29 March 2013
Down by the docks
Tonights walk to me to the very tip of the central part of Chongqing, at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers.
I am fairly certain thats the first time I have every typed the word confluence.
This is a very interesting walk, you can get right down into the mud, where there are then floating gangways out to various boats. It is however a giant construction zone with new bridges, new tunnels and massive new buildings being constructed right at the tip.
Once you get around you end up walking along the highway out over the water, you can then pass back under this to get to the cliff face where there is a 14 storey faux ancient village thing which is mainly restaurants and tourist shops.
I know this sounds crap, but the construction of this is awesome. Its a maddening labyrinth of tourist traps, only there were almost no tourists. The only ones I saw, all 2 of them who are the only 2 I have seen since getting here were sitting at an Irish bar, drunk out of their minds yelling at people. When they saw me they invited me over for a fag and a lager. I declined.
Heading down to the docks is mostly construction site. Some places you have no footpath so you walk into oncoming cars, trucks etc.
One thing about Chongqing, no horns, no scooters. Both are banned at least in the central parts of the city. The same applies in the modern side of Shanghai. It makes walking about a lot easier when there isnt scooters coming at you on the footpath.
This has a flow on effect to cars, if they cant use horns and cant follow scooters to illegally go through red lights, they seem to obey the traffic laws.
Once you get past all that, you get to a square which is actually a circle, with many people flying kites.
There were even a couple of guys trying to sell crap to tourists here, wanna buy a tshirt? wanna buy a watch? First time thats happened to me on this trip.
Like I said you can get right down to the mud / water. Its a lot of steps and presumably the water sometimes comes up the steps. Theres anchor points and chains coming out of the wall way above where you can walk to.
I cant get enough of photos like this.
This is the faux tourist complex with the pirate ships etc. It actually goes below this photo too, the highway I am standing on is on giant pillars.
At the top of this picture you can see where the bridge will connect to. A bit further down theres a tunnel which is either a drain or the subway. The bridge will be double decker with cars on top and trains underneath.
A return visit is warranted.
Looking up from near the bottom of the cliff. I cant really capture how cliff like it is.
This is actually inside that tourist thing. It is huge.
The pirate cave. It exists to advertise a restaurant, which seemed to have no customers on a Friday night. That might be because their sign advertised mainly bullfrog, pigs blood and brains of various animals as their highlight dishes.
This is where the Irish bar and a Tex Mex grill were located. There were also a number of flash looking nightclubs in the complex.
This photo is here only to show the 3 wheeled car. They are everywhere, and I have only seen them in Chongqing, not in any other Chinese city.
If you recall the Top Gear episode, they flip without warning. I was on high alert.
Past the end of the pedestrian mall area you get to what passes as the red light district I guess. Which means karaoke bars.
Around the town there are a number of concert spaces like this. All of them seem to be open mic night. The crowd seems appreciative no matter what someone does to Gangnam Style. I saw this guy sing it, and 4 older ladies dance to it.
Finally, after my large lunch, I didnt feel like dinner. But I couldnt resist these lays potato chips. Authentic Sichuan flavour. If you ate these in Australia and your mouth went numb, you might assume you had been poisoned.