Chongqing was lighting it up!

I took the opportunity to visit Layess, my former Brisbane flatmate, as a part of my Panda trip. The idea was that I could make a side trip to her home city of Chongqing from Chengdu. It was about 2 hours by train. This was easy enough to complete in theory. I just had to figure out myself how to get there.  Which meant navigating the long distance trains myself after managing to buy a ticket. Easier said than done.

The first step was easy. I just had to retrace our trip from the Chengdu Train station we had arrived into. Then I just had to board the right train at the station. It was fairly easy on the way to Chengdu. But then we had guided instruction on what to do from the tour. Although we didn't actually have the guide with us every time we were inside the station we were seemingly under the safety blanket beingtold what to expect. This trip has no such support. I was alone and had my memory to rely on.
 
I had no ability to book my train tickets online as this is not something China had seemingly allowed for. A tourist doing their own thing. For starters, outside the country it seemed like there was a geographical block stopping me find the train schedule and website, and then once inside the country I realised the website had no English. Probably due to tourism being very domestic focused in the past. It seemed only at the train station could you buy train tickets in English from a machine. But I only ever bought suburban tickets via these machines. Never tried for these longer intercity trains. Before traveling I did find websites of tour services offering to book tickets. But well they just seemed a bit risky. As it wasn't a government train website. Instead I had Layess sorting out me, the inept tourist. I had to defer to her skills booking the ticket once she had my details. Only it also created a secondary problem. Electronic tickets are somewhat unheard of. Especially as you would normally pay using Wechat, and show your identity card to board with a paper ticket. I relied on showing the ticket photo online to the ticket inspector in the manual queue line each time. Which although it worked, seemed against the system.

Chongqing is a huge city. Layess had moved here for work. Previously Layess had met up with me in Hong Kong on a previous trip. However this time I was there with her in China! I didn't really understand how big Chongqing was until I visited. Our tour guide had thrown the number of 30 million at us as an education of the city size. But that was just a number without comprehension. Reality is this city was literally a supersized New York in size. Suburb after suburb of residential towers. This is not just a city centre based metropolis. This was Chongqing. If it wasn't already built here it was under construction. I mean I could see that there were whole suburb redevelopment projects underway here to cater to the newest expansion of this city.

I had 24 hours in Chongqing. And well there wasn't much time spent sitting back. Layess did have some plans for me but I was still the relaxed sightseer I am. I had mere provided a short list of 2 or 3 items I had read about as must sees. From there all I thought about was catching up on stories, food, and then perhaps starting to get in a tourist shopping experience. Having been in the country a few days I realised quickly that even if I did find a fashion bargain I wasn't going to find it in my size. I'm still way bigger than the average Chinese guy. So I gave up early on buying fashion here.

Our quick fire tour of the city after lunch took us to the city centre and the Liberation Monument. Then we explored the point where the rivers join. Which also hosted a brand new shopping centre. After this we went exploring for the Cable Car. By error I think we found some ancient tourist old town centre. But this had been closed down. I suspect in preparation of being the next redevelopment area. Hence our walk ended up being a dead end and a massive retrace. This only added to the relief of actually getting on the Cable Car. From the Cable Car the plan had been to catch a ferry back across town. Only the Ferry drivers seemingly deemed the last ferry to be 6:30pm and not 8pm as expected. So again we needed to make new plans. All good.

Layess arranged for us to meet her friend for dinner at a restaurant. I did though the night before put a dampener on the intended plans when I announced I wasn't a big fan of Sichuan Pepper. I was peppered out in Chengdu the night before. So dinner ended up a chicken soup like affair.

After dinner we took a taxi again to the river and my most recommended sight of Chongqing. The view to the Hongya Cave. When this is lit up at night the view is spectacular. We took in the view from one side of the city over to the site. And then walked over the bridge to this maze of building only to admire the city area we had just left with all the building lit up with flashing displays of light. I'm pretty sure that China needs only to switch off these light displays for a night to save the planet. I doubt it's all solar powered.

The last highlight of the night though was introduced to me as we attempted to escape the night lights. A stairwell with piano steps. Oh my this was so cool. Give me 5 minutes here alone and I would have broken my ankles. But at least I would have made some quirky music attempt in the process.

The next morning was my Chinese breakfast experience. But first up it was the Train Station that swallows trains. This building was designed above a train station. And as a result its design looks like trains just go inside a residential apartment building. It's not the newest building around. But it still gathers a crowd of sightseers out to take that video shot. From there we headed further up the mountainside to find breakfast at a cafe Layess knew. This was more traditional Chongqing fare. Some sort of breakfast. I thought it was some sort of Congee. But this had Sichuan Pepper mix to add in along with dry noodles. Started off fine. But the pepper flavour overpowers quickly. Luckily Layess also got me some sort of side dish with sweet rice balls. This allowed me an escape. But I can at least say I tried it. I wouldn't do it every day. But I tried it. After breakfast we took in the view from the park at the top of the mountain. Overlooking the city from all 4 sides. A great view, and it assisted understanding that Chongqing is just massive.