Chongqing, tours and cinema -18 to 21/10
In the evening we left the hotel in Chengdu with our bags, took a drive, then went to dinner in a bar (|| spicy food, Guo sweated to account our challenge that in his province, Henan, eat more pepper than Sichuan ||). Then we went to the railway station to take the train to Chongqing. Train much worse than the other. Dirtier, smelly and also another older man in our cabin, like from Taiyuan to Beijing.
Departure at 7:30 pm — Arrival in Chongqing at 6:30 am. A skinny guy like Gabriel Janot (cousin of Vera’s husband) was waiting for us with a car and drove us to the hotel. People’s Hotel looks like a Chinese temple, but the accommodations are not so good. It has air conditioning in the bedroom, but the window overlooks a balcony, so from the appliance to the balcony has a one inch tube. Bathroom without window, few towels, no tiled floor, no refrigerator, precarious bedside light.
We had coffee, a bath and then we went to see the town’s Chamber of Commerce, where the production of the municipality is displayed for wholesale.
We returned to the hotel for lunch. It was our worst lunch so far. A little bad. After Lian cut her hair. Then they took us to a factory of rubber tubes, belts, etc., managed by a woman. The sleep almost made me fall from the chair, so monotonous the interview, as I said, you arrive, presentation, cards, tea, non-stop talking of the head of the organization visited.
The factory, she says, is old. In my view it’s more mess and idle people than anything else. If I were a director, I’d put half on the street and put the others to work well. I have never seen such an uneconomical business. It takes a long time to make a six-foot-long fiber-reinforced ½-inch rubber tube. They look more like artisans.
We drove around the city, drove back to the hotel, and at 6.30 pm we went to meet the dean of the public relations advisers for dinner. I don’t even count how many dishes, some very spicy, according to local custom. He is a withered old man, but it reminded me a lot of Grandpa Joãozinho (Vera’s father).
After toasts, food, beer, more toasts, he gave us a miniature gift of a bamboo screen. Photos together. Send a photo for him to put in the book he will write from his memories:
Mr. Wu Yong Fu
234 Remmin Road — Chongqing — China
We left early (8:30 am) to go to the Institute of Fine Arts. It is museum and art school. Interesting things in sculptures and paintings. We saw the atelier where students, who live in apartments in the institute area, work. They are making a monument to a square and other smaller ones. Then we went to the zoo to see the pandas and the tigers. On the way back we went to a fair where they sold ducks, chickens, etc. Lian went to film and gathered Chineses around her.
We visited a Chinese history museum, miniature tree garden and went to a high place to see the view of the city.
At night we went to a popular cinema. To start our guide ask to open the gate so that he could drive us through the park to the entrance of cinema. There were a lot of people along the boulevards, and our driver was with flashing headlights and people pushing their way even to the cinema door. We waited for about five minutes to open the cinema. Then the people gathered at the door and went in without a ticket. I did not understand. Only if the ticket was delivered to the locked gate that was opened for us by car.
Great cinema, but like everything in China, it was dirty. Under the benches remains of pear, eggs, candy wrappers, etc.
Soon the lights went out, but the people kept coming in, talking, coughing, spitting (as they smoke too much, they spit all the time).
Kind of a Romeo and Juliet movie of a Tibetan couple in the 1920s. Good color, but too simple, though sometimes violent.
On leaving Guo told us that “in the past” who had not killed someone was considered fearful and who had not stolen someone was not a person of value.
Train in China has time to come and go, and the two we experienced had seconds accuracy. But the planes… Leave when they want or can and the arrival can also be in another city. Ours from Chongqing to Shanghai expected to arrive at 12:30 am will no longer be on time, went down on went down in Xian who was not in the program. Maybe because it’s drizzling here and with heavy fog. Let’s see if we can get out of here today. We have fingers crossed. While we wait, we have lunch at the airport and we get “pé de moleque” (kind of peanut candy) with sugar cane juice. At lunch we had sliced, smoked duck gizzards and big beans with no broth, etc … One side of the room is for Chinese and the other was full of foreigners, especially Americans who would be going to Guilin. It could be? It is a hall about 20 meters long and 10 meters wide. The entrance is the center and in the other side is the kitchen. There’s no toilet but a series of taps in a tile manger, but sometimes it smells like ammonia !!!
