chongqing

 19-20 October

Kunming is best passed over, apart from its huge airport that makes T5 look like a tin shed.  I arrived in Chongqing to be warmly greeted by Hong, who is going to be my guide and companion for the next 2 weeks.  Already in Kunming it was clear that his help is going to be necessary.  His city is one of those megalopolises that we have scarcely heard of in the west, but it’s got a population of 13 million already – and growing fast, judging by the vast amounts of construction.  Hong took me around the centre at night.  A very few older buildings (by which I mean mostly mid 20^th century) survive a ruthless rebuilding, with tower blocks, flyovers and skytrains in every direction, all covered in electronic billboards, vertical stacks of brilliant red Chinese calligraphy, and exuberant light displays, and the whole thing bathed in a coal-flavoured mist.  The streets teeming with hawkers, street vendors, gawping tourists from other regions, parties of work colleagues out for a fun night, and groups of old people waltzing in the open air to strains of Chinese pre-revolutionary music.  I felt like I’d woken up on the set for Blade Runner.  Not another European anywhere to be seen: in fact, not since I boarded the plane in Kunming.

Chongqing at night

We walked down to the point where Chongqing’s two great rivers meet, before the epic journey through the three gorges region and on to Shanghai.  All around are estates of 30 and 40 storey apartment buildings, with synchronized animated light shows.  Up on the left is the new opera house, completely swathed in glowing panels; and circulating on the water, a number of restaurant boats like small cruise ships, dressed from stem to stern in electrical hardware.  Someone has attached a few strings of small kites to the promenade railings that reach up towards the full moon, wan in the brownish haze: once so central to the Chinese that their calendar is still based around its phases, now no match for the rioting neon below.

We had a great dinner in a small ‘country-style’ restaurant.  The staff certainly looked the part, and with the serving skills to match, but the food was wonderful and a good intro to this part of China.  Chongqing and Sichuan food is spicy.