ChongQing

Peter says:

After disembarking from our Yangtze River cruise, we had a few hours in ChongQing. We had a guide and driver in Chongqing as this was part of our cruise package. Chongqing is one of the "Three Furnaces" in China along with Wuhan and Nanjing. It gets incredibbly hot and humid in the summer. We heard last summer there were 40 days of plus 40 degree celsius weather (over 100 in F). Chongqing is a rapidly growing city - metropolitan area is 33 million! More people than in all of Canada. Downtown could be any big city in the world with skyscrapers and luxury shops. Definitely a lot of money sloshing about Chongqing.

Chongqing is a mountainous city where another river enters the Yangtze. During the WW II it was the capital of China as the Japanese occupied Beijing and the coastal regions. This was where the Flying Tigers - American fighter/bomber pilots were based and flew missions. Chiang-Kai Shek's Nationalist government was based here. Our guide's grandfather was a major general in Chiang Kai Shek's army (his army was routed by the Japanese in Nanjing) and the guide gave us a great history lesson. At the highest point in Chongqing there is a beautiful park with spectacular views (we had a rare clear day - no smog). The guide took us to one of Chiang Kai Shek's residences and showed us his escape route to an underground bunker for bombing raids. Of course if you didn't know where to look you would never know, or see this, as the nationalists lost to the communists and the victors write the history. Inside the house (now a store selling artwork), the guide opened a curtain and showed us pictures of Chiang Kai Shek and others during WW II. There was also the American General Stillwell, who I understand didn't particularly like Chiang Kai Shek and referred to him as "the Peanut". Seeing the photos I could understand! Deng Xioping was also from this area and there were photos of him as well.

After a quick tour of the city, the guide asked us what we wanted for lunch. Chongqing and Sichuan province are famous for hotpot, so I thought this was a great opportunity to try since we had an interpreter. I was a little wary because I'd read that they could be quite spicy and organ meets were favored dishes. For those unfamiliar, hotpot consists of a bowl of broth over an open flame on your table and you have a selection of meats, fishes, vegetables, etc and you cook these at your table. You have some condiments like garlic, sesame oil, vinegar, soy sauce, etc to make a sauce to dip your cooked food in. We had a smaller bowl inside our larger one. The large bowl was a water broth with vegetables that was quite mild. The smaller bowl was oil filled with chillies, ginger, and other spices. Cooking things in the oil definitely got the juices flowing. I was glad for our guide - some items looked like tripe (was actually bamboo) or squid (thick white noodles), but others were items on Vera's no eat list. Apparently in the summer when its really hot and humid, you eat spicy hotpot and wash it down with beer and after sweating buckets, you go outside where the breeze cools you down.
Well, we had an excellent lunch with beef, chicken, mutton, fresh and preserved tofu, various vegetables and noodles, and some fine Chongqing beer. Full belly for our flight to Chengdu...