A grey, wet and cold day in Beijing--- what a contrast compared to the day before when it was warm and sunny! Today we moved onto destination no. 2 --- Chongqing.
Left the hotel at 8.30am and got to the airport in just over 30 minutes. Now that the domestic flights left from the new terminal also, the place was definitely more spacious. However, going through security and customs was still as chaotic as before, just because of the sheer volume of people pushing their way through. The usual pushing and queue-jumping happened at the gate, when we had to board a bus to get to the China Southwest Boeing 757.
Quite a bumpy 2-hour flight from Beijing to Chongqing, and my lunch (noodles with a funny white sauce which looked like snot) was disgusting.
Chongqing "International" (!) Airport was quite old but there was some refurbishing work going on. We were met by our CITS guide, who was trying to sell us a tour as soon as we got into the car, and she wouldn't even let the chauffeur start the car until she got a tour from us---- a complete nightmare, just like in Guilin two years ago. Well, she didn't realise that we had pre-booked the Dazu excursion for the next day (but then it's not her fault because Bloody Awful Holidays forgot to book it!!!!) and so after a long "discussion" (which nearly turned into an argument) she backed off as she realised she had some work to do to arrange the "tour" for us!
Got to the Holiday Inn and alas, they couldn't find our booking! OK, that's it! Bloody Awful Holidays had f**ked it up again! In the end we got an upgrade to a suite on the 17th floor---- was I happy? Of course not! All the waiting and stress was not something I needed! Someone in the UK would have a lot of explaining to do when I returned.
The suite was huge, though the view of Chongqing was pretty grim. After a quick rest we took a taxi to Luohan Temple in the city centre. A small temple but there was a room with 500 different arhat sculptures. We then went to try out the cable car across the Jialing River--- a form of public transport for the locals but it's fun just to go on it. Chongqing looked so dirty and polluted, and the air smelt pretty acidic. Must be something to do with the heavy industry in the surrounding areas.
When we finished that, we were quite ready to go for a nice dinner, and so we headed for Lao Sichuen, which was clean and nicely decorated. Again ordered tons of food (including some very spicy but tasty Sichuen dishes) and washed down with two large bottles of Chongqing Beer.
Again we decided to walk back to the hotel after such a nice big meal. But we had to admit defeat at the last leg of the walk as it involved going through a long tunnel with cars pumping out deadly emission gases.... so we took a short taxi ride just before the tunnel.
I was ready to get out of the city of "Choking" after just half a day!
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Chongqing is in the Sichuen province and is supposedly the largest city in China, with 30 millions inhabitants.