The People’s Palace
It was a very comfortable journey, even tho’ neither of us slept very well – perhaps the motion of the train disturbed us. We spent the early morning chatting with some HK Chinese on holiday here – they were interested in our photos. We arrived in Chongqing just in time to join in with the morning rush hour. Our first experience was cramming ourselves in to the funicular railway, carrying us up to the main part of the city high above. From there, on to the bus, no 1, joining up with an American girl called Melanie, also just come off the train, tho’ in a rather worse condition than us, having travelled hard seat. There was some confusion about when we should get off the bus – the man who had spoke English who had directed us on to the bus, told us to get off after 3 stops, but the conductress told us to stay on a couple of stops beyond that. We decided to take the lady’s advice – foolishly, as it turned out, since it involved us in a long + frustrating plod back thro’ the city, asking for directions every few minutes. Fortunately, however, there was no problem at all at the hotel, where we got beds quickly, easily, + reasonably cheaply.
Once settled in, + after a cup of coffee, we headed down to the ferry terminal to attempt to buy our tickets for the Yangtse. We found the place chaotic + confusing, + it was dispiriting to see a notice in English saying that all foreigners would have to go to the CITS office to buy their tickets. And this is what Melanie decided to do – she doesn’t have much time left in China, + wants to leave on the boat tomorrow morning. We want to go the following day, on the 29th, so have a little more time to play with. We had another English speaking helper to intercede for us at the ticket office, but the girl there simply didn’t want to know. However, the man assured us we would have no trouble buying a ticket if we simply turned up at the boat a little while before it sailed. He even gave us a letter to give to the purser of the ship. He told us he knew the Purser of the particular ship personally, + that he worked for CITS. It seems a little strange, but it can only be worth giving it a try, especially since we were getting nothing but a headache at the office there.
We strolled a little around the area, then, choosing what looked like an interesting place on the map – it had the symbol of what appeared to be a palace – we caught a bus out there. We had no idea what the place was, but it was an immensely impressive structure, with a great glass dome on top of a large stone building, the whole set up on the hill above us. We were misled by the map however into walking round virtually the whole circumference, no small distance, searching for the entrance. When we did find it, we went straight up the impressive driveway + steps, determined to discover what sort of palace we had discovered. The central section, beneath the dome, was a theatre, tho, not currently running anything so far as I could tell. We were amazed to discover, however, that the flanking wings housed the People’s Hotel, very grand premises indeed. Since the Renmin (its Chinese translation) also housed CITS, we thought we might as well take advantage of our visit to see if they would be able to offer any assistance with boat tickets. And contrary to the current grapevine on the matter, which states a 5-day waiting period, they were. They were able to offer us tickets not only for tomorrow, but for the day after too. But there was a catch. Or rather 2 catches. First of all for some weird reason they couldn’t sell us tickets to Yichang, where we wanted to go, but only to a port further downstream. We could still get off at Yichang, but would have to pay for the further destination. Plus, understandably, they wanted paying in FECs. These 2 factors in combination made the tickets wickedly expensive. So we decided to return to Plan A, + see if our letter would do the trick. The girl in the office had been, moreover, appallingly unhelpful, so we had no qualms at all about messing her around.
We tried once again to send off the cassette to Val’s mum, + again it was refused because it wasn’t adequately packed – the thing is becoming a millstone around our necks. We ate our evening meal in a local restaurant. We went early, understanding that Chinese rests. close early, but either that information is incorrect or we’d overdone it. At any rate, we were the only ones in the place. Quite a good meal, but spoilt by being served up with cold rice. Returned to the Post Office, having bound up our cassette with cardboard, +, at last, having it accepted. Whether or not it actually arrives is another matter entirely, of course. Another Englishman had arrived during the day, making up a foursome in our room. The most remarkable thing about him from our point of view was that he was a virtual clone in every respect of a friend of ours from back home – we noticed it independently, only confirming it to each other the next day. But interestingly, he had come from the opposite direction – unusual to find someone hitting the circuit anti-clockwise – so was able to give us some information + views about some of the places we are heading towards. We chatted for a long time – Geoffrey is not at all our sort but we had plenty enough to say.
Something of a flat day – I don’t know why we were delaying our departure, when we clearly had very little to do in Chongqing.
