A Snoozer on a Bruiser

  Chongqing, China
Sunday, September 19, 2004

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears
- Glenn Clark

What to do

01 Great Hall of the People... and me

After the 12 hour overnight trip from Guiyang I found myself walking around Chongqing, one of the biggest cities in China and one of the 4 designated Chinese direct-controlled Municipalities, highest-level cities in China with a status equal to that of the provinces (the other 3 being Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin). Yep, this one is big folks and there are no bigger Chinese cities west of here. I'm pretty much slap bang in the centre of China.... check out the map and you'll see what I mean.

02 Concentrate

Chongqing is a bit of a transport hub, and it is here most people come to get the Yangtze River cruises which take you east towards Shanghai, a 6 day sail away. I was no different as I did intend on taking that route, although not all the way to Shanghai and not right now. I was heading west, not east, for a few days of Buddha staring, trekking and Panda ogling in Sichuan province. If you can picture it I'll be doing a sort of miniature loop of central China, a loop that would eventually bring me back to Chongqing in a week or so for the ferry east on the Yangtze.

I've been on the move for almost 3 days now. I left Ping An village, for the second time(!), on Friday afternoon and it's now early Sunday morning. I've spent the last two nights on a sleeper bus and a train and now that I have gotten to Chongqinq I still

03 wtf?

have another trip to look forward to this afternoon, a 5 hour, 270km bus ride west to Leshan, where I plan to finally get some rest. Before getting the bus I'll be taking a quick look around Chongqing. I'll be reporting my findings in the accompany pictures, the quantity of which will be determined by what I encounter on my wanderings and my mood when it comes to uploading the pictures to this site. They take time, and an internet connection, and while time is something I have plenty of, an internet connection isn't assured in this part of the world. At least not one quick enough to upload pictures. But you know me, I aim to please. So leave it with me and I'll see you in Leshan.