In just a little over a month, S and I will be living in Chongqing. We were there in July for two weeks on a 'recon' trip to find a place to live. This was no small feat. After having lived in Beijing in 2006, I came prepared for some of the logistical nightmares (though they are often based on being accustomed to convenience, a hassle nonetheless) such as paying almost everything in cash (including all bills, rent, etc), food safety (given we eat a pretty clean diet in terms of the quality of how the animals we get our meat from are raised and how the vegetables are grown, this is a potential issue), and the difference in living accommodations. Beijing is a swanky city, Chongqing is enormously populated but by no means in the swank-club of Beijing. After seeing an inordinate amount of super expensive, moldy/damp damaged (CQ is a damp city + lots of properties are empty because of property speculation vs. real living), and rabbit-fur lined walls (yes,
really, fur!) we finally found a sweet, spacious, clean, damp-less apartment overlooking the Jialing River (tributary of the Yangtze).
We stayed in downtown Chongqing at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was truly lovely. I swam laps in the pool every day and I learned that laps are not the only way people choose to swim. My first day swimming, I'm going back and forth along the length of the pool (otherwise known as
laps, except in CQ), happy to be alone in the pool, and someone gets in. I think ok, not too bad, just the two of us ... until I see they're swimming the perimeter of the pool. Hmm... I can get over that. I had to avoid them once or twice in a few rounds of 'laps' and then ... another person arrives, ah! three of us! This one decides to swim the perimeter in the OPPOSITE direction of the other said perimeter-swimmer....hmm... really? Then a 4th person joins our splashing and crashing crew (all the while, I forge on, doing..laps...back and forth along the length, no less stubborn than the rest), and this person, decides. To. Swim. Diagonal. I got out of the pool.
This was mostly amusing, though I do wonder once I settle into an exercise routine when I am living there, if it will be quite as funny a story. In any event, it's the one story that stuck out in my mind because it runs parallel to the energy of this old mountain city that has exponentially grown in the last 5 years to the swollen number of
38 million people (only 2,000 of which are expats) that battles it's past and it's rapidly expanding future every day, on every corner, in every direction. You have to bump into people in order to get where you're going.
The other thing about CQ that I must mention as it is firmly in line with my palates sensibilities is that it is a spicy city. In fact, it may be that it is THE spicy city of China. Chile galore everywhere! This makes me happy. I leave you with the dish "Find the Chicken" (in between all the chiles and Sichuan peppercorns, producing the famous
ma la flavor =
spicy numb).
