In my thoughts...

I literally can not get hot pots out of my mind. I am obsessed with them. I am searching all over the internet for the right equipment and the right spices to make my own hot pot here at home. My taste buds were changed on this trip, no doubt about it. I can honestly say that when I watch those favorite shows of mine about travel and weird foods, I feel like I could easily at least try them. Not saying I would enjoy them, but I would be open to putting them in my mouth and chew. And for those who know about it, yes, my quest for blood sausage is not over or diminished. I am tempted to go to DC this weekend to the restaurant there that I know for a fact makes them. Hmmm.....tempting indeed. But enough of that. I am still sorting through all the photos, getting rid of the bad ones, figuring out what ones will look great blown up on my wall, and which ones I should turn into National Geographic for their travel photo contest. But until I can post all of them on here (I hope to do that this weekend) I will keep my promise to the maybe three people still reading this, and post a few pics on here a day.

This is an ok pic artistically. But come on, you know I am saving the best artsy ones for the end! But this pic illustrates two great things about Chonqing. One, the real future of China is in this picture: Construction of towers. I can not even describe the amount of construction in Shanghai but especially in Chongqing. Watch out, these two cities will be amongest the biggest in the world both population wise and in area, very soon. Unofficially, Chongqing already is with about 40 million people. The second thing this shows is the haze. Some of it is pollution perhaps, but the city is famous for haze. It's what protected it from the Japanese bombers during World War II.


Again, the future of China. In general the future is construction. There is a joke, at least one I have read, that the official bird of Dubai should be the crane, as in construction crane, but I vote for China. About 10 years ago, The Yangzi apparently only had five bridges on its whole length. The Mississippi River, the fourth longest in the world, had 26. (Remember, the Yangzi is the 3rd longest) But as part of the building of the dam, they are also building a whole lot of bridges. This is only one. I would say we passed under about 15 under construction, with the same basic design on all of them. As my random Dutch friend who I met on the boat said, "you don't mess with the winning team." Meaning that in a communist country, they build bridges wherever they want and with the same design and if anyone complains, the local government official will just say "Never heard of them" when the family members ask why they have been missing for a month.


A statue in Fengdu, the so called ghost city. Of course, all the original statue's and temples were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Everything they took the tourist too was built in the last 15 years or so. I wasnt a fan of Fengdu, but it did allow me to take some more "faces of statues" pictures. I have a nice little series going when you add in all the statues in Richmond, and of course the infamous "Matt and KC posing next to random pieces of street art" pictures. Ah, good times indeed

And again, more photos...

Well, lets start today with a pic of the Three Gorges Dam. The biggest construction project in the world apparently. Its not the biggest dam, that one is in Egypt. So for all that was lost in the flooding created by this dam in the Gorges, in a few years this will only provide for 4% of the electricity in China. Within 20 years, when they build four more planned dams on the river, it will provide 1% of the electricity.




Nanjing Road. Neon neon everywhere. This, as I think I mentioned before, is the main shopping road in Shanghai and maybe China. Lots of Chinese tourists taking their pictures next to some sign at the end of the road that I assume says "Nanjing Road-make sure to ask the white devil if he wants a watch, fake dvd's, a bag, or a t-shirt. and make sure to tell him that the t-shirt comes in big sizes."




Oh man, my mouth is watering at this one again. This is the Hot Pot. The bigger bowl is the somewhat mild hot pot. The top one was a bit hotter. What was really hot in the top one was the peppercorns. Man, you get one of those on the meat and your mouth goes numb. So needlesss to say, it was wonderful!







This is just a small pic of the beer I treated myself to after a long day in Chongqing. Now I took this pic because of the brand name logo. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure their logo is just like the SS symbol the Nazi secret police used to wear. I thought it was funny.








An even better ad in China. This ad includes the stars of the second greatest show on Chinese TV, the college tennis drama "wing". Great stuff.

More Photos

Just a few more random chosen pics from the trip. This is of what are called The Trackers. They bring ships up the lesser gorges at first by paddling, and as we shall see in a second, by physical pulling the boats. This is how people and goods have been transported on these small tributaries of the Yangtze for hundreds if not thousands of years.





And like I said, here are the trackers pulling the boats, or at least getting ready to. I wont show you how hard this is, because those photos are great, and I gotta protect my intellectual property of course.








Part of the MASSIVE scale model of Shanghai's development for the 2010 World Expo. They had a creepy video there that showed how happy the workers would be to get kicked out of their homes to make room for the development along the river. Classic Communist Propaganda for sure.

