Chapter 3

Chongqing, China yesterday and today.

While in Beijing in the last 3 years, I have stayed at small inns managed by Bing Chao. He is around 35 and has gradually moved from running an inn with 6 rooms, to one last year with 10 rooms. This year, he has taken over an inn with 60 rooms. He is a real entrepreneur who has the financial backing of some friends which has allowed him to gradually grow into managing his current inn. Over the years , he has become a friend and we enjoy each others company.

His current inn is located near the famous Lama temple of Beijing, and on a main street rather than in a traditional Hutong, or old neighborhood of Beijing as were the first two inns he ran. As usual, when I stay at his inns, I get the biggest room in the place and I am fed lunch and dinner with the staff, if I wish. In addition, I end up paying only around US$ 35 per night. The current inn does not have much charm, but while I was there this year, they were completing construction of rooms on the second floor along with what will be a large bar and area where guests can gather. Bing has promised me the largest room in the new addition and I suggested he name the room Da Wei, my Chinese name. This should be completed by the end of the year 2012. The location is better served by having access to 3 different subway line stations as well as buses which go by the inn entrance on Anding men road.

This year Bing insisted that I visit his native town of Chongqing which is some 1800 km s (1000miles) south of Beijing. He wanted me to go for a full week but as I only had 2 weeks this year we compromised and planned a visit of 4 days. So Thursday afternoon, two friends of Bing, Chun Lei and his wife Song Ping picked me up at the inn and we went by taxi to the South Airport, Nanyuan to catch the flight to Chongqing, The flight was on time and used a brand new Boeing 737-800 which could not have been older than a few months. The flight was full but service was efficient and 2 hours later we landed in Chongqing.

Chongqing is a city state and is a huge megalopolis of some 30 million people. It is set at the meeting of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in an area of China which is very mountainous. Being in the such an area means that the views are spectacular. The city rises up on both sides of the Yangtze and consists of very high mountains and large valleys. This has meant that the city requires very extensive roads built to allow traffic to move in this mountainous terrain. In fact, the road system of this city is the most spectacular I have ever seen. There are 3 huge bridges across the Yangtze river which feed into tunnels and high rising roads. A fourth bridge was being built while I was there in November 2012. Coming of one bridge, one can either enter a mile long tunnel through the mountain or take a rising road which circles upwards to well over 1000 feet above the river and crosses the mountain into the next valley.

The city boasts a very extensive elevated train system which covers so much of the city that it is estimated to carry over 30% of the daily traveling public. It is raised about 300 feet of the ground and the trains run on a central cement track of about a meter in diameter and on two track on the sides of the central track. It is fast, silent and clean with stations which look like something out of Star wars. Traffic on these modern freeways is often down to a crawl but one can still get around the city fairly quickly. There are endless huge apartment buildings of 20 to 30 stories as one sees in most Chinese cities. All these mega complexes have been built in the last 10 years and are not unpleasant to look at. The amount of housing built in China in the last 20 years is staggering and has kept up with the huge influx of people into the cities.

Bing who had left earlier to Chongqing was at the airport to pick us up when we arrived around 8.30 PM. The first thing I heard when we approached the crowd awaiting arrivals was:” Da We, Ye Ye”. It was Bing's now 5 year old son whom I had named Mickey three years earlier. I had not seen him in a year and he had grown but he recognized me, calling me by my Chinese name :”Da Wei” and adding “Ye Ye which is grandfather. There were about 10 persons in the welcoming committee, all friends of Bing.

We all went off to a diner with Mickey and the friends of Bing at a typical restaurant. Interestingly, I have noted that when one is brought into a group of people, no body is really introduced so I have no idea who the 10 or 12 friends were. Everybody was very careful to protect me from the traditional hot foods of the south but I found them not to be that hot. It was a fun dinner with lots of beer, laughs. People took care to speak clearly but inevitably they quickly slipped into the dialect of the area and I was lost to understand. After dinner, I was taken to a studio apartment belonging to a sister of Bing who was out of town (I think). Bing came up with me to the flat on the 17^th floor to let me in and to show me how to operate the heating, gas stove and gas water heating. It was a one room flat with a large bed and little furniture.

I have no idea where the flat was except to know that we drove almost an hour to get there. Mattresses in China do not provide the comfort we are used to. They are usually only 1 inch thick and lay on a hard board surface. The first night in the flat gave me sore hips from sleeping on the hard surface. Then I discovered a couple of pillow-case sized pillows full of seeds and used them to soften up the sleeping area. Heat for the apartment was supplied by a split air conditioner. These units are installed on the wall, near the ceiling and provide both heat and cool air. The heating is not very efficient as the units are high up and heat tends to rise. But it was warm enough. I also learned to deal with the Chinese squat toilets. Now this is an art one needs to learn as a child. I solved the problem by using a small plastic stool which I put over the hole to do my business. Great solution. I leave it to the reader's imagination how that works...