The Airport has an old part where aircraft dispatches work and a new modern part where nothing works, but it is clean, few people, spacious, modern, more comfortable chairs. This new part works the arrival, to make a good impression. Once you see the misery of the city, it’s okay to face the old part to leave … There’s a huge humidity in this city, and what doesn’t smell like ammonia smells like mold. Slime everywhere. The mist is strong and the drizzle continues. They told us to wait until 2:30 pm. It’s 2:40 pm and they told us to wait until 4 pm… they call to check in because the plane has just left Xi’an for Chongqing — 5 pm canceled the flight saying that due to bad weather conditions. Just like in Beijing — we return to the city (the airport is 20 km) this time to another hotel, this time without tourists, but newest. Huge room. Great dinner. TV and sleep until tomorrow at 7am. I don’t even change the time to wake up for days, always at 7am. Let’s see what it will be today. We asked Guo to cancel Guilin as we will be staying in Shanghai and Guangzhou very shortly. He will see what he can do. (|| Guilin is sightseeing tour, huge hills of stone. I asked to visit more rural areas in more relevant regions ||)
It dawned cloudy and misty. I don’t know if we can get out of here today. I called GD (husband). While we wait for the plane time we will visit a vegetable producing village to supply Beijing. Not too far from the airport.
Area of the village about 10,000 mus. (One mu equals 1/15 hectares or 650 m²)
Acreage 2,870 mus. It has woods and pastures. They produce 2 thousand liters of milk / day. There are 1,430 families. Almost all (60%) have new homes, others have color TV. Many send children to universities, others prefer to “accumulate” (savings). Mountainous area. Some have bikes, some small tractors, some trucks. Some vehicles are owned by several families.
All lands pay tax to the state. Some pay with products, others with money 25 yuan / year. Worse lands pay 80%. Usually 1 mu yields 900 yuan / gross year (cost only 25%). They do not apply insecticides and chemical fertilizers. Mayor En Lichen (30 years).
We visited a home: husband, wife and an 11-year-old son (he is in 6th grade — the wife is working in a atelier). Only the husband who was once a village accountant — he transmit political guidance to the village. He wears a gray wool suit over a red knit leotard. The cuffs and pants appear under the rubber boots as the suit pants are rolled up. House on the slope of the hill with a room of about four meters by four, a small bookcase with four enameled bowls (one on each shelf), a table one meter by one, stools, two wicker chairs and four combined wood chair (like cinema chair). We climbed the slope of wet stone and earth steps. Going up was easier, to go down I was stick the heel of the shoe in the clay to steady. I arrived safe and sound down there.
Airport trip: are we boarding today? It continues drizzling and misty, at the airport they informed us that our plane is arriving. In fact, landed, we were led aboard. It’s amazing how much carry-on luggage they carry. It’s a crowded 737, it looks like they’re flying for the first time. Three chairs on each side times 23 = 138 passengers. 30 seconds on takeoff. At 50 seconds, no earth could be seen in the mist, clearing up at 1:31 pm blue sky.
The fact is that with this one day delay going to Shanghai, we wasted time in this city, where I would really like to stay longer. We decided to cancel Guilin for fear of this happening again and we were late to Guangzhou for the Hong Kong train. We will have another day and a half in Guangzhou.
When I called GD this morning I learned about the birth of Laurinha (granddaughter). I was very happy with the news.
Great trip from Chongqing to Shanghai. Canned orange juice, a bag of chocolate peanuts, and coffee or tea were served on the plane. There is a line in the corridor to go to the bathroom, but smoking is prohibited on the plane (thank goodness). As we started down, even in the last few minutes, when we could see the city a little from one side of the plane, the passengers would gather at the windows on that side. By landing, even before leaving the airstrip, everyone stood up, taking their things from the carry-on bag above their heads. It is fun to see a bunch of men like children flying for the first time.
We nickname the Beijing driver as “broken hand” for the way he shakes his hand as he shifts his car. Lian called him Liu Shiaoqi (Mao’s ex-mate) because his name was Liu (he is a good driver).
Taiyuan’s chauffeur was Tian 2nd. He was the “Shy” but he was a good driver, but on his way from Dazhai to Taiyuan, the road was so curved that he felt bad at the top (excuse to smoke).
There we saw the reddish leaves of autumn.
Chengdu’s driver was “Fon Fon” hand on horn all the time, non stop. Lian was already getting neurotic. In addition to honking, he was speeding.
