Chongqing - China is Hard

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If there has ever been a city on this trip that I can feel pretty certain I never will live in, or want to live in, Chongqing is it. We have been to seven Asian countries on this trip, plus Hong Kong and Macau. That is a list of many different languages, cultures, religions, and foods. One of the questions we get asked most frequently by people is how do you communicate if you don’t speak the language? We answer that we try to learn a few words like hello, please, and thank you. Then, we just wing it. In most places we can find someone who speaks enough English to help us out. We point a lot, at pictures of food on a restaurant wall or on a menu. We use hand signals for numbers, write the numbers down, or use a calculator to haggle over the price. In China, all of these rules went out the window.
We started to notice the lack of English skills, surprisingly, in Shanghai. We stayed at a Sheraton hotel and much of the staff spoke little English. In other countries this is a requirement to even apply for a job at a western hotel chain. Shanghai is such a large and cosmopolitan city that we expected English to be more prevalent. Regardless, we got by fine. The toughest time was trying to order dumplings at a place near our hotel and away from the tourist area.

I knew we would have troubles in Chongqing even before we left Shanghai. I could not pronounce the name of the city to save my life, it seemed. We were familiar with CQ from a Ted Koppel special that aired around the time of the Olympics. It was a four or five part series about the growth in CQ and the interaction between the US and Chinese economy - that one will not work without the other. The Chinese government has placed a lot of resources in CQ, trying to have CQ do for the southwest of China what Shanghai and Beijing have done for the east. We truly enjoyed the Koppel special when it aired. Even though Koppel must have pronounced the name of the city a thousand times, and Nancy tried to teach me the correct way to pronounce it (along with her Chinese name, Qin, which is part of Chongqing) every time I said the city name to a Chinese person they looked at me strange. When it became clear that I could not pronounce CQ, we started referring to it as Koppel Town.

We had no initial plans to travel to Koppel town despite our interest in the TV program. But, we wanted to take a Yangtze cruise, and it appeared they either started or ended in CQ, so we hoped a flight from Shanghai to experience smaller city life. We have been booking western hotels here because, frankly, it is just easier. We had no intentions of coming to China and it was a last minute decision. We have no Lonely Planet China book and are going almost blind outside of Beijing and Shanghai. I know; who plans a last minute trip to China? We stayed in Shanghai on Starwood points for six nights. We splurged the $50 to stay at a Holiday Inn in CQ, which we thought would be easy. It was, for the most part. English was spoken by some, but not all staff. Those who did speak English did not speak all that well. We tried to go to the fancy tea house at the hotel and could not even get across our request for a menu. We ate two meals on the same road as the hotel and we had similar difficulties.

Our first night we walked past at least a dozen restaurants, none of which had English menus. We finally stopped at one because we were just hungry and we asked for a menu. It said “menu” on the front, in English, so we thought we were home free. But, the entire menu was in Chinese. So, I showed them the word and Chinese character for pork in our book (which literally translates to pig meat) and she showed me a pork dish in the menu. We ordered it. It turned out to be a thick bacon style meat that was tasty but had a weird mushy texture to it. It was laid on green peas, which were good. Then, I looked at the table next to us and saw they had some sort of stir fried dish and some string beans and garlic sauce, so we ordered both of those, plus a beer and rice. The bean dish was cold and just okay. The stir fried dish was really good, possibly with some pork in it, fried noodles, garlic, ginger, and peppers. Okay, we survived our first night and dinner cost less than $7. We did not go to bed starving; however, this experience was not as easy as Shanghai, or anywhere else on our trip so far.

On our second night in CQ, we went for hot pot. We saw several hot pot restaurants the prior night and one in particular seemed pretty excited as we approached, but we were not in the mood for hot pot. We skipped lunch that day so we figured a large pot of steaming hot and spicy hell broth with tons of food to soak in it would be just the thing. A group of young girls greeted us at the tour and did not, at first, appear to want us to eat there. It was very confusing but we eventually figured out that the hot pot is served with fish and they thought we would not want the fish. We asked if they had vegetables too to place into the hot pot, in addition to the fish, and they agreed. They also assured us they had no chicken or pork, just fish. We were using the Chinese words in the back of our book. We figured we would give it a shot. Everyone who spoke even a little bit of English was trying to help us at the restaurant, which was packed to the brim with loud, beer drinking, smoking hot pot patrons, many of them were men dining without their shirts. We ordered one fish, which was brought out to us head and fins on, but cut in half, and dumped in the hot pot, along with what looked to be fish intestines. Eric walked the nearby tables with the server and walked back towards the kitchen to get the rest of the order based on what he was seeing around him. We had some mushrooms, potatoes, and surprisingly pork. I think when they told us there was no pork I think they meant everyone gets the fish, and then some other stuff to throw in the pot. Whatever.

