Impressions of Chongqing

Note: Links to photos at the bottom of this long post.

We have already been in Guangzhou for a few days now, and I am finally getting our photos together from Chongqing! I went out every morning in Chongqing and took a ton of photos. Not many of my shots seem to turn out very well, but I keep at it because I enjoy the observant mode it puts me in.

I really enjoyed the people and culture of Chongqing. While definitely culturally shocking, it was refreshing to be in the midst of such an open, peaceful, fun loving and abundant society. It was obvious to me that the people there really enjoy their lives and one another, as you’ll see from the photos. The main aspect of their culture I wish I could bring home with me is their openness, in the sense that they actually prefer to spend a lot of time in the midst of one another, instead of spending most of their non working time couped up in their homes behind closed doors like we do. Kimberly summed it up well at one point, when she said that there is a college campus feel to China, and this was distinctly the feel I got in Chongqing.

From my observations, I’ve noticed that the Chinese believe in mopping and sweeping a lot. Everywhere I’ve gone in China, indoors, outdoors, it doesn’t matter, somebody is mopping or sweeping something. It doesn’t necessarily mean surfaces are clean here, but I can guarantee you they’ve been mopped or swept recently.

I’ve noticed that whoever took the census for China doesn’t know how to count. They say there are 1.3 billion in China, and 30 million people just in Chongqing, but I think I counted at least 1.3 billion in Chongqing alone. Large numbers of people are everywhere at all times of the day. The pictures I took don’t even do justice to the experience of being surrounded by thousands of people all of the time everywhere you go. Everywhere I went in Chongqing, I saw densely packed city. And we only sampled a small part of Chongqing. Our guide Anita told us that if you wanted to travel around the circumference of Chongqing by car, it would take eight hours!

I’ve noticed that Chinese people exercise a lot. At any time I ventured out, there were hundreds of people just in the surrounding area of our hotel out enjoying their exercise. They might be dancing, aerobicizing, doing Thai Chi, hitting themselves on the chest, head, butt, etc., playing badminton, walking, jogging, carrying heavy things on poles, or in carts, sweeping, or mopping.

The impression I got from walking around Chongqing at different times of the day was that the people there don’t really work. I mean, there are many tall buildings that must have people working in them, and there are people working at the restaurants, and the law enforcement types (who are everywhere all the time, although they don’t seem to be needed), and the hotel staff was there working hard trying to keep our room clean, but everybody else just seemed to be out walking around, exercising, or shopping. The impression was persistent too, even when we drove an hour through the city to Old Town Chongqing, it was the same there…

I’ve decided that Chinese children are the cutest thing on the planet. Whenever I catch a photo of one, I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot. Even my amateur photography skills can’t harm a picture of a Chinese kid.

Whoever invented the game ‘Frogger’ was a Chinese person. Motor vehicles have the right of way here, and when people want to cross a street, even one that has hundreds of vehicles on it at any given moment, they just cross it. The only difference from the game of Frogger is that the vehicles actually do sometimes slow down (while honky fervently of course) or move around the pedestrian, and the fact that nobody gets ran over is the biggest miracle of all. There are seemingly no traffic lights in China. The traffic moves a little slower, but it is always moving. It seems that one can walk or drive in any which direction one wants to at any given time. The motto seems to be only stop when you absolutely must, and then only at the last possible millisecond. Gaging by the constant noise from the busy street outside our hotel, it is a rule for the Chinese driver to honk at least once every minute. Also, there is no such thing as a driving lane here. The lines in the roads are only for decoration.

Most signs in and around the cities in China that I’ve seen so far also have English writing on them. I learned from our guide that English is the second language here. I guess they only learn to read it though, because very few that I encountered speak it or understand it.

I’ve concluded that there is no such thing as an overweight Chinese person. I mean ok, I have seen two maybe three out of the countless numbers of Chinese people I have seen, but even then they were only mildly overweight. My theory is that they have the perfect combination of factors as a culture; They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, they exercise a lot, even if it’s just walking everywhere all the time, and they’ve got the genetics. I am overweight, but a week in China has made me feel like a giant blimpopottamus. If the Chinese can figure out how to clean up their air and water even a little, they’ll easily be the healthiest people in the world. Maybe they already are.

I didn’t find out until we left Chongqing that it is called the Vegas of China. Every night there looked to me like they were celebrating some kind of major holiday, but I’ve been told it is always like that. It indeed looked like Vegas outside our hotel, with all the neon lights, but just without the gambling and other seedy activities. I am sure those activities can be found there, but they are too well hidden to allow Chongqing to be called Vegas. Right by our hotel was a fountain water show with music going for hours every night and the whole surrounding area was packed with people. I never got used to the constant exposure to the masses of humanity around me at all times. I found myself wondering time and time again when do these people work, sleep and eat? They are always outside walking around! Next to the water fountain was a huge open cemented area, and in the morning, hundreds of women are doing what looks like half speed aerobics. At night they are there again doing a half speed form of synchronized dancing. These people know how to have fun! Right next to that area was a little shop that at all hours has people outside it doing some kind of ballroom dancing. They especially like to dance to ‘La Cocarocha’.

Below are links to a ton of photos from our time in Chongqing. Take note that many of these pictures are of Chinese people staring at us, or mobbing us. I say ‘us’ but it’s our kids of course that attracts them. It turned into a game for me to catch people staring at us on the camera. I figured if they are going to stare at us, or mob us, then I get to take their pictures! After a while, it just became interesting to me to take pictures of the Chonqing people in general, and especially of the kids, since they are the cutest and most colorfully dressed things in the world by my estimation. If you notice that there aren’t many people in some of these photos, remember that I had to get up really early in the morning to find the city at a time that it wasn’t packed with people.

May 4th – Chongqing 257 photos, many photos of Hope and family included Photo Album Slideshow

May 5th – Chongqing 128 photos, no photos of Hope or our family included Photo Album Slideshow

May 5th – Chongqing Zoo 308 photos, with many photos of Hope and family, and Giant Pandas included Photo Album Slideshow

May 6th – Old Town Chongqing 351 photos, with many photos of Hope and family included Photo Album Slideshow

May 6th – Chongqing at night 55 photos, with only one photo with Kim and Hope getting mobbed included Photo album Slideshow

May 7th – Chongqing 263 photos, with many photos of Hope and family included Photo album Slideshow

May 7th – Chongqing – People’s Hall and Three Gorges Museum 166 photos, with many photos of Hope and family included Photo album Slideshow

May 8th – Chongqing 139 photos, with many photos of Hope and family included Photo album Slideshow