Xiao’s companion was “Electric Mosquito” — skinny, just walked fast. She ran down and up stairs, always puffy.
Chongqing’s chauffeur was the “Against Traffic 2” — he only went the wrong way to cross, he went right, or he was in the middle when he was already close to the car coming in another direction, turning to the right honking his horn. He only rides in second gear, start the car in 2nd gear and so on. Occasionally he risked a 3rd. He always wanted to overtake the other cars, in the curves. When he reached the straights highways he drove well behaved behind. All this with wet asphalt as it drizzled all the time. In dark tunnels he didn’t turn on his headlights all the time, just blinking. On the way down, he put neutral and just braking. CRAZY SLOW.
The underground city of Chongqing
October 19, 1986
Yesterday in Chongqing they took us to visit a mall. From there they took us to visit the underground city which they feared for the atomic bomb from 79 to 83, the height of the Sino-Soviet conflict.
Enter the mountain in about 3 km. It has corridors of about three to four meters wide, but in the center there is a huge hall about 50 meters long and 20 meters wide, about five meters high, a large restaurant, long halls with small shops, etc. There are several tunnels that join where this hall is. They say it shelter over 10,000 people just in the central part.
In Chengdu, also has too, but it’s not cool like this one in Chongqing. In Beijing too, but it is not used for anything and has collapsed in several places. The one here is being used as an amusement and trade center.
We went to see the house where Mao had meetings with Chiang Kai Chek during the resistance of Japanese invasion in 37–45. They paint the house black we not known why. However everything is very poorly maintained and the floor always dirty.
The city’s famous free market is a series of fruit stands under awnings near by a wall on a busy street: apples, pears, kakis, bananas and oranges. Only.
The airport, they say, is 20 km from the city, but it seemed to me more because the young driver seemed very inexperienced, only starts at second gear, which makes the engine die every time there crackle. On the way down he uses a lot of brake. The old and small airport was military base during the second military war. In 1988 new airport. Let’s push the plane on time, because it is drizzle and the weather is very foggy. Lian talking to Guo about racism. He does not accept black under any circumstances. Never admits that a daughter can marry a black man Never, never, never !!!
Airports are still precarious, because they are not prepared to receive so many foreigners in such a short time. Hotels are being built now, with few exceptions, most of them are from the 1960s behind. They are compared to ours from the interior of Brazil (Uberaba, Barretos, etc.).
At the airport, after passing the control has two rooms: one smoking and another non-smoking. They serve hot tea in cups and on the tables have albums where passengers are asked to leave their impressions of the city. Lian wrote: Very good food — dark waiting room — bad bathroom — no magazine and newspapers to sell — good hospitality.
In general, in the south, the hotels are better and newer, because this is where there is more tourism. In the interior still precarious in most. Even to the south the people despite doing more cleaning are still far from good hygiene. In the center of Guangzhou where there is a bar, they bring the pots to wash on the sidewalk, they throw dirty water and leftover tea etc. on the sidewalk in the gutter.
In Guangzhou there are not many new buildings — in the suburbs yes, it looks all new and there are a lot of new buildings and many of them under construction. A good index is the large number of building supply stores.
Rural industries are managed by a member chosen by the workers themselves for three years. He can also pay a tax to the government in the form of delivering products. In the southwest of Shanxi the area for each peasant is one mu, almost only vegetables plus rice and wheat. Tuesday morning: It’s amazing the amount of bicycles with loads behind (cabbage, chard, onion) mostly going to town to sell their products.
Guo only wears the same suit. Sometimes for dinner with personalities puts another, black.
It’s hard to call from here to Brazil. You have to ask the operator after having a hard time understanding the call, it takes about half an hour — when you get it. There are still many shortcomings, much more than in Brazil.
Hygiene is a point that should be given more attention. The floors I think never been washed. Just a badly swept. The bathrooms are funny and smelly. Chongqing Airport is a series of compartments with a 20 to 25 cm wide trench by one meter deep, all tiled and water running deep all the time. Care must be taken not to fall into it. Toilet paper?? Never!!! We always go out with napkins in our pockets.
Paulinho (Vera’s son) would feel comfortable here, because the Chinese burp a lot, it is not impolite.
In some places Guo doesn’t eat with us. He says employees can’t abuse. But in general without the presence of Chinese with us the meal is worse but not bad.
Street sweepers wear wide-brimmed hats, dust mask, spare elbow sleeves, and sometimes gloves.