More Photos

Not sure if people are still reading this, but I kind of enjoy it. I think I might give an attempt at a blog again. I did for for a few weeks on political issues, but then I decided that I don't really care. Well, I do care, too much probably. But since I have decided that this country is quickly becoming a fascist place, I dont know if I will devote too much time to that issue. Of course, I have plenty of things good and bad to say about well, pretty much everything in the world.
But the real blog will have to wait. For now, I wanted to share a few more pics. I took way too many pics and it is going to take awhile to download them all off my photo bank, and to figure out what is good and what stinks. But just a few fun ones for now, to test the waters and see if anyone is still out there.





This is the donkey meat I was raving about in an earlier post. Man....seriously good stuff. Just looking at this pick, my mouth is watering a bit.








Ah more great food. The one on the left is bean curds or something along those lines. That was the hardest one to eat I thought. The Middle one is Chicken Stomachs, or stomach linings probably more correct. And on the right is Buffalo Tripe. That was really good. It was no donkey meat, but still great.














Not sure if this pic does it justice. But this is the first image from Chongqing I have posted I think. So the stairs at the bottom of the picture, and the kind of porches you see in the middle (by the sign) are all part of some housing project. Now notice what is above the housing project: yeah, thats an expressway. A busy one. Further down the river, the railroad goes underneath the expressway. And underneath both of those, is more housing. In a booming city like this, with a WIDE gap between rich and poor, every available space is used.



Ah the rare picture of me. I don't like taking photos of myself as it is, and traveling alone was a big excuse/reason for not having a lot of pics. But I managed to get a few on the cruise when I could ask a fellow westerner to do it. Given the attention I got around China, I did not want to bring more attention to myself by asking for and then posing for a picture that a Chinese person was taking of me. (Which reminds me, two things were running through my head in China a lot-"Last night I had the strangest dream, I sailed away to China in a little rowboat to find ya....Ain't no one gonna break my stride, ain't no one gonna slow me down, oh no" and of course "China man took my legs in Korea" or "The Chinaman who pissed on my rug, I can't go give him a bill" "The Chinaman is not the issue here Dude."

Neon Neon everywhere!

I couldnt get this pic to fit on the other post, but I wanted to include it as my little teaser because I really like it.

China Trip-A few quick highlights

So I have a lot of photos to sort through and figure out what they are. Once I do that, probably sometime this week, I will post a bunch of good photos on here. But for now, to wet your appetite, I thought I would post a few on here now.

This is the Bund at night. This was taken in the house keeping stairwell, with me lying on my belly because the window was on the same level as the floor.






Above is a picture of the Dragon's Gate, the start of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze. Just a teaser, more pics to come later!












This is the People's Hall in Congqing after a rain storm. Very nice indeed. It was a storm that was a mere foreshadowing of the massive downpour I would get stuck in the next night.

To the right is some fishermen along the Yangzi river. Next to them, the number ten is part of a numbering system along the river showing how high the water level will rise next year when the dam is complete.

August 6th-Best Hotel Ever

Well I am writing this blog from back in Richmond. After 30 hours in a few planes and a few airports, I made it safely. Some guy on my flight from Charlotte to Richmond this morning was complaining about having to get up at 5am, when I casually mentioned to him that I have been traveling for 24 hours already. He didnt have much to say after that.
Also, in good timing/great irony it was in Seattle that the typical traveler's ailment (especially those that are trying new foods) It will keep me tied up for a few days, but thats ok. The memory of Buffalo tripe makes up for it. (Might be one of the best travel experiences I have had so far-Its right up there with a cabbie in Prague proclaiming "Americans!" and then putting Frank Zappa on the radio, blaring it as we drove through the castle district)
My last night in Shanghai I stayed in the highest hotel in the world, The Grand Hyatt Shanghai. My room was on the 77th, so near or over 1,000 feet in the air. It was easily the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The food was a bit pricey, and a bit too normal (although my stomach was thankful for that) I enjoyed getting out of the sun and sending some time in the highest pool in the world, especially since I think i am suffering from a little heat stroke/dehydration at this point.
The hotel I stayed in is in the building on the left of the pic, the Jin Mao tower. THe building on the right is not done yet. It is the Shanghai World Financial Center. When finished, it will be the world's tallest skyscraper if you go by roof height. (although the Burj Dubai is already the tallest, but will be under construction for another year or so)
Here's the autrium of the building and yes, I have no clue how to spell Atirum...Autruim ok enough of that.




Next pic is the highest pool in the world, where I spent a good hour going back and forth between it and the men's locker room jacuzzi. Very relaxing indeed.