Chongqing is a city between two rivers, shrouded in fog where stick porters still shoulder an infinite variety of loads under new office blocks.
We had booked our hotel online. When we arrived at the hotel, we thought we had been dropped off at the wrong one. There was some confusion surrounding our booking by the front of house staff, namely that they couldn’t find it.
After showing the manager our confirmation and, more importantly, the confirmed rate there were tight smiles all round and several phone calls made but they very kindly honoured the rate of 200RMB per night and did not charge us the actual price which was 500RMB a night!!!
We had a walk around the town and came across several little backstreet markets which were teeming with life. We had the opportunity to purchase very fresh produce. By fresh, there were fish and eels in frogs, buckets, chickens which were butchered if you wish. All of this was in dark alleyways that at first sight appeared slightly intimidating but people just smiled and laughed.
This city is the hometown of the spicy food and hot-pot. So, we went to an authentic hot pot restaurant where we had the two pot system with chicken broth in the outer ring of the pot and a spicy broth in the inside one. We managed to order beef, beef meatballs, mushrooms and cabbage to cook in our pots.
The reason we were in Chongqing was to pick up the cruise boat that was to take us on a Yangtze River Cruise through the Three Gorges.
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