Lina in China

We decided to spend the weekend camping in a bamboo wood near Chongqing. But in order to camp in a bamboo wood we have to get to the bamboo wood of course.

Chongqing is built on many hills and the area around Chongqing is as well full of hills and mountains. So in order to get to the bamboo wood for camping we had to drive through Chinese country and mountain roads.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!

The Chinese traffic and the Chinese roads are safe – unless there is an accident. And there are many accidents. Still all over again my Chinese friends are telling me that the Chinese roads are safe (unless there is an accident – I add usually).

We are driving to in the mountains

We started by fighting the usual Chongqing rush hour that seems to last from 6 am to 10 pm… Driving in a Chinese city seems to be more dangerous than it really is as everyone is driving quite slowly. The cars are being driven by a chaotic system that still seems to work on Chinese Roads.

Basically no one obeys the rules but no one expects that the other obey the rules, either. Until today I did not find out why China has traffic signs and traffic lights at all since they seem to make no difference to anyone.

My Chinese host – being a lawyer – likes to keep to rules. But when he stops at a zebra crossing the pedestrians will give him a sceptic look. No one stops for pedestrians at a zebra crossing in China unless he fears he would kill one. My host is an exception.

Chongqing city road

From the Chongqing city roads we drove a short distance on the highway. Driving on Chinese highways is easy. There are usually neither pigs running free nor farmers drying rice nor many holes in the ground. Still you have to watch out for slow trucks overtaking even slower trucks and for road work – just like in Germany.

But when there is an accident on the highway it usually ends with death as the allowed speed is 120 km/h but many people are much faster and basically no one wears a seatbelt.

Chongqing Mountains

Also the Chinese toll system is very complicated. On the Chinese Highways there are many toll stations and they give you a piece of paper or a plastic card. After some driving in China you are swimming in cards, papers and receipts. When you are unable to show the right card to the right toll station in the right moment on Chinese highways and Chinese country roads you have to pay a lot of money. I could never figure out why we had to show witch paper at what moment to whom and why we sometimes paid nothing, sometimes 5 Yuan and sometimes 160 Yuan. Even my host had trouble at times finding the right papers or cards.

On the Chongqing Country road we saw the first accident on this trip. A truck and a Taxi were involved. We did not see corpses. The truck driver appeared to be fine, trying to collect his load of water. In the taxi there was much blood. Probably the taxi driver was insured and send to hospital. Police was standing around, no idea what they did.

Street repair of chinese mountain road

Then we started out on the mountain roads. We were often driving inches from deep valleys and in my mind I saw us falling oh so many times. In some areas there was a fence fixed. But that these fences are more for nice view then for actually preventing accidents I saw when we came across a Truck that had fallen about 5 meters right into a fish pond. The driver probally drowned unless someone had pulled him out on an instant.

Even on the tiniest Chinese mountain road dangerous as it people are overtaking, using the opposite traffic line at frightening speed. The road is sometimes used to dry rice. And if you drive on drying rice you are deemed as you can neither steer nor brake.

The street has many holes, unsecured road repair, pedestrians, bikes, self-build wagons, men in wheelchairs. We almost drove into a herd of pigs.

Chinese Mountain Traffic Jam

The further we got into the mountain the worse the Chinese mountain roads got. But the view was terrific.

One time we had to stay in one place for 10 minutes or more because a truck loading some charcoal was blocking the whole road causing a long traffic jam in this lonely area.

The Chinese take this with the same patience as everything else. If there is no way around we wait.

I had the opportunity going for a little walk. I watched Chinese charcoal workers and wondered what kind of life they must have. I saw some Chinese houses in this lonely mountain area. They had electricity and running water!

I watched some goose in a bamboo cage; some children were playing and the men were black from the charcoal dust.

I was told that we might have to leave the car and walk but luckily we were able to get past the trucks.

The road got even worse after the charcoal mine. We were jumping up and down in the car. Then finally we arrived on the parking of the bamboo wood. It felt like returning into civilization. Yet there was no other road so each nice rich-men’s car on this beautiful parking space must have come the way we were.

So in the morning we were leaving the nice small city of Mianyang (only 6 Million people ) for Chongqing. I must confess I had never heard the name of this city before only to find out now that it is the largest city in whole China and even the world!

I thought he was taking me to yet another nice small town near Chengdu. Well not quite… !

When my friend told me that we will be driving for 5-6 hours in order to get to Chongqing I started to wonder.

When I saw the first thing I saw of Chongqing was the traffic. Chongqing is unbelievable chaotic. If the traffic in other Chinese scared me, the traffic in Chongqing terrified me.

Then the Skyscrapers came into my view. Chongqing is unbelievable gigantic and chaotic. It is (at least in summer) hot, humid, loud and chaotic.

My friend took me immediately to some Chinese party in some Chinese hot pot restaurant in the middle of Chongqing. It all just got too much for me. 100 strangers were introducing themselves murmuring names that I would forget the same instant.

All faces looked the same, everyone was a lawyer (must have been a lawyers party) and the Chongqing food did not look very tasty to put it nice.

Indian Food in Chongqing, Foreigener Street

Luckily the Chinese tend to be very good and caring hosts. He saw that I was totally overwhelmed by the city, by meeting 15 loud, celebrating Chinese lawyers around one pot (Chongqing hot pot, “Huguo”).

So we sneaked out and my Chongqingnese friend took me to the foreigner street. This street is a mixture of foreign restaurants and a fair with carousel and such on one of Chongqing’s many hills.

We had some very delicious Indian food: Bananas wrapped in special bread. The Indian Cook was so happy that I greeted him with “Namaste” and spoke English to him, that he gave me my portion for free.

European Coffee, finally!

Then we went to the Café de Paris and had some excellent French Coffee. We were sitting on the a second floor balcony with a beautiful view on Chongqing by night. The coffee in Chongqing’s foreigner street tasted just like at home. And the Chinese girl working in the Café de Paris at Foreigner Street in Chongqing even spoke some French! Unfortunately her French boss was not home.

So Chongqing greeted me with some foreign specialities that I had been longing for for a long time.

Chongqing has several foreign supermarkets. One of them ist he American supermarket chain „Walmart“ and one – I was surprised to learn that – is a German supermarket.

So in the morning my hosts took me to the German supermarket metro in Chongqing. They must have been guessing once more how much I was longing to see a European “longnosed” face in this strange China Adventure.

Oh how dear can be a piece of German cheese when you are so far away from home? How much can you long for some taste of home in your China Adventures.

The German supermarket in Chongqing had several German brands like “Spreewaldgurken”, “Ritter Sport”, “Spekulatius” and oh Cheese!!!!!

I got a piece of Edam Cheese that costs a fortune in China: 70 Yuan = 7€. This is even more expensive taking into account that a lawyer in Chongqing usually earns no more then 5000 Yuan (500€), A teacher maybe 3000-4000 Yuan.

Address: No.101, Baihe Road, CETZ, Chongqing