Welcome to China

Woke up this morning after hitting the snooze button several times. I would have liked to have slept in, but I had shopping to do… because I was in shoppers’ paradise you know. Instead of going and paying for breakfast, I just ate my fruit in my complimentary fruit bowl. It took me a bit to get going because I didn’t sleep well. I never do the first night in a bed (I usually sleep in a futon on the floor) and the bed was quite soft. So I drank a couple cups of coffee, watched Discovery channel and got myself organized for the day.

The view across the river was nice in the morning as well. It was quite foggy when I first woke up, but the sun burned that away fairly quickly. I would have liked to have walked along the waterfront, but had too many things to do before getting a plane to Chongqing in China. The first of which was to buy the actual ticket.

I went to the travel agent the hotel recommended. I was hoping to get a discount because it was the same day, but no such luck. Probably because it was the Friday before x-mas and everyone was leaving the country. High season = no discounts. So the ticket cost way, way more than I expected (hoped?), but I didn’t have much choice. The train takes two days, which I don’t really have if I’m going to get to Jan’s for the 30th.



After getting my ticket I ran around doing some other shopping. I picked up Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss for Jan. I also got a protective lens and a polarizer for my camera. They were significantly cheaper than in Tokyo. I’m paranoid about scratching my lens (cuz then the camera would be ruined) so I’m glad I got the protective lens now. And the polarizer will make my river pics look better.

After all that tiring shopping, I went out for Dim Sum. I had egg rolls, pork dumplings and this spicy thing – talk about hot! Wow! Of course I dripped red chili oil all over my white shirt, but what else is new. This is not a good sign, because I brought mostly white shirts, and I’m going into spicy red oil territory in China for most of my stay. Doh! After eating I went to get up to pay at the front like you do in Japan and had some woman come running out to tell me to sit down. I had the bill in my hand, so I’m sure they realized I wasn’t trying to skip out on them. The bill came to HK$79 (about US$10) and the waiter gave me 2 ten dollar bills and a 1 dollar coin. I took the bills to put them in my wallet, and before they were even halfway inside, the waiter had whisked away the coin tray with the dollar in it! Well, ok, I guess you can have that tip LOL. Apparently it is normal to leave the small change as a tip in HK, but I think that just taking the change was a bit bold.

After getting my fill of dim sum, I went back to the hotel to pick up my bag, which I had left there while I was out, and went off to find the airport bus. It was pretty easy to find and for my HK$33 I got another 45 minute ride, but this time in daylight. I made it to the airport 2 hours before, rather than a bit earlier than that because I had all the other running around to do in the morning.



I asked for an emergency exit seat again at check in. Later I would find out, there wasn’t that much difference because it was a tiny plane – so no bulkhead. Just emergency window type things rather than doors. It worked out ok though, because I had the whole row to myself!!!! When was the last time that happened to you on an international flight?

The woman at the check in counter told me to give myself lots of time to get to the gate because they were very busy due to the holidays. I don’t know what her definition of busy is, but she should come to Narita! The baggage screening area had like 6 lines open with only three people in each one. Then immigration had tons of people and hardly any line either. I couldn’t believe it! The day before x-mas in a major transit hub, and I just walked right through.

So, after getting into the airport, I had a fair bit of time to get to my gate. I should mention that the airport is also a shopping mecca. It is just shops after shops after shops. Not that I can afford those shops. I looked around at the exchange rates for Chinese currency, and they were all a big rip off – a good 10% higher than the rates I saw in the city. I decided to just change the money in Chongqing. I also went to a café though and had some fresh fruit and a diet Coke while I was waiting, and read my guidebook on how to get into central Chongqing when I arrived.

The flight was uneventful and 2.5 hours later we landed. For the last hour of the flight, we were flying over a sea of white billowing clouds. You could also see the moon on my side of the plane (the sun was on the other). Then when we started to land, I got my first inkling of pollution in China – the clouds were black underneath. Black like street slush in winter. I don’t think I have ever seen clouds that colour when flying. Pretty gross. But as we were landing, you could see all these terraced rice paddies! It was amazing. It was the first time flying into a country that it actually looked like my imagination. I would have taken pictures, but the smog was too bad to see anything.

After landing, we taxied up to the terminal and had to walk down stairs onto the tarmac. There were actually empty gates (with the walkway ramp), that were essentially directly beside us, but they were all closed down. Weird – welcome to China I guess. So we all traipsed across the tarmac, and up these red carpeted stairs (with the carpet decidedly worse for wear). Then we walked into the immigration area and there were official looking people standing around in green uniforms. I’m in China!

