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受到了重庆好奇的当地人热烈欢迎……

 

 

A warm welcome to Chongqing...by some eager locals...

 

 

 

I already have one regret ... and that is that I’m staying in Chongqing only two nights.   Rarely have I felt so strongly that I’m missing out a lot by having too little time ... especially since it is raining and there is much that I can’t see the way it is meant to be seen.

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When I drove into Chongqing, I suddenly saw before me the giant Yangtze Bridge (长江大桥).  What a powerful reminder this was of the purpose and challenge of my journey ... to make it all the way to source of the Yangtze with Miss Daisy.      Having left the Yangtze behind for almost two weeks, it warmed my heart to see it again.   

 

Later on in the day my friends Meng Wei and Li Cui (李翠) took me to the Chaotianmen Square (朝天门广场) from where I could see Chongqing’s Jialingjiang river (嘉陵江) converge with the Yangtze.  It is a special place, they said, because the two rivers have different colours – the Jialingjiang river being green, the Yangtze yellow.    But yellow the Yangtze wasn't ... more like brown, and its water level very low ... it looked sad and pensive.

 

 

Cold Beer

Since I eat mostly in small restaurants, I’ve been drinking room temperature beer for quite some time.    How nice it was to have really cold beer again.  

 

Glitter & Dirt, New and Old

 

Strolling around Chongqing’s most modern and fashionable district, Jiefangbei (解放碑), I was very much drawn to the clock tower.   It is difficult to believe that in 1949, when it was built, it was the tallest structure in Chongqing.  Now it is among the lowest, if not the lowest; the surrounding buildings all overshadow it.    Even though it is such a minnow these days, the Chongqing people seem drawn to it, too, because they tell me that at Chinese New Year to love to come to listen to its chimes (听钟声).

 

 

The clock tower, one of the very few remnants of a by-gone era, is very well maintained.  That can’t be said for some of last remaining old buildings that seem to be whiling away their time before being torn down to make room for yet more glittery skyscrapers.   

 

Standing there among all the shiny new stores and sexy brands, you’d never every imagine the darker side of Chongqing.    Not too far from Chongqing’s splendid city centre, I saw two of the most polluted rivers that I have ever seen.   The stain their banks greenish-black and exude a stench that penetrated my nostrils no matter how hard I clamped them.  When my Chongqing friends saw me take notice, they let their heads hang low in shame.   “We know, we know...”  

 

 

 

How easy it is to be critical, of course, but then it is good to remember that the rivers of Germany's, Britain's, Japan's and the U.S.'s main industrial areas looked pretty much like this as well during their development spurts.  But by now these countries have gotten their act together and are clean by comparison to their woeful past.  

 

When will China get there?  And will it be able to?  China’s sheer size makes one wish that it will soon, but also wonder how. 

 

Bang Bang 棒棒

I didn't seen many of these symbols of Chongqing, but seeing one, only one, with a heavy load was enough to leave a deep impression on me.    Here is what sticks in my mind: two bulging baskets suspended by taught strings from a bent bamboo stick; a rhythmically swaying step – tilting a bit to the right, then a bit too the left; at last, a man with a strongly bent back (no less than the bamboo stick), sweat oozing from all his pores, and his veins pumped up to the level of bursting.     What a sight it is to see this man earn their living.