China's National Treasure

So I last left you in a place called the White Emperor City - a brand new city created for displaced people as a result of the Three Gorges Dam project. I did a very dumb thing shortly after that. I was trying to see how much of my memory disk had been used and I accidentally ended up reformatting my disk - effectively erasing nearly 200 pictures. AAAAAHHHH!!! Thankfully, the beauty of being on a tour is that there are 14 other people with nearly the exact same pictures so I've managed to recuperate most of my pics since then. I will try posting my pictures in the next city. I've already packed away my CD-rom b/c we are leaving for our 3rd overnight train tonight. Boooo......

We arrived in Chongqing - which is the most important city in Western China. It is a huge city with nearly 9 million people. It's pretty smoggy. Most of the cities in the Sichuan basin are always clouded over b/c the basin area is surrounded by mountains and the clouds don't really move. It doesn't help that there are TONS of manufacturing plants in the area as well which add lots of smog. It looked like freakin' LA as we drove in on the bridge. Interesting enough, an aerial shot of Chongqing looks a lot like Manhatten Island, b/c it's on a peninsula with two rivers beside it.

Chongqing is an important city history wise. It was the site of the capital of China during Japanese occupation. I visited Chiang Kai Shek's former house, which has been turned into a lovely gift shop now with lots of antiques for sale. The Central Business District is pretty impressive - a pedestrian area completely closed off w/ tons of shops. Who shops at all these stores - I asked the tour guide? Burberry... Max Mara... Anything and everything. You wouldn't even imagine that you were in China. Appaerntly, there's a lot of rich people in China. Even if 10% of the population is rich - that's a potential market of 140 million people.

We headed up to Chengdu 2 days ago. I will talk more about the sights I visited once I post the pictures. The highlight of today though was visiting China's National Treasure - PANDAS!!!!!!!!!!! I splurged and spent 400 Yuan (approx 60 CND) to get a picture upclose with one of the pandas. It was so worth it! I loved it! The pandas are pretty amazing. It was interesting learning a lot about them. They eat A LOT of bamboo, and apparently they aren't very good at reproducing, so thanks to researchers and invitro fertilization, the panda population in teh world currently sits at about 1000. Most of them are located in China, particularly in the Sichuan province. We also saw the Panda bear that will be the mascot for the 2008 Beijing olympics. He was a bit grumpy today so he stayed in his tree even when the trainer poked and prodded him with a bamboo stick.

Last night, we also had an awesome night out on the town. We went to a little street that has been renovated to look like an old Chinese street. Complete with a Starbucks coffee of course. Imagine this - a Chinese version of Gastown for those of you living in Vancouver. It was pretty swank and there was a woman playing a Chinese mandolin (or some equivalent) there while we had dinner. And then afterwards, we went inside the bar to have a few drinks. Then we headed to a disco for some dancing and to celebrate my 24th birthday at midnight. It was rockin'. They played Top 40's, and even a Bhangra music sounding mix, and then even some Tarkhan... are we even in China anymore? Every once in awhile, I find myself in a place where i wonder if I'm even in China. You can go from one extreme to the other very quickly. ONe minute, you're driving past rice paddies and farmers, and the next minute - you're surrounded by skyscrapers and name brand stores.

Seriously - China is really something. It's not Communist by any stretch of the imagination. It's pretty much capitalist through and through. I could never imagine sitting in a bar listening to "Western music" and drinking German beer, with lots of locals around. Of course they stared at us but whatever, we had a good time. That was probably the rowdiest birthday I've ever had.

Anyway, I gotta get going, I think the group got me a cake - so I better show up for my own surprise party. ;)

I can't wait to post some pictures.

I LOVE CHINA!