Bon Voyage

  Chongqing, Chongqing, China
Saturday, July 19, 2008

As I said in the last blog entry, Yi and Yufei had made it possible for us to go on this amazing boat cruise, with more than a little effort. Yi's husband was going to pick us up from the airport in Chongqing and take us to get the tickets and to the docks as we don't speak Chinese and they did not speak English. Our flight took off at around 1:00 pm from the Xi'an airport. (Even the Chinese airlines, by the way, take good care of you. They actually served us lunch on a 1 and half hour flight.) For the most part, it was a smooth flight with the exception of one major bout of turbulence. The stewardess next to us in the aisle suddenly dropped to the ground with a worried look on her face. I looked over and thought, "Should we be scared?" But the flight smoothed out after that and we landed on time.

Walking down the avenue

Yi's husband, Zhang, picked us up from the airport. We felt that he had already done so much for us, seeing as he had not even met us before, but that was only the beginning. He and his friend drove us all around Chongqing, showing us the city and buying us dishes that Chongqing is known for. He took us to the old wharf, which is full of old-style homes and vendors. We soon learned to avoid pointing out things that caught our attention (which was many things), as we discovered that it was a good possibility that he would then want to buy them for us. He also showed us a traditional Chongqing dessert that is best described as jello in a sugary water substance, but I don't know the English name. After that, he bought us another one that was similar. It was watermelon and other sweet foods in a sugary soup. And after that, dumplings. We were stuffed, but felt that it would offend him to not eat it. And it really was good. This was not even dinner yet. He would not let us pay for a thing. We spent the whole afternoon thanking him a lot.
We walked around another avenue, which was fortunate as we all had to walk off the three Chinese desserts we had been fed before dinner. Zhang decided us to show us the rest of Chongqing (at least a good bit of it) by car. We had no complaints with that, as we were getting a bit tired by this point. Chongqing, by the way, is known as one of the four hottest cities in China. We were feeling every bit.
After that, Zhang took us to a Hotpot restaurant, which is a famous dish in Chongqing. Most of you probably don't know what a hotpot is. What happens is that there is a giant pot over a flame in the middle of the table, which has too parts. The inner bowl is filled with non-spicy animal oil. The outer rim around that bowl is filled with spicy (and I do mean SPICY) animal oil, hence the name hotpot. On our plates, there is a bowl of plant oil (yes, oil is a big theme here) and we were passed a plate of garlic to stir into this bowl. Then the waiters started bringing all sorts of dishes, including bamboo, ham, roast beef, seaweed, and the most famous hotpot dishes, cow stomach and duck stomach (Zhang wouldn't tell us what those were until after we had eaten it - very tough but ok). Zhang's friend started dumping the various meats and vegetables into the hot oil to let it cook for a bit. After awhile, we dug in with our chopsticks to see what we would get. Then we were supposed to let it cool in the bowl of plant oil that we each had. Now remember, Chongqing is located in Sichuan province, which is known for spicy foods. To say that this meal cleared our sinuses is an understatement. Yummy though. By the way, Zhong said that the reason that spicy food had become so characteristic of Sichuan is due to the fact that the hot peppers protect people from a disease that used to be very problematic here.

Zheng, Me, and Jaydee

It turned out that we were sitting next to a family that knew Zhang and Yi well. Their son was a very friendly and outgoing school aged boy, about 13 or 14 who spoke wonderful English and came over to say hello. His grandfather had been a translator, which accounted for his impeccable English, and he was very excited to talk to Americans as he is thinking about going to the states to study. One of the things he wanted to know was whether it is true that every American had a psychologist like on TV shows. Funny.
After dinner we had to hurry to the docks and push our way through the crowds. Zhang saw us all the way to our room on the boat. We thanked him profusely for all his hospitality, and insisted that we would take him and Yi out for a great meal when he is in St. Louis (he is planning to come later this summer). I get the feeling that he felt obliged to entertain us as we were his guests; it was an interesting cultural learning experience.
So we then settled into our home for the next three days on the boat that would take us through the Three Gorges and end at the Three Gorge dam. The accommodations were quite good - there was air conditioning, a TV, shower shoes, and a western toilet (typical toilets here are holes that you have to squat over). We were traveling in luxury. Hard to believe that this was all for the equivalent of about $30 a night, which included our tickets to several towns and temples along the way!
After watching the boat take off from the massive lights of Chongqing, we enjoyed some ice cream while our tour guide, who had a little English, explained that she would call us at 5:40 am the next morning to go visit the first site. We then settled in to bed and discovered that very loud Chinese Karaoke would be our going-to sleep music for the next several nights. Karaoke is big here, but that night we were so tired it hardly mattered. Another day, another adventure.