Blogs from Chongqing, China, Asia - page 17

Am Freitag vor Neujahr ging es morgens um kurz nach 7 Uhr nach einem schönen Abschiedsfrühstück mit Grace und Ben, obwohl ich vor Aufregung zu dieser frühen Morgenstunde nichts runter bekam, los mit der KCR nach Shenzhen - und einem Frühstückspaket von Grace („just for the case you get hungry before you fly“). Dies war noch ein bereits vertrauter Weg. Doch schon auf der anderen Seite der Grenze begann die Suche nach dem richtigen Bus zum Flughafen. Meine Ansprechpartnerin vom Co-op Centre Fanny Ho, die mein Praktikum betreut, hatte mir vorsichtshalber Shenzhen Airport in chinesischen Schriftzeichen aufgeschrieben, falls ich auf ein Taxi zurückgreifen müsste. Doch als armer Student, wer kann sich da schon ein Taxi leisten? Also mit fragendem Blick, ein paar chinesischen Brocken und dem Zettel in der Hand fragte ich mich von der erst ... read more

I think Mike and I are improving as Chinese travellers because we haven't done anything stupid recently. Also more importantly we've mastered the art of chopsticks, meaning dinner is no longer torture - even the smallest slipperiest peanut isn't safe from our skilled pinchers. However Mike's over confidence has lead to a meal in his lap and plenty of rice in his beer. I don't think either of us will miss chopsticks, but MSG is another story! It's in everything which is why even though you eat Chinese everyday it's all you crave for dinner - well almost every night. After an eventful 24 hours on the loo the only thing I could stomach was fruit. My loo stop was well timed to say the least! During the day I should have been hiking down a ... read more

Our flight arrived in Chongqing about 20 minutes early which was great as we hadn't anticipated being in bed until about 2am. The taxis are very efficiently organised at the airport and we just needed to tell an official where we were going, she wrote it down and passed it to the metered taxi driver. Seemed easy except our driver was a complete git. First of all, he drove to the petrol station and there was a big queue so we had to wait 10 minutes. We tried to have a go at him, telling him to switch off the meter, but he ignored us. We eventually left the petrol station and drove a little further when he pulled over on a deserted road. We wondered what was happening now, then he pulled out a laminated ... read more

Well we arrived in Chongqing in the very very early hours of the morning. After some negotiation with taxi drivers we were whisked away to our motel. After 5 minutes of checking in and some confusion we were informed that we were at the wrong hotel. This was to be a recurring theme for our stay. After wandering around for a while we found the right place and checked in. We headed into the city centre and were amazed by the development that seems to be happening. The whole city is cranes and skyscrapers. Chongqing as many of you know........ is a city of about 4 million people. However the way it is goverened via one municipal government makes it an unlikely candidate for worlds biggest city (population including outlying areas tops 31 million people). The ... read more

27th September 2006 There was just enough time to return to the Silk Market before an afternoon flight to Chongquing. We were to embark on a three day cruise down the Yangzse to see the Three Gorges before the river level rises much more. We asked the hotel to contact the cruise company to find out which dock our boat would be leaving from and also asked for him to write it down for us in Chinese. This was our first internal flight with China Airways and the food wasn’t all that bad. However, the worst aspect of the flight was listening to people spitting into the sick bags and clearing their throats, and it wasn’t just the men! It’s not something I ever got used to in China, and one very off putting quirk ... read more