We were nervous a bit with the fish. I was hoping we could leave most of it drowned in the bottom of the pot, but the manager, concerned with our enjoyment, posted their best English speaker at our table. She helped us manage the heat on the pot, stirred it, served us, answered questions, and got to practice her English. She kept dishing the fish out onto our plates. She started with the fish head, which I passed on, and motioned to Eric. This fish was tender, seemed perfectly cooked, and tasted great in the spicy broth, but was loaded with bones. After we each had about 6 or 7 large pieces, picking away the bones and leaving them in a pile on our table, we talked our girl into adding in the pork and vegetables. The food was actually pretty good and it was one of those times where I said to Eric “I hope we don’t get sick on this, because it tastes good and is an interesting experience.” Our girl was with us to the end, and when we made our way through all of the meat and vegetables and she started dredging up the remainder of the fish, we told her we were full. The fish was tasty, I just only have so much patience for picking around the tiny bones. We had no idea how much any of it cost when we ordered and expected the worst. But, the total was less than $7. So long as we don’t get food poisoning it was a good experience. But again, it was a challenge. They were as helpful as could be but we still felt like eyes were on us during our meal. And, our waitress never left the table, which became a bother after awhile. Regardless, in the end, it was another successful evening.

Taxis are also hard in any foreign city, or any city in America for that matter. Whenever you are unfamiliar with a new city you are at the mercy of your taxi driver to take you to the place you want to go, in the most direct manner possible, without running up the meter. We try to avoid taking a taxi whenever possible. When we do we usually ask someone at the hotel about how long the drive should take and about how much it is. Usually we can even ask the driver before we get in about how much it should cost so he knows we are on our toes. In a city we have been in for a few days I try to follow along on the map so I can point them in the right direction; this trick came in handy a few times in Hanoi. In China, these tricks don’t work. Usually we have to ask at the hotel to write down our location and address in Chinese to give to the driver, and then we hope that he will take us there. We only took one taxi in Shanghai and I followed the driver on the map so I knew where he was going. We had no map when we arrived in CQ so we had to trust the driver to take us to the hotel. When we took a taxi out to Ciqikou Ancient Town we were told the estimated price and distance, and I was able to follow the directions on the map. Our driver who drove us out there went in the opposite direction from the map, crossed the river, went past the downtown area, and then we finally got to our destination. It cost about RMB 40. We were told it would cost between 20 and 30. When we returned later that day, our driver again took us in the complete opposite direction we thought we should go, put us on a highway that seemed to be heading north when we wanted to go south. We tried to show him on the map and told him we thought we were going to the wrong place but he assured us we were in the right direction; all of this while we spoke English and he spoke Chinese. He got us home for a little over 20 RMB. Now, the dollar amounts at issue here are not big - it is $6 versus $3. But, our stress level in general has been sky high traveling here. All of the taxis say on the side that it costs 1.20/km, but our taxis always were 1.80/km. I know we can shoulder the cost, but it bothers me that we have to.

We have done quite well on our budget so far on this trip. We came under budget by a lot during our stays in Southeast Asia (thanks to $.75 bowls of pho and $.15 beers). I feel better about our budget now, which is a good thing in China. I cannot understand how traditional backpackers on a strict budget survive traveling here. I feel we are overcharged for everything because we are foreigners and don’t speak English. The taxi ride is just one example. We were quoted one price for our laundry to be done in Shanghai but when we picked it up the price jumped another $10. At the lower price it was the most expensive laundry bill we had to date and he tried to explain why it was more, but he spoke about 5 words of English. What were we going to do at that point? We needed our clothes back. We know we are paying more here than we should, and luckily we have the flexibility in our budget to do it, but I don’t know how true backpackers on a strict budget handle the haggling.

I don’t mean to pick on CQ specifically, because I know we had some of these issues in Shanghai, and will continue to have them until we are safe back in the comfort of familiar Vietnam, where we can get around better. It is just that the issues have been amplified here thus far. We almost booked a tour for China, but we made the decision to come here so last minute we could not find one, so we are on our own. So far, I am glad we are here and I can’t wait to see the Great Wall and other historic sites, but this is not an easy place to travel in. The cities are big and overpopulated with hazy skies and little sunshine. The tourism industry is not as developed resulting in less English spoken and less English language services. People stare at us in restaurants like we were aliens. It is hot, loud, and confusing. It is just a tough place to travel. We have met some very nice people and a few strangers have tried to help us with directions and ordering, but overall it is just hard.

