Capitalism is Alive and Well in China

Throughout the night my phone kept ringing, and soon as I answered it, the person (or persons) hung up. I suspect, because I was in a single room, it was prostitutes calling. I eventually disconnected the damn thing. Cal and I had arranged to meet for 9 when the Port Office opened. It actually opened around 6, but the English speakers would be there at 9.

We wandered in and got the information. There is only one boat leaving tomorrow, and it is a Chinese cruise ship. There are no foreign cruise ships. Darn, there goes my dream of 4-star luxury, including internet as we sailed. Ok, I’m addicted to technology. The price was Y1022 per berth in first class (a room with two beds). Cal and I wanted to take separate rooms (mainly because it seemed a bit odd sharing with someone not my husband, but also for the additional privacy). The only way to ensure that we didn’t get stuck with someone else was to pay for both beds in the cabin. I bargained for a 20% discount on the total cost though, so it ended up being around Y1600 all up. I guess we’ll find out if it is worth it tomorrow. None of the sights or meals are included in this price, so all that will be added on, on top.

As we left the Port Authority, suddenly one of the women who helped us came running after us – one of us had given them a counterfeit bill. Cal mentioned that must be why everyone was always checking them so carefully. I had just changed money at the hotel, so we asked the woman to come with us and talk to the exchange desk. Of course they said they didn’t give me the bill. Who knows. Cal, said it was probably his, but it might have been from the hotel.

After that fiasco, I checked out of the hotel. Cal’s room was much nicer than mine and cheaper too. I figured I’d save a few bucks and get a nicer room to boot. So we walked up the hill (Chongqing is very hilly) and wove around the holes in the ground. For some reason every few meters there was a bit of torn up pavement. So walking is a nightmare because you have all these people coming and going, and need to weave around them and not twist your ankle falling several inches into one of these ‘construction projects’. Although, what they are constructing I couldn’t tell you.



At the hotel I asked for a single room, but apparently there were none available. I was offered a double room for Y188 (Y10 less than the posted single price) but bargained the guy down to Y175. Never hurts to ask for a discount. Cal says I’m lucky and doesn’t understand. He then asked to change rooms because he had no water pressure, and they gave him another single! So don’t know why there weren’t any available for me 10 seconds before. So I ended up with this huge room for cheaper than Cal’s single… which kinda made me feel bad, but not for too long ;)

After getting settled we met up again to wander around Chongqing. We started to walk up the hill again. Apparently Chongqing has exploded in the past 5 years. Supposedly it was this little backwater, until the Chinese government separated it from Sichuan province and made it a special municipality like Shanghai or Tianjin. We couldn’t really tell if they were building or tearing down though. There were tons of buildings possibly under construction, but most of them looked a bit condemned.

We came upon a temple called Arhat Temple. We later found out that it was actually the temple mentioned in all the guidebooks called Luohan Si. Walking into the temple we were accosted by beggars – not too badly luckily. I just ignored them. Cal gave them some money, but I was really worried about them following us and begging all day (after what my aunt, Jan, had said in her blog about living in Changsha, Hunan).

The entrance to the temple was lined with stone carvings. They were quite weathered, but interesting none-the-less. They are apparently from the Song dynasty (960~). I went up and to the left, while Cal took a right. To the left was a temple with sweet floral-smelling burning incense and candles. There was also a large Buddha statue, but there were no pictures allowed in the temple. People were praying as well, so I didn’t want to take a picture of the inside from outside the building (good way to cheat otherwise).



I hadn’t realized that the place to the right had all the cool things. After looking around for Cal for a while, I finally found him and he told me to go over there. Inside was a series of like 500 statues, all from the Qing dynasty (1644~). They were amazing. Every single one of them had totally different characteristics. Most had rather large earlobes, but the facial features looked African, Middle Eastern, or Asian depending on the statue. Some were dark brown, others beige, one was even mauve! Most of them had that glass eye thing that freaks me out. It seems like they are looking at me!

Many of the statues had money at their feet, and some of them had money in their hands – I assume from a time prior to them being put behind a glass barrier. The barrier didn’t go all the way up though, so it was easy to see the facial features. Each statue was also doing a different pose – some sitting and laughing, one with a child on his lap, one with a really long arm reaching up to the sky. In addition to the glass barrier, the hall was all roped off so you went through in a specific pattern. Kind of like a maze to ensure you saw all of the statues – and I’m sure also a bit of crowd control. In between some of the aisles, women were sitting in chairs knitting. One thing I have noticed is lots of women knit while sitting around.



After the temple we ran across the street to Carrefour! Figured it was a good place to stock up on snacks and groceries for the cruise. Carrefour was a nightmare. Saturday shopping I guess. It was just like going to the supermarket back home the day before Christmas. Carrefour is like a giant department store and a grocery store together. We went over to the grocery store part and it was interesting. There were all kinds of chicken (including blue ones) and other meat hanging up, fish tanks, tables of dried fish, big bins of rice in bulk food style, and tiny fruit. Actually, it was probably normal sized fruit, but having lived in Japan so long, where everything comes monster sized, it seemed tiny.

