White Rice: A Weekend in Chongqing!

Last weekend, Allie and I had a getaway weekend in Chongqing to visit our dear friend and fellow Fulbrighter, Tucker. Chongqing is one of the biggest metropolis in the world with almost 29 million people (and you’ve never heard of it, right?). It is located at the merging of the Jialing and Yangze Rivers. The city is very hilly and made up of lots of little islands separated by the rivers and its tributaries. During WWII and the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, the capital was moved to Chongqing. The city was heavily bombed by the Japanese during WWII, and still bears some remnants from that era (see below). More recently, Chongqing has been in the news because its former party chief, Bo Xilai, was taken down last year in the biggest scandal China has seen in the last 30 years. Today it is an industrial powerhouse, which creates thick smog that rests over the city most of the year. It’s people are known for being particularly 不文明 “uncivilized”, and are very hot-tempered due to the spicy food they eat. Women here are particularly beautiful, and life is slow paced. I actually quite liked the city, but Tucker says that usually wears off in about 2 weeks.

Allie and I took the overnight train down on Thursday evening, while watching The Hobbit (we had no idea the book has been broken down into 3 parts!). The generous Adam C lent us his apartment for the weekend even though he wasn't there. We got settled in at his place, and then went off to meet Tucker for our first Chongqing meal, 凉面 (Cold Noodles). The noodles were covered in spicy stuff and some sugar, with peanuts. They also had this delicious yogurt that had fruit on top, yum! Allie went off to meet another friend, and Tucker and I explored the city’s touristy destinations. First we went to 磁器口 Ciqikou, an “old style” part of the city along the water. It was very touristy, but nice to walk around and catch up with Tucker. Then we went to 渣滓洞 Zhazidong Prison, where the KMT (the Nationalists) used to keep Communists imprisoned during the 1940s. The prison didn’t have much to see expect tons of profiles of the “revolutionary martyrs” that died in the prison. There was also a lot of information about the 11/27 massacre, when the KMT killed hundreds of Communist prisoners before fleeing to Taiwan.

View of the Prison from the outside

From there, we went to 白公馆 Baigong Guan Prison. Both of these prisons are located on beautiful mountains so they had great views. This prison was basically the same as the last one.

Baigong guan

View from the prison

Next, Tucker and I headed to Pipa Shan, a small mountain in the middle of Chongqing. We climbed up the little mountain, which is the highest peak in Chongqing, and admired the view, while being harassed by fat little Chinese boys yelling “HE-LLO!”

Hong Xing Tower atop Pipa Shan

smoggy view from the top

more smog

From there, Tucker and I met up with Allie and her two friends, Rocky and Matt. We walked about 解放碑 Jiefangbei, and down to the river where you can see the merging of the muddy Yangze and the comparatively clear Jialing River.

For dinner, we met up with one of Tucker’s friends who works for the British Consulate (so cool!), and went to a hot pot restaurant that’s in a WWII bomb shelter. The restaurant is down by the river, but under a highway overpass so it’s not very scenic. The restaurant was packed with people. We were led into the very back of the bomb shelter, where luckily it was a bit cooler. Hotpot, a Chinese specialty vaguely similar to our version of fondue, is a steamy dish, and usually quite spicy so the air inside the bomb shelter (no ventilation of course) was thick was cigarette smoke, humid hot pot steam, and eye-burning spice. Quite pleasant. I was initially not excited about this meal given the oppressive and choking air, but then the ribs came. WOW. These are the best ribs I’ve ever had in my entire life. Hands down. Not kidding. They were big and meaty, covered in cumin and hot spices. We were given plastic gloves to wear while we ate them, which didn’t actually do much good as the oil and grease of the ribs soaked through to our hands. But wow, they were awesome.

Tucker and Ben enjoying the ribs

The hot pot itself was strange because it never actually boiled- boiling is key when you’re trying to cook all the food you put in it. And then towards the end of the meal, most of the other guests in the back room had left, making us the final table in the bomb shelter tunnel, which continues hundreds of feet back into the Earth. Without the noise and activity of the other tables, the bomb shelter’s other inhabitants emerged- RATS. Yes, real rats. In the restaurant we were eating in. I’ve never eaten in a restaurant with live rats, at least that I can see, so this was both a horrifying and hilariously “Oh China” moment. I tried to capture the sight on camera, but the little buggers were too fast. After dinner, we went to get a few drinks at a nice riverside bar.

