Chongqing - Day 2
Our only plans for our last full day in Chongqing are to get away from the city centre for a bit and explore the surrounding areas. We're back on the jianbing eggy breakfast pancake wrap which we spotted on the menu at the place we ate dinner last night. They seem to remember us which is nice. Fuelled with egg and coffee we jump on the Metro out to Eling.
We arrive and it's a steep walk uphill (just for something different) through a park. We end up in an industrial arts complex which we tour briefly, it's nowhere near as cool as the one we discovered in Xi'an. We wander along further until we reach Eling park. A park with lots of nice flowers and lots of tourists. Some cool views of the city along the river though. We make our way down the mountain, through some lovely lush park. We bird watch and train spot for a bit. Very serene.
The next stop on our list is Liziba station, famous because the train goes through an apartment building. We're on the train as it goes through the apartment building and it's no different from going through a regular station. I mean, it's not like you're actually going through people's apartments and seeing them having dinner or on the bog. Maybe the experience is better from the outside. Turns out it isn't. The train goes through the building and it's very anticlimactic.
It's time for lunch. We plug in a food destination and a few stops later we've arrived. We enter into a shopping mall and quickly exit on the other side and make it to the foodie area. On our way we see lots of people offering to take professional photos (common around a lot of China hotspots). We understand why. This little section looks like it could be straight out of New York city. Yellow cabs, billboards, tall buildings. It's pretty cool, to be fair.
We see some people slurping their noods from a window with a view and make our way there. We've been wanting to try the sweet potato noodles they have here and think we've found them on this menu. We also order noodles with chicken. The bowls come out with a shit tonne of chillis as per. One is noodles and chicken as described and the other appears to be noodles and unidentifiable meat objects, no sweet potato noodles in site. We pick around the giblets and share the chicken noodles. The noodles and chilli are usually the main event meaning you don't get a lot of protein in these dishes meaning we have to get a cheeseburger on the way back to the Metro.
We head back to the hotel for a nap and a freshen up (we're really running ourselves ragged in China). Then it's out the door for a walk along the river, destination Raffles City which we saw from the cruise the other night. It's a lengthy walk but it's lovely and quiet along this southern bank of the peninsular along the Yangtze, with only a few runners and people strolling and the odd fisherman dotted along the way with his 6 rods in the water. The only thing missing a bar or two. Which we finally find and rehydrate with a 2.5% beer last week's edamame beans.
We make it to Raffles City, an interesting architectural feat, similar to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (but better if you ask the Chinese). It's right on the point so there's great views of the city at the confluence of the two rivers, with all the lights starting to come on. We enter the building itself, a bougie shopping centre. We make a beeline for the Pokemon gym, the excuse for this expedition (Jeff always needs some sort of mission on holidays). The store sells all types of Pokemon cards and merch and the gym part is where people are actually playing Pokemon. It's very wholesome and good to see the kids having a break from their phones. Jeff gets his cards for his latest scheme and we're off in search of dinner.
One last chance for sweet potato noodles. We find a good looking hole in the wall, literally 1 minute out of Raffles City where we order straight from the cook with some help from the translator app and some pointing. We get a bowl of chewy clearish noodles (we think the sweet potato variety) in a delish broth and a wonton soup with a chilli szcheuean broth. Both good, both happy. Although as we wander back to the city Courts is wondering how to tell the difference between szcheuean hot flushes and perimenopause. Better get an ice-cream on the way back, just in case, as we take in the final sights of this neon fuelled, cyberpunk city.
It does feel like its Chongqing vs it's-bullshit-geography here, where Chongqing is winning, just, but you wonder at what cost. Building anything here must be wildly expensive.
Mai told us yesterday that Chongqing is one of 4 state controlled municipalities. "The other 3 make the money so the government can spend it all here".
