- 1 - The Largest City You’ve Never Heard Of
- 2 - Journey Into the Cloud – Visiting Downtown Chongqing
A few days ago I started writing a post about my two days in Chongqing. Somehow that post turned out longer than I had expected or wanted and I didn’t even get to my time in the city; toward the end of it I had only just settled into my room out in the distant suburb surrounding the northern train station.
The next day, I decided to venture into the smog and check out downtown Chongqing. I knew it doesn’t really offer much for visitors, but the city as a whole is meant to be interesting and the two cable cars, each crossing one of the city’s rivers, sounded worthwhile.
After a thirty minute bus ride that saw the sky change gradually from blue to a brownish-gray, I got off on a steep hillside leading up from the Jialing river valley. From a map on the bus I knew the hill would soon top out and then drop off again into the Yangtze River valley. I didn’t realize just how inaccurate the map actually was—the rivers were quite a bit further apart than the map indicated and the hill between them quite a bit higher.
The bus had been air conditioned, so when I stepped off and into the outdoor air, I immediately melted into a puddle of sweat on the sidewalk. Once I had adjusted to the heat, I began my climb toward the top of the hill between the rivers. Technically it was only about 500 meters, but in that heat I might as well have been crossing the Sahara Desert, assuming the Sahara was sloped almost completely vertically. I believe I lost two sherpas and half my body weight before I made it to the large pedestrian zone at the top.
That is when I saw all of Chongqing’s tourists. They were all Chinese and they were all lined up outside a stall selling various grilled meats on a stick. I’m guessing they were in town to catch a Yangtze River cruise and had left themselves one day to explore then city. As there is nothing to explore that doesn’t involve a treacherous climb, they all ended up taking a taxi to the pedestrian zone and visiting the apparently famous meat stall.
The Chinese love their meats on a stick and there is apparently only one thing that can distract them from that delicacy: me. I suppose any foreigner would do, but since there weren’t any in Chongqing, they focused on me. In a city with no sights and no foreign tourists, the one foreign tourist you do find becomes the top sight.
All over China, foreigners will be asked to pose for pictures, but nowhere more than Chongqing. I couldn’t walk more than a few meters before finding myself surrounded by an ever-changing cast of peace-sign-flashing Chinese . Only after they had me surrounded and had a camera in my face did they ask permission—half the time. The other half they just snapped away. Now I know what Brad Pitt must feel like. Or would feel like if he cleaned himself up a bit—it’s hard for a guy like him to know exactly what life is like for us beautiful people
After my photo shoot, I made my way down the Yangtze valley to the gondola station. It took about an hour an hour and five liters of water to get to there, but I figured it was worth it; pictures on the bus had made it clear I would get some great views of the Yangtze from a gondola high above the river. I’m sure that was true, but I wouldn’t find out since it was closed. They had decided to do some renovations on the building and clearly the best time for that is during the height of the tourist season. This being Chongqing, I’m guessing they disappointed a good twenty people over the course of the summer.
No problem though; Chongqing has two rivers and two gondolas. The Jialing might not be as famous as the Yangtze, but the gondola ride would still give me some great views. Of course it meant trekking back over the hill, but by now I had adjusted to the thin mountain air of the town center and I didn’t have a drop of moisture left in my body so sweating would no longer be a problem.
I had to claw my way along on my hands and feet for the last hundred meters, but I made it to the Jialing gondola alive. It was also closed. The sign said they were renovating that one too and from the look of the gondola station itself, they had been doing so since 1973.I didn’t see an actual gondola, but I’m guessing I could have if I had taken a dive in the river below. In fact, I imagine the last ten gondolas in operation had plunged into the depths of the river.
At this point, I decided to just head back to my room, but suddenly I heard someone address me in excellent English. From that alone, I knew this wasn’t about to be another camera attack. It turned out the guy was actually the owner of one of the hostels and the operator of a Yangtze cruise operation. Since I was a foreigner in downtown Chongqing, he had naturally assumed that I had somehow gotten lost on the way to his hostel and I should actually be getting ready to get on a boat.
When I told him what I was actually doing, he simply refused to believe me. Eventually I managed to convince him, only to blow his mind all over again when I told him that I had been walking all over the city. Apparently no one does that unless they absolutely have to. If you can afford to not walk, you simply don’t walk. Period.
Mainly, he seemed to just feel really bad for me, since I had obviously suffered some kind of heat stroke, so he offered to take me to Chongqing’s top site, but only by bus. He even offered to pay the fare for me, thinking I must be walking everywhere in an attempt to save the twelve cent charge for a bus ticket. I was reluctant to go with him, because I had spent enough time in China to know that when a Chinese person refers to a “top site”, they mean a cheesy reproduction of some kind of ancient architecture. He assured me that was not the case here, so I agreed to go. I even ponied up the cash for my own bus fare.
When we arrived along the Jialing River, I realized that he had been telling the truth. This was not a crappy reproduction of a historical building; it was a horrible reproduction of several buildings all at once. And it had obviously been built on the former site of some actual historical buildings. That’s China: actual landmarks are simply too old. Until they are replaced with a newly (and poorly) built replica of the exact same landmark, they hold no interest.
At least this replica was built into the steep hillside above the Jialing River and offered some excellent views of the smog and some hazy views of everything else. After snapping a couple of pictures (the only five I took during my time in Chongqing), I caught a bus back to my room. Overall, the sites in Chongqing are crap and the steep hills and the heat make it nearly unbearable to walk around in the summer. Despite that, I highly recommend visiting if you have a few extra days. I’m not sure if you’ll find a city like it anywhere else on earth.
For more information on visiting Chongqing, check out my travel guide.
For more general information (and the inspiration for my title), you can read this article in The Guardian: The megalopolis you’ve never heard of.
The population figure of 10 million I gave in the first paragraph of part 1 is highly disputed. No two websites give the same figure and you will see numbers ranging from 5 million to 35 million. The BBC has an article titled The world’s biggest cities: How do you measure them? which gives a good explanation for the discrepancy for those who are interested.
Top photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, author: Oliver Ren. All the crappy ones are mine.
Chubby Chatterbox says
No one can accuse you of not being an intrepid traveler. Very interesting account of your stay in this city. The smog looks dreadful and the Chinese need to use all those dollars they’re squeezing from us to improve their environment before there’s a massive die-off of Chinese people. But I’m sure China’s leaders are aware of this. Great post.
First time in China says
Thanks for this post, it was a very interesting read.
I am travelling to Chongqing day after tomorrow – my first ever visit to China, and this helped!
Daniel McBane says
Thanks! I’m glad I could help. Have a good time in Chongqing!
Daniel McBane recently contributed to world literature by posting..How I Enjoyed a Terrible Terracotta Warrior Tour in Xi’an