas in the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre. It was a little difficult as we had been drinking and playing the moose game the night before with some Chinese people staying in the hostel. It's amazing how a simple game can turn into so much fun and the more you drink the more difficult it becomes. I finally got to bed around 3.30am and had to wake up at 7. I was picked up from the hostel and headed to the Research Centre with four Columbians. It is important to get to the centre early during feeding hours as pandas will most likely deplete all their energy and fall asleep in the afternoon.

Unfortunately the pandas are fading away to extinction and the only way to keep them alive is by keeping them in captivity. Pandas are slowly but surely dying out because of a few things, humans and evolution. Pandas exist on eating bamboo shoots which provide so little nutrition they have to eat a hell of a lot to stay alive. As the bamboo provides so little energy it becomes harder for them to mate and reproduce. There is also a problem with finding the right mate and many of the pandas kept in captivation have to be artificially inseminated to ensure population growth. Apparently female pandas have cottoned on that the pregnant pandas get special treatment and therefore from time to time fake their pregnancies. Another issue is humans, for many years it became a popular sport to hunt the pandas and extensive farming has forced the pandas to retreat up into the hills where continuous supply of bamboo shoots is sparse and now starve to death. The debate on whether we should keep them alive is a difficult one. On one hand we should do as much as we can to keep endangered species alive and try to enforce reproduction and on the other hand the species have far exceeded the life span of any known creature. There is so much more information on pandas than I can tell you here, so have a look into it further if you want.

The trip to the research base is very interesting and well worth it. Pandas are wonderful to watch and I found that I had so much in common with them, I'm lazy and I tend to eat whilst lying on my back in bed. I was especially intrigued by their fake thumb which appeared through evolution and it helps them grab bamboo and strip the green stuff off it. Not only did they have the giant pandas, they had red pandas that seemed more energetic and lively.

Later that night, Kaela, June, Karin, a Danish guy and I went out to a club where we were promised all you can eat and drink by an American man who visited us in our hostel the previous day. With that promise in mind, we prepared ourselves for a feast and left the hostel with empty stomachs and clear heads. After a ten minute taxi ride, we arrived at the club where we were enthusiastically greeted by the doormen who showed presented us to a lady who took us to our table. Excited and hungry, we handed over 50 Yuan and prepared ourselves for our feast and endless drinks of all types. The barman came over and we ordered 5 beers which was rejected and an offer of vodka or whisky was returned. We chose vodka but the barman returned and said he only had whisky. After receiving our bottle of whisky, we asked for our all you can eat buffet and were later given a small bowl of cold fries and a plate a vegetable things. Something told me that we were not going to be given anything like all you can eat. We did, however, get all the whisky we could have dreamt off. The night was incredibly enjoyable, there was an awesome live band playing covers all night and being the centre of the Chinese entertainment meant we had to dance on stage and at one moment Kaela decided to have a dance/Kung-Fu off with a young Chinese man. The bottles of whisky flowed all night but the barman was diluting it with ice tea for some reason. We all got extremely drunk but the evening ended strangely as some Chinese men we were drinking with started to pick a fight with Kaela, at that point we left and got a taxi home.

The next morning was not pretty at all! I'm not going to go into too much detail but lets just say, the toilet cubical doesn't have much floor space for me to make a telephone call on the white phone. I have now made a habit of getting exceptionally hung over when I need to travel on. Luckily this time the journey is the quickest trip I had made throughout my voyage. It only takes 2 hours on the CRH fast train to travel the 315km that separate Chengdu and Chongqing. Before leaving I sat around moping all morning with Karin, Kaela and June steadily working my way through a fry up. I managed to finish my meal and say goodbye to everybody before being escorted out of the hostel and to the bus stop by two lovely girls who worked at the hostel.

Getting on the fast train from Chengdu to Chongqing was my first experience of the high speed network that connects many Chinese cities. The trains were fast, smooth and punctual hitting a top speed of 201km/h. This train is actually one of the slowest services in CRH network but was an absolute delight compared to the slower 4 hour service I could have taken.

Although my visit to Chengdu was short, I did everything I wanted to do whilst I was there, Pandas, Opera and the tallest statue of Mao Zedong is another addition to my superlative tour of China...

Next time, Chongqing and my first taste of real China.