The Manhattan of the East

We were told by a local in CQ that is “just like New York City.” Really? News to me. First, he told me that the people in CQ speak their own dialect and even people outside of CQ who speak Mandarin or Cantonese cannot understand a thing they are saying. Well, that may explain peoples’ lack of understanding in the few words of Chinese I was pulling from our phrase book, which are Mandarin. Then, while driving across the bridge to the downtown area he pointed out the distinct skyline of CQ. There is a large building the center of the CBD that, I admit, looks similar to the Empire State Building. He also pointed out that the downtown area is nestled between two rivers, just like NYC lies between the Hudson and the East rivers. Lastly, all of the taxi cabs in CQ are yellow. That was the last of his comparisons, but of course I agreed with him wholeheartedly; yes, Chongqing and New York City are the same.

Ciqikou Ancient Town

The highlight of our trip to CQ was our trip to Ciqikou Ancient Town. I am not sure the origins of the town, but it seems like it was a small community built up the hill rising from the Yangtze River. The traditional houses were painted white with dark brown and black wood trim. I imagine the town being quite quaint when it was built over 1000 years ago, but now it is tourism central and the most famous place in CQ. It was pleasant to walk around the shops selling candy, mutton, jewelry, artwork, etc. We actually bought two nice paintings already framed from a gentleman. We also even found an Indian guy making roti. This was the closest thing we have had to Indian food in almost two months! We bought some sweet and chewy sesame candy that was great. It was hot though and although we were not hungry for a traditional lunch after our roti and candy (which was a good thing because most places did not have English menus) we wanted to hang out for some tea and people watch, or read our books. This became a lot more difficult than expected. A few places we tried had no menus so we could not tell if they served tea or were restaurants or what. Some, which looked more obviously like tea houses, had no seats available. One had music playing so loud we could hear it a block away. There was not a single person sitting at that place - no wonder why. We finally found a decent sized tea house, with air conditioning, and some traditional music. It was a score.

Eric ordered his typical chrysanthemum tea and I tried to order a health tea. There were several teas listed, including a “tea for woman” which I stayed clear of. I picked a ginseng tea, but I don’t think that is what I got. Instead, I thought it was lily flower tea, which was on the line above the one I selected. According to the internet, lily flower tea “helps to moisten the lung and alleviate cough, clear heat of the heart, and quiet the spirit.” In Shanghai, Nancy told us that the Chinese say the more bitter the better. Well, the tea I had must have been very good for me because it was quite bitter. Regardless, it was nice to sit and relax, listen to the local band, and drink my bitter tea. Hopefully it will quiet my spirit.

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Photos

Spicy Hot Pot
Fiery hell broth.

Enjoying our Dinner
Even if we did not really know what we were ordering.

Our Waitress
She was posted right there the entire time. Her name tag read "No. 11" - Chinese individuality

The Hot Pot Manager
She was very proud of her staff for successfully serving us.

Painter
This is the person who painted the two pieces we purchased.

Roti Man
We spent a few minutes talking to him while we waited for our roti because he spoke English.

A More Traditional Scene
This was in an alley off the main street; with the ancient looking motorcycle I felt it was the more traditional scene we have witnessed.

Tea Time
Eric's pretty chrysanthemum tea and my bitter green tea. The more bitter the better.

Traditional Musicians
At the tea house.

Look Who Is Not Happy
This poor little kitty was not too pleased with her bath.

Comments

[Angie]

China
All the different Chinese dialects and inflections are difficult. Qin spent literally hours trying to teach me to count in Mandarin (which, even when spoken correctly, is useless in much of the country), but I'm so tone deaf that it was wasted effort. The move to pinyin should help communication in coming generations, but so few people our age know it at this point. I'm sure it's as confusing for them as the characters are for me! I'm jealous that you made it in to Ciqikou; would love to see it! I'm told the mountains/geography are belived to be feng shui perfected. Did you get out to see the rock carvings? I'm bummed that you're feeling taken advantage of, though I'm told that's a common experience. Much of William's family in the US did not want to visit relatives in China because they felt pressured into doing/giving more than they could. I suspect we do seem quite rich by comparison, but the feelings around all of that are complex. Cheers, Angie