Hello again from Chongqing! Today was the last day of the National Day holiday here in China which is their equivalent of the 4th of July. Incredibly everyone gets a week off of work for this holiday, so Scott, Justin, and myself all planned on visiting our friend in Kunming for the week. Unfortunately, train tickets in China are not as easy to book as we expected and all of the trains we wanted to take ended up selling out before we could book. So instead the three of us planned a slew of activities around Chongqing which ended up being incredibly fun and pretty relaxing. Our first day of break we went to a concert in the city which was very fun if a little crazy. To preempt this story Justin writes for CQscene which is essentially a group that keeps people updated on fun things to do in Chongqing (or CQ as it’s known here). So Justin was asked to go to this concert and write about it and Scott and I joined him. Since it was National holiday cab drivers mostly refuse to drive anyone knowing that they can rip off people from out of town so we were forced to walk miles from the train stop until we found a cab to take us to the warehouse in which this concert was being held. The concert was very fun but it ended up not ending until 6:30 a.m.! At which point the three of us had to walk home in the rain, which was not ideal. However, the concert was incredibly fun, I’ll be sure to put some photos or videos below.
After recovering from the concert the three of attempted a trip to Jindao Gorge just a bit outside of the city. I’ve done a lot of traveling in my life and every trip has taught me that no matter how well you prepare something will turn out to a be complete disaster. When faced with these situations it just becomes a matter of making the best of it. Our failed trip to Jindao Gorge is one of those experiences. After 2 hours on the subway (which was conveniently about as spacious as a can of sardines) we arrived in Beibei the suburb from which we were supposed to take an hour long bus ride to the gorge. Despite every available source telling us that the bus station was next to the metro stop we found 0 bus stations and 0 locals who could accurately tell us the location of the bus station. So the three of us ended up stranded out in Beibei in the rain debating what to do next. It’s times like these that I appreciate how lucky I am to have friends like the ones I have here. Without hesitation Justin and Scott created an alternate plan and we spent a very enjoyable day in small but beautiful Beibei right at the city limits.
My next adventure allowed me to stay much closer to home. The university I teach and live at (SISU) sits right next to Mt. Gele National Park a beautiful mountain range and national park in the center of CQ. Up until this week I hadn’t ventured very far into the park. However, one fine day I decided to conquer Mt. Gele. Justin and Scott opted out of this adventure so I packed up food, water and bug spray and started my hike. For the first part of my hike I saw a lot of Chinese people also walking around the base of the mountain but most did not seem interested in taking the long road to the top. Surprisingly enough most of the Chinese women I saw near the base of the mountain had elected to wear heels in the national park, which I thought was a particularly interesting choice. The higher up the mountain I got the fewer people I saw until I got to the midway point of Mt. Gele. There is one road that runs up the this point, which is host to several small restaurants and a rope bridge. (below)
After recovering from the concert the three of attempted a trip to Jindao Gorge just a bit outside of the city. I’ve done a lot of traveling in my life and every trip has taught me that no matter how well you prepare something will turn out to a be complete disaster. When faced with these situations it just becomes a matter of making the best of it. Our failed trip to Jindao Gorge is one of those experiences. After 2 hours on the subway (which was conveniently about as spacious as a can of sardines) we arrived in Beibei the suburb from which we were supposed to take an hour long bus ride to the gorge. Despite every available source telling us that the bus station was next to the metro stop we found 0 bus stations and 0 locals who could accurately tell us the location of the bus station. So the three of us ended up stranded out in Beibei in the rain debating what to do next. It’s times like these that I appreciate how lucky I am to have friends like the ones I have here. Without hesitation Justin and Scott created an alternate plan and we spent a very enjoyable day in small but beautiful Beibei right at the city limits.
My next adventure allowed me to stay much closer to home. The university I teach and live at (SISU) sits right next to Mt. Gele National Park a beautiful mountain range and national park in the center of CQ. Up until this week I hadn’t ventured very far into the park. However, one fine day I decided to conquer Mt. Gele. Justin and Scott opted out of this adventure so I packed up food, water and bug spray and started my hike. For the first part of my hike I saw a lot of Chinese people also walking around the base of the mountain but most did not seem interested in taking the long road to the top. Surprisingly enough most of the Chinese women I saw near the base of the mountain had elected to wear heels in the national park, which I thought was a particularly interesting choice. The higher up the mountain I got the fewer people I saw until I got to the midway point of Mt. Gele. There is one road that runs up the this point, which is host to several small restaurants and a rope bridge. (below)
Unable to resist the temptation to cross the bridge I wandered across and was amazed to discover a hotel! Right up there on the mountain and across such a ridiculous bridge. After a brief break I continued my hike and was excited to stumble across a series of large stone carvings and structures which were incredibly beautiful and very unexpected (pictures in the gallery). Finally I reached the top of Mt. Gele and was rather disappointed by the number of trees which blocked the view. However, I decided that there at the summit was the best place to take my jumping picture. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve taken a jumping picture similar to the one below in every city I’ve traveled to over the past few years.
I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with those pictures but it is a fun thing to do. I made my way back down the mountain and luckily made it back just as the sun was setting. I hope my pictures can show you all how truly beautiful the mountain was as I climbed, though I wish my usual hiking accomplices could have joined me Paul and Dad. After a day of hiking I was excited for our last activity of break the Ronghui hot springs. This was probably my favorite thing I’ve done in China which is saying something. I found this place on trip advisor and I’m so glad that the three of us tried it out. Incredibly the hot springs were located only 15 minutes away from our apartments in a small neighborhood hidden by Mt. Gele. The sprawling Ronghui complex has over 50 different natural springs and hot tubs all treated with different minerals to help with different ailments. While seeing green, blue, brown, purple and red water is at first disconcerting the relaxing atmosphere and the incredible variety of springs quickly made Ronghui my favorite place. I cannot stress enough how incredible it was to find this place so close to the center of the city.
Ronghui was the perfect end to my break but now back to work, my freshmen classes have started bringing my total number of students up to 200. Teaching has been going incredibly well and I’m really enjoying learning alongside my students. My freshmen seem far more excited to be in class hopefully that lasts. Hope everything back home is going well for you all, and I hope no one else got jury duty summons like me. As always I’m having a ton of fun out here and I miss you all like crazy.
-Adam
Ronghui was the perfect end to my break but now back to work, my freshmen classes have started bringing my total number of students up to 200. Teaching has been going incredibly well and I’m really enjoying learning alongside my students. My freshmen seem far more excited to be in class hopefully that lasts. Hope everything back home is going well for you all, and I hope no one else got jury duty summons like me. As always I’m having a ton of fun out here and I miss you all like crazy.
-Adam