The next morning, Bing picked me up with the 2 Beijing friends and told me we were off to see the mountains in the region. He had several other people already in the van including his son Mickey and an other young couple. He said we would drive through a pretty area of mountains and that it would take some 2 hours. Off we headed south along a super highway north of Chongqing. After an hour we headed off the main road and started up a small road into the mountains. It was in fact a beautiful drive through country and farming areas. It was all still green as we were very far south almost at the level of Hong Kong. These are the areas which feed China. Intense farming could be seen with terraced rice paddies extended down whole valleys. After driving 4 hours we came to a temple site ghost temple situated on the north shore of Yangtze river, in Fengdu about 170 k ms . It is a huge complex of temples built on two hills. Each level has a different temple to a different deity or figure. Confucius, Buddha, Tao and many other. I guess the builders wanted to cover all the bases and make sure that one of the temples would ensure they had a good life thereafter. We climbed for over an hour reaching the top after going through 12 or 14 different temples. All were in excellent shape and the Chinese with me made the climb with great reverence. For people brought up without religions, these temples are obviously something they can relate to. Across the Yangtze river stands the actual city of Fengdu with a population of over 1 million. Most of these people live in high rises along the river and were the people displaced when the Three Gorges Dam started to back up the water 100 miles before the dam. These people were relocated as the water rose almost 400 feet in most places covering houses, towns and factories as well as historic sites lost forever.

After climbing mount Ming we had a simple lunch in the courtyard at the foot of the mountain. Food in China is cheap and available everywhere. Eating is a social event and the Chinese take the time to eat, even if the meal is simple. The food is tasty and they use fresh vegetables and very little meat.

We then left and drove an other 5 hours back to Chongqing. Again, the evening was around a dinner but not before being taken to a lookout high above the Yangtze river to see Chongqing by night. It is a really spectacular sight as all the buildings of the down town are lit up with different colors which are constantly changing. In addition huge laser beams are being sent out from 2 towers on top of the mountains behind us. Of course, the Chinese are very proud of these sites and really enjoy such scenes.

After a nice dinner, I was dropped off at my apartment for the night.

The next day, Bing announced that we would be having lunch with his 80 year old father who still lives in the apartment where Bing grew up. We drove to his father's place which is down on river bank of the Yangtze. It the old part of Chongqing and it gave me an insight of how far China has come in the last 30 years. The father lives in a small three story apartment building which was badly built and falling apart. His flat had two bedrooms and a small living room with a basic bathroom. It was all very small and Bing showed me his room which was no more than 8 by 8 feet. It was dark and damp and a far cry from the modern apartment on the 17^th floor in which I was living. It was this kind of experience which brings home how China has evolved so quickly in just a generation. We went to lunch with his father who had fought in the Korean war and was given the apartment when he returned as a veteran. The father was an educated person who enjoys writing. At lunch, I was placed beside the father who was so elated to be visited that he proudly told me the story of his life. Sadly with my basic Mandarin and his lack of teeth, I could not follow too much of what he was saying. After lunch, we parted great friends with his invitation to come back anytime to visit him.

That evening, we took a cruise on the Yangtze to once again admire the night lights of the city. This time Bing's wife Jojo joined us along with Mickey. She lives in Chongqing as she is unable to bears the climate of Beijing so the family is separated. Sad, but she suffers from a weak immune system and is highly sensitive to sunlight. She is a beautiful women but has aged since I saw her two years ago. She used to be a professional classical Chinese dancer.

The next day we had two more meals with different people and took the 10 pm flight back to Beijing. We arrived at midnight and there were no taxis so we ended up on a bus which took us to Tiananmen Square where we got a taxi back to the hotel.

I had two days before I left Beijing. On the last day, Chun Lei and his wife Song Ping, insisted on taking me to the area tea market area of Beijing. Like most Chinese cities, markets are arranged around one product, spices, pearls, tea etc. Thus in Beijing it is a two block area with buildings with multiple shops selling tea and tea accessories. It is amazing to see how much industry is built around tea. The huge number of teas to start with but then there are shops selling tea trays, tea sets, tea paraphernalia such as kettles, wooden utensils and finally ceramic little animals which live on the tea tray. This is what I had been looking for and the market had thousands of these. I bought a few and then Song Ping who is from northern China and looks more Eskimo than Chinese set about negotiating the price. Chinese people, particularly women love to bargain. She eventually brought the price down by half and everybody was happy. The little critters now live on my tea tray in Virginia.

On the last evening Bing organized a small dinner to say good bye to a few friends. I had told him that I insisted on paying for dinner as I had not been able to pay the whole time while in China. It was a great meal of Beijing Duck and other fine things I had never seen and had no idea what they were. When the food stopped coming I slipped out on the pretext of going to the bathroom. As we were in a private room, no one saw me tell the waiter I wanted to pay the bill which I did. I returned and soon there after Song Ping called the waiter to pay the bill only to find out I had settled it. This caused much consternation but it was finally settled when Bing confirmed that I had set as a condition to dinner that I pay for all. This meal for 10 persons came to US$60. Not bad, when the same meal would have cost US$ 60 per person here at home.

I left China sad and at the same time happy to be heading home after 2 weeks on my own. I find that to be the limit of time I can put up with being unable to really express myself as an adult. But the visit was lots of fun and helped me gain an ever increasing insight into that country. I hope to be able to bring my Mandarin skills up to a level where I could spend 6 months traveling around this beautiful country and meeting its diverse and friendly people. One day perhaps.

Reston Virginia

December 2012