Saturday morning, Allie and I awoke to a message from Tucker that he had gotten food poisoning from the restaurant last night, which I have to say was not entirely unexpected. I mean seriously, we ate with rats. RATS. So Allie and I adventured off on our own for the day to 中山古镇Zhongshan Ancient Town. We picked up some delicious Taiwan style fried pancakes (手抓饼) and a Starbucks coffee, and headed to the bus station. From there, we boarded a bus to 江津 Jiangjin, which was a normal 1 hour bus ride. Then we changed buses there to continue on to the ancient town. Even though buses only leave once an hour, we amazingly arrived 15 minutes before the next bus. When does something that convenient ever happen in China?! Allie and I boarded the bus headed to the countryside. Most of the other passengers were tourists like us (well, they were Chinese tourists) or villagers returning home. Out of fear of being stuck in an annoying and incomprehensible conversation with dialect-speaking villagers for two hours, Allie and I feigned ignorance and did not speak Chinese with anyone. After awhile though, the cigarette smoke on the bus got too much for Allie so she finally told them that she was allergic to cigarettes and to please put them out. The passengers erupted in a buzz of excitement about the possibility of the foreigners speaking Chinese. This bus was supposed to take only 1-1.5 hours, but instead was close to two hours because of the frequent stops it made to pick up villagers to go from one town to the next. People would get on with babies in wicker baskets tied to their backs, bags of rice, baskets of fresh vegetables, etc.

Views from the bus (it was hard to actually capture the beauty...)

Finally we arrived in the little ancient town, which was quite charming. It was very similar to many of the water towns outside of Shanghai. While it wasn’t that unique, it was still very quant and cute. Allie and I found a nice, clean guest house to stay in for the night and dropped our stuff. Then we went and explored the village:

the typical ancient town street

ancient town tofu snacks

dinner?

our cute guest house

Crossing the river next to the town

Thing with characters, I dunno.

Crops across the river from the village- I think it's corn

Village Temples

A view of the river from across the river

After the exploration was done, we ordered a cup of tea and sat in the reclining wicker chairs by the river. It was quite ideallic, despite the muddy brown water of the river.

For dinner, we custom ordered delicious homemade veggies at an adorable riverside restaurant. Then we returned to our guest house.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, after our 11pm bedtime, and had a yummy breakfast of zhou, 包子 steamed buns, and some other thing that Allie got. We walked up to the road where they had dropped us off before, and waited for the bus, which only took about 5 minutes to come! We boarded the bus, and got seats after about 20 minutes of standing.

countryside bus riding...

Upon return to Chongqing, Allie and I refueled at Starbucks and then met up with Tucker for an “extravagant” western lunch. Tucker and I both ordered pizzas, and with the infallible reasoning of “well, we’re here, so...,” we decided to order the large 12” pizzas. One each. There was so much cheese and it was soooo delicious.

Food Loft!

After walking off our food babies, the three of us headed to the Three Gorges Dam Museum, which is basically a provincial history museum with a few temporary exhibits. The Three Gorges Dam is one of the largest dams in the world. It was built throughout the 1990s and the 2000s, but the entire project was marred with controversy due to the following reasons. First and foremost (from my perspective), the dam resulted in the forced relocation of millions of Chinese people, many of whose families had lived in these ancestral villages for hundreds of years and whose lives were dedicated to the land through farming. Secondly, the dam is located on a very active seismic area. With the weight of the dam and the water resevoir behind it, many scientists felt that the dam was adding undue stress to the already fragile ground. Thirdly, a lot of ancient towns and archealogical sites were lost when the dam flooded the area. Lastly, as with most dam, it had hugely disrupted the ecosystem. The propoganda about the dam at this museum was unparalled in its blatant lies. So crazy:

There was also a weird exhibit on china's ethnic minorities. This week, a Chinese official actually said that ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, a province with a separatist movement that the Chinese government deems "terrorism", are too busy dancing and singing to "make trouble".

an example of ethnic song and dance

After the museum, we were so hot and tired that we did what any rational person would do: go get a drink. We went to a terribly tacky, but wonderful "tiki bar" near the river. We had margaritas and mexican food and it was delicious!