Chongqing

I'm here in Chongqing, China. This is the largest city you've never heard of. It has a population of over 30 million people. That is not a typo. It's the fastest growing city in China and the world's awareness of the city has not kept pace with its growth. By many counts it is already the largest city in the world and is continuing to grow at breakneck speed. I can't say that I really like it here but it's difficult to experience it all in only four days during a conference. I have done some non-conference things that I think give me some picture of the city.

First of all, I will say that our hotel, although it is a very nice, is not in the "nice" downtown area (with the Marriott and Intercontinental). We are at the Golden Resources Hotel and the service is fine but the staff has quite limited English. The are surrounding the hotel has some moderate shopping and a nice but tiny park but otherwise it is not the best part of town. It's dirty and smelly and the air quality is atrocious. There is construction everywhere. But not neat and tidy construction like in Tokyo. The traffic is crazy and taxi rides are an adventure. They have these three wheeled little vehicles zipping everywhere and ignoring all traffic rules. I tried to go running the first few days but it was next to impossible. First the air quality and the smell make it difficult to breath (essential to running) and the sidewalks are grimy and dusty and they are not contiguous - they just end and then you're stuck in the road (not a safe place to be).

The first day we were here (three students from home are also here for the conference as well as Tomo and another guy I know) we walked around the area of the hotel. The heat and humidity was so stifling and the shopping was pretty bad. We only lasted about 30 minutes and then retreated to the hotel. On another night the conference organizers planned for the attendees to go on a night tour. It was nice but I kept thinking of the saying "it's like putting a bowtie on a cowpie" because the flashy and colorful lights are pretty and night but during the day it's just crowded and dingy. I took some pictures of the skyline. It's difficult to get good shots at night but here are a few:

Last night we had the banquet for this portion of the conference (on Friday we head to Nanjing for the second portion). The food was supposed to be "real Chinese food, not that American stuff" but it was kind of the same to me. It was okay but not great. The entertainment was cool. We had a dancer and some traditional Chinese music.

After the banquet, Ryan (fellow student who I also travelled with in Japan on my first visit in December) and I ventured to the "real" downtown in search of an Irish pub that his guidebook said existed. From what I had seen of Chongqing to that point, I was in disbelief that such a pub could be found. Communication with the Taxi driver was a fiasco. The drive was scary but I kept reminding myself that the taxi driver wouldn't want to die himself so we must be somewhat safe. He never really knew where we wanted to go but he got us to the general area and dropped us off at a hotel. From there we followed the map in the guidebook. I should mention that it was pouring rain and we didn't have umbrellas. Once we got out of the taxi we were bombarded with people wanting to remedy our umbrella situation. We could never figure out how much they wanted for it so we just decided to get wet. We first came upon a clock tower which is supposed to mark the center of the city. This is it here:

After getting completely soaked looking for the bar, we finally found it amongst a lot of bars and clubs. The place we went didn't have many people but of the 15 or so people in there, 6 (including the two of us) were foreign (non-Asian). After our stay there we decided to explore the area some more since by then the rain had stopped. We walked around forever looking for a temple that was also in the guide book. We found it (sorry I don't know the names of the things I'm referring to) but of course at midnight it was closed and really dark. I took pictures anyway.

Before the final conference sessions this afternoon, we were taken on a tour to the Three Gorges Museum. It was okay - I'm not a museum person and I wasn't feeling great. We took some great pictures in front of the Peoples Hall (not sure if that's what it's called).

KFCs are everywhere

I'm getting tired of writing right now. I had so many observations that I was going to mention but that will have to wait until next time. I'll just finish with some pictures from dinner tonight. I'll describe in more detail later. Traditional hotpot meal - originated in Chongqing.