A stopover in Chongqing

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At Yangshou, we were trying to decide whether to go to Chengdu to visit the Pandas or Chongqing to do a cruise down the Yangtze River to visit the Three Gorges Dam. We only had time to do one and Chris' engineering interest in the dam swayed the decision!

We arrived in Chongqing and only planned to be here one night before getting the boat down the river, however they were all fully booked for 2 days! We eventually got a ticket but had to go 1st class (twin room) instead of 2nd (4 beds in a cabin). Shame!! We decided to go for the Chinese boat as it was a third of the price of an international boat but it meant that no-one would speak English!

Whilst killing time in Chongqing we went to General Stillwell's museum and learnt about the American support of China during WW2 and the Japanese invasion. We also wandered around town meeting a man called 'Jimmy' who helped us eat that day!! We couldn't find anywhere apart from McDonalds or KFC that had an English menu but Jimmy saved us! He took us to a food court and ordered the food in Chinese and then tried to sell us a tour!!! No one does anything for nothing!! We got away with agreeing to place his business cards in hostels around China!

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