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A Day in Chongqing- 10th February 2008
So John picked me up from the train station ond took me in a taxi to a little office by the riverside where all the river cruises start from. Dropped my bags and went around the city for the day as the cruise boat didnt depart until 11.30pm!
Chongquin is a big place, it was wehere the capital of China was during WW2 to keep the goverment from the Japs who were bombing the coastal cities. Massive investment going on by the Chinese goverment as they want the city to be the focal place for the economioc investment into central China and to get these areas up to the speed of thecoast. Government civil construction like I have never seen before. I reckon there is more large project building going on in Chongquin than in the whole of the UK.
Spent the afternoon at the new 3 gorges museum. Fasinating place and really well done. Amazing to think the Chinese have created the museum, moving lots of relics from the 3 gorges prior to the raising of the water which has been happening for about a year and still has over a year to go.
Spent the evening in a wasted way buying local and international IPC cards trying to get the phones to work so I could call my family..no good and extremely frustrating. Then look for an internet cafe...no hope! And to think that Chongquin now, if you include its greater area is being cited as the LARGEST CITY in the world!
Back to Johns place and met up with my fellow travellers - An Aussie guy names Andy who is a paramedic in melbourne - Erin and Travis from Washington DC USA - both just married and travellign for a year. All nice people and nice to have english speaking company again.
Lowlight of the day was seeig the vessel!!
We had all booked the Chinese versions of the 3 day cruise, as the international ones dont operate at this time of the year. Wasnt 100% sure it was seaworthy and smelt terribly! Still no choice and so we all got on. Usual chaos in Chinese on baording, John our tour opertor left us to an on board agent who didnt speak a word on english! We coundlt get them to put all us foreigners in the same 6 man dorm room and so were all split up! I started being put in a room with a chinese family of mun and dad and 2 small girls. Only when I complained bitterly did they move me into another room where it was a mum and dad from the country and their 20 year old son who worked in beijing and had some english.
Rooms had en suites, but ours didnt work and to be honest it smelt like well I cant put it down on words.
The foreigners redevoued on the top deck at 11.30 and agreed we had no option but to go with it, the views will be great and they had lots of cheap beer on board. Could be a nightmare about to happen!
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