All up I spent Y80 (about US$10) on fruit, cups of noodles, some small buns, jasmine tea, 2 500mL bottles of Sprite, and a thermos cup to use on the boat, and a tea ball to put in my loose leaf tea. Gotta keep my tea warm! Well, need a cup to drink the tea in the first place, and keeping it warm is a good bonus. The store had bagged Jasmine tea, but it was made by Lipton, and well, come on, I’m in China. Of course you are probably wondering why we didn’t go to a Chinese grocery store or convenience store – well, there weren’t any. The street was lined with tons of little shops, but they had a really small selection (of mostly the same thing). Essentially, the local shops only sold drinks, mystery Chinese snacks, smoked duck in bags (Beijing duck jerky?) and pistachios. I did buy my pistachios from the local store though.



We walked our loot home so we didn’t have to carry it and then grabbed a taxi to go up to the Liberation Monument area. The guidebook says the taxis are extortionate, but at Y5 (about US 60 cents) split between the two of us, it seemed more than reasonable. The taxi ride from the airport was another story, but seeing as I was kinda stranded without money, even that was good value in my opinion.

The Liberation monument is a rather European looking clock tower that celebrates the liberation of the Chinese people from the Kuomintang (i.e. into communism). What is extremely interesting about the whole area, is that capitalism appears to be thriving more so than in Ginza in Tokyo! The square is totally surrounded by high-ticket-price shopping centers and brand name stores: Rolex, Swatch, Burberry, Armani, Swarovski (? the crystal shop), etc. There were also tons of banks. Everywhere you looked was either a bank or a department store. Is this really communist China??!!

The square itself seemed to be having a festival of some sort. I thought crowds in Japan in Shibuya on a Saturday night were horrible – well, I had never been to Chongqing before. Talk about a mass of humanity. The crowds were unbelievable. Underneath the monument there was a stage set up and there was a woman and two men dancing. Obviously it was a local themed thing, because the woman had a long garland of chili peppers that she was swinging around.



After walking around for a bit we decided to find dinner. We were trying to find a restaurant called Bayi duck but didn’t have much luck. Of course it may have gone out of business. We finally settled on a restaurant in that area because we were tired of looking. Of course no one spoke English so we went thru ordering hell again. It seemed like everything we pointed to in the guidebook was not made at that restaurant. We eventually ordered spinach (which was delicious – I love the smoky stir-fried spinach), a spicy chicken dish, a pork dish and a soup. The soup had cucumber in it which was quite good surprisingly. We also got a bucket of rice – really, it came in a wooden bucket! The food was excellent, but way too much. Next time we have to limit ourselves to two dishes!

After dinner we walked around some more. We found a game center where there were tons of kids and families playing games. The kids kept running up saying hello. One even came up and said “Nice to meet you too” as the greeting. Pretty funny. We wandered around a bit more watching people and being subjected to spit balls. Chinese spit everywhere, and instead of just spitting on the street, which probably wouldn’t be too bad, they hawk and snork and try to be as loud as possible, which is just disgusting. Although based on the amount of pollution, I half wish I could hork out some snot at times too. To be gross and give too much information, basically I’m blowing out black snot whenever I blow my nose. Yuck.



Before wandering home I had to use the rest room, so we went into one of the several department stores around the square. It took a while to find one, but eventually after walking past US$700 coats and US$500 suits, I found the public restroom. I was a bit worried about the state of the washroom because everyone always says the toilets in China are horrid. It wasn’t half bad actually. Walking in I was confronted with half stalls. They don’t use full doors here. I went down to the end (hoping to find a western toilet, but no luck) but they were being used. I pulled open the door of the first available one, only it wasn’t free! There was a little old lady squatting there, and I couldn’t see her because she was so far down below the partition! Ooops! The toilet itself was fine though – no worse than some of the squat toilets in Tokyo. The only strange part was the basket for toilet paper, which was gross. You aren’t supposed to flush the toilet paper here, because the sewer systems are not equipped to handle it.

We decided to wander back to the hotel and just relax – and watch the latest episode of Amazing Race which I hadn’t gotten to see before I left. We checked out a tour to Dazu, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There was a day tour for Y260 (about US$30) which seemed a bit pricey, but it would have been awful trying to figure out the public bus system to do it ourselves. So we signed up for it for tomorrow after assurances that we would be back in time to catch our boat.

Before bed we went to the business center to check e-mail but the connection was horrendously slow. Cal saw a WiFi symbol on the door on the way out though, and after bringing my laptop down to the lobby, we had a fast free connection. Doh! We’d been paying for it all this time! Guess it pays to look around a bit!

Overall, today was really interesting. Downtown Chongqing is totally opposite my view of a communist country. All of the little shops lining the streets, that look like rows of garages, seem more "authentic". It was really interesting to see the difference between downtown and other areas. So far China is a lot different than I expected! I knew it wasn't all temples and pagodas, but I didn't expect the cities to be so modernized in that capitalist way.


To see all my photos from this day, visit my photoblog!