Chengdu and Chongqing

(We're leaving on our cruise down the Yangzi in a little while, so I'm typing in a hurry.)

Chengdu deserves a couple of superlatives:

~Hardest-to-understand taxi drivers. I don't know if they were speaking in the local dialect (or a mixture of dialect and Mandarin) or if it was just the accent, but whatever the reason communication was especially difficult here.
~Friendliest hotel staff/guests. The youth hostel we stayed at in Chengdu wins this one hands down; not only was the room cheap and clean, but the staff spoke excellent English and were super helpful, and the other travelers were fun.
~Least observance of traffic laws. Don't know why, but driving habits here were bad enough to even scare me--a seasoned China traffic traveler--once in a while.
~Most crowded bus. It was a double-decker, and stuffed completely full and then some. I counted 6 people in contact with my person for most of the ride. And it was hot. At least people were friendly.
~Strangest consistent-translation: "overpasses" were called "flyovers." Could be in reference to the local the driving habits, I guess. (**edit: I was reading more of the travel guide book, and it used “flyover” too; I guess I’ve just never heard it called that.)
~Most laid-back atmosphere. Maybe because it's so hot here. Shirts (for men) seemed to be optional, and lots of people wore flip-flops. At any time of day or night, people were relaxing in the parks, hanging out with friends in the restaurants, and taking naps in their cars or under whatever shade they could find.

The panda center in Chengdu doesn't get any superlatives, although it was nice--much better than I had expected, actually. The pandas were fun to see, and the propaganda signs were almost as much fun. One example from in front of one of the enclosures: "I am the national treasure and I don't like noise."

We took a sleeper train to Chongqing, where we were met by our tour guide--the first and only guide on schedule for the grand tour. His were included with the river cruise package, and I had decided since we only had one day in Chongqing before getting on the boat that night, it might be nice to have a car and driver. Anyway, Mr. Zhang met us at the bus station at 7:30 with driver Mr. Wang, and off we went. First to the Liberation Memorial, which is now in the middle of a giant upscale shopping district. Nice. It was fun to watch the early-morning fan dancers and qi-gong-ers though, and it wasn't too crowded because none of the businesses were open yet. After the memorial we went to an old part of town that's been preserved for tourists. I don't think Mr. Zhang was thrilled when we led him away from the tourist part of the street back through the neighborhood, but he didn't complain. We wandered through the area for an hour and a half, then Mr. Wang met us with the car to take us to the Stillwell Museum. General Joseph Stillwell was an old China hand sent by Roosevelt to command the China-Burma-India theater during WWII. He spoke Chinese fluently and understood much about the culture; he also happened to be a tough old bird who called it like he saw it. He was not a big fan of Chiang Kai-shek, and as the feeling was mutual, he eventually was called back to the U.S. before the end of the war. I'm not really sure why Communist China wants to celebrate this American general who worked so closely with Chiang; the museum wasn't opened until the 1990s though, after the U.S. and China were friends again. Anyway, the museum is in the house where Stillwell lived when he was in Chongqing during the war, and it's very nicely done. Lots of pictures, all with English (occasionally Chinglish) captions, and minimum propaganda.

By mid-afternoon we'd seen everything on the itinerary, and I was getting tired of being baby-sat. We had lunch in a hotel, where Mr. Zhang ordered for us then left (to eat elsewhere, I guess). The food was fine, but it made me laugh because Mr. Zhang was like, "Local food here is often spicy, so I just ordered one spicy dish for you to try and some other milder dishes." The spicy dish was gong-bao-jiding (rendered kungpao chicken in the U.S.), which we've had quite often during our 2 months here. Because I know what it is and how to read the characters, it's been kind of a staple for times when I can't read much else on the menu. Anyway, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang were nice, but I wasn't sad to leave them when we got to the boat. We stowed our luggage and set of wandering (Daniel's favorite! hehe) to find an internet bar.

Tomorrow and the next day we'll be on the Yangzi, stopping occasionally to visit some side-sights, then going through the three gorges and to the Three Gorges Dam site. Should be fun!