The immigration officer scrutinized my passport for a while. Then asked me if I lived in Japan – I think he was confused about that. Finally he stamped my passport and I was off. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the airport… mainly because there were guards blocking the entrance. At first they didn’t want to let me through, but I finally got it across to them that I didn’t have any baggage (it hadn’t come off the plane yet).

So, I walk out into this little tiny lobby area, and I look around and see toilets, and a small counter selling things (but that was closed) and nothing else. As in, no foreign exchange desk!! Oh my god! I’m in China and I have no money. At this point I started to freak out a bit. Then a taxi tout came up to me and tried to get me to take his taxi. I’m like do you take HK dollars? I should mention that no one spoke English at all. My phrasebook was useless in this situation as well. Luckily someone at dispatch was able to speak English, so I spoke to her on the taxi driver’s mobile phone. Eventually it all got straightened out and she talked to the driver who agreed to wait until I got to my hotel to be paid. Phew!

Then he tried to rip me off even more than he already was. He originally said Y115 (about $15) to get into central Chongqing. But after everything with the person on the phone he wanted Y200. Ha! We eventually settled for Y150, which was still a total scam, but there wasn’t much I could do. To give you a comparison, the bus cost Y15. Now, we passed some busses on the way into the city and they were overcrowded and crazy, so it is probably just as well that I took a taxi, but I wish I had had a better bargaining position.



The drive into Chongqing was uneventful. Traffic moved well and my driver only honked a little bit (apparently the city has a law against honking). Alongside the highway, people were walking or standing around waiting for buses. That was just bizarre for me because in Canada, you aren’t allowed to walk along the highway. I even saw a motorcycle driving the wrong way down the shoulder of the road! When we finally made it into town, my first glimpse of the Yangtze was kind of exciting. It was dark and I couldn’t see much, but I was beside one of the world’s greatest rivers.

We eventually made it to my hotel (which was the most expensive one in the guidebook, but I figured most likely to have an exchange desk). Luckily they were able to change money. What a relief that was! I was so worried about that. I got a single room at the hotel for Y250 a night, down from the posted Y298. Always good to bargain! My room had a nice view of the river, but I don’t think it is a three star hotel as the guidebook claims. At least according to international standards. The bathroom was the combined toilet and shower – as in just a shower hose on the wall. The carpet was also a ratted and torn. But the view was nice and it was clean, despite being decidedly worse for wear.

After dropping my stuff off in my room, I decided to go out and explore. I first walked down to the river front where I was accosted by touts for river cruises. There were all kinds of people walking with a bamboo pole across their shoulders with goods hanging off either side. It was so neat to see the contrast of that old-fashioned style with young children running around with blinking and glow-in-the-dark toys. The people with poles were carrying fruit and nuts down to the river front area to sell. There were lots of people walking around and I saw some of the cruise ships docked. There were Christmas decorations, which were festive, and music to which a large group of women were dancing to.

I decided to then try and find Cal. I walked up a random street and walked past all these little stores. No 7-11 here! The little stores sold a few types of drinks and some snacks, or medicine (there were a lot of medicine shops actually), or trinkets. Chongqing is quite hilly, so I got a bit of a workout too – it was all uphill! It was a bit of an adventure because I couldn’t see any street signs, not to mention the fact that my guidebook didn’t have the Chinese characters for the street names either. So I was going on faith that I was on the right street and just went were instinct took me, jogging over a couple of blocks at one point.

I eventually found one hotel that I thought Cal might be staying at… and just as I was walking into the hotel lobby, he was walking out! How’s that for finding a needle in a haystack! Chongqing has something like 32 million people. Pretty amazing. So we went out to grab some dinner together.

Just across the road and down a side street, there were some food stalls. One of them was set up with hotpot. So we decided to eat there. After much laughing, and pointing at guidebooks, and the like, we were able to get some food. It was ok, but boy was it hot! We had all kinds of stuff, and the whole bill came to Y35 (just over US$4) for the two of us – including 2 beers! My lips were still burning two hours later though! Spicy, spicy, spicy!

After dinner we made arrangements to meet tomorrow morning to book our cruise, and then I wandered back to my hotel (much easier going downhill). For someone on vacation, today sure was a long day!

To see all my photos for this day, check out my photoblog!