Escapades to Chongqing & Beyond
It’s been approximately two months since I’ve returned home from China. I have been crazy busy adapting back into my life at home. Quick life update, I was applying to teach in Korea this fall, however there were tons of documents that I had to have prepared, but since I was in China at the time it was too difficult. Therefore, I have pushed my application for teaching in Korea back to February.
I had a completely unforgettable trip with two of my friends to Chongqing. This time we decided to see more of the landscape outside of the city limits. I’m always expecting the trip to go along smoothly, however it seems like it never does; not that that’s a bad thing.
The day that we arrived in Chongqing by train was Chinese New Year (February 15). Therefore, there were people shooting off firecrackers in the middle of the streets. The noise was particularly deafening near the Airbnb place that we had reserved for our trip. In China, they have different standards for what is hazardous to public safety, and that includes fireworks/fireworks near tall buildings. Through the night, they were constantly celebrating the New Year with fireworks and firecrackers. It was a spectacular sight, until the moment when I was desperately wishing to get a good night’s rest.
My friends and I had somewhat figured out which places we wanted to go and visit. The only problem was that we only had one English site to go by, and there were vague and incomplete directions on it. This resulted in many hilarious situations; getting lost on the way to the bus station, figuring out which tickets to buy, etc. The first day we traveled to Yongchuan (永川) by bus. It was approximately two hours away which was the perfect opportunity for a nap. When we got into Yongchuan we wandered around for a good thirty minutes looking for the correct public bus line that would take us to our destination. We never found it, so we resorted to taking a taxi up to the Yongchuan Tea Mountain and Bamboo Sea (永川茶山竹海) As always, since my friends were foreigners, the taxi driver got excited and called his friends and showed us to them. On the mountain, I discovered that my camera was broken, so I only have photos from my phone. To say the least, the tea mountain was amazing, however we didn’t find the bamboo forest. From what we gathered, the taxi driver had taken us to the other entrance and the bamboo forest was on the other side of the mountain. We hiked down the mountain and found the bus line that we were supposed to take originally. When we arrived at the bus station we were shocked to discover that the bus station had closed for the night. Thankfully, there was a train station in town that would take us back to Chongqing. This was only the beginning of many hilarious and unfortunate events to ensue in the coming days.
Tea mountain 茶山
I set out early from the apartment to a different bus station than the one from the day before. Let me say, Baidu Maps is not the most reliable app. It took me forever to reach the bus station. The bus to Wansheng (万盛) took around two hours. We alighted in Wansheng and got in line to take the tourist bus up to Black Mountain Valley (黑山谷). There were many people in line to go since it was there national holiday week. When we got to Black Mountain Valley, it was truly spectacular. Nature was truly stunning and the air finally felt breathable. While I was admiring the scenery, my phone tumbled out of my pocket into the water below. I stood there in shock while I processed what had just happened. Now, I didn’t have my camera or my phone to take photos. So, the photos from here are the ones my friend sent me. There were many clear, blue waterfalls and bodies of water, striking mountains, green foliage, and wondrous views. The walk through the mountains took longer than we were anticipating, and when we returned to the entrance we came to the unhappy realization that the tourist bus down had just stopped running. There we were stuck on the mountain with no way to get down, and our bus back to Chongqing was departing in less than an hour. We resigned ourselves to hitchhiking back or being stuck on top of the mountain for the rest of the night. However, the people passing by in their cars only stared at us curiously. At last, we spotted a lone taxi. The taxi driver was wonderful and promised us that he would get us down to the bus station on time for our scheduled departure. I will never forget the speed that we rushed down the mountain. We passed by other cars at a breakneck pace while honking at the other cars to get out of our way. Once back in Chongqing, we passed out from the emotional turmoil the day had taken on us.
don’t have any good photos because my phone was gone. Black Mountain Valley 黑山谷 PC: Kasia
The following day we decided to return to Wansheng and go visit the Wansheng Stone Forest (万盛石林). The day was looking smoggy, but we enjoyed strolling around the beautiful park. The stones were in many different formations, and there were bodies of water and bamboo interspersed throughout the park to give a peaceful vibe off for those who came to relax and admire the views.
The time in Chongqing was full of surprises, good and bad experiences, laughing, complaining, becoming more fluent in Chinese, and learning from all the situations that were thrown our way.
Concerts
On many occasions over the year one of my friends would invite me to go to some concerts with him. He always kept up with the news on heavy metal concerts that were scheduled in Chengdu. Some of them were free, and some were priced cheaply. It was a truly interesting experience to see the Chinese and their appreciation for this small genre in China. I attended heavy metal, folk metal, and there was even one that had Mongolian influences. These concerts were a great way to get off campus and just chill with friends.
Parties
Over the course of the year my friends and I celebrated many birthdays, Christmas, and informal gatherings together. Most of them were hosted in my dorm room. We all scrunched into my room and relaxed. Christmas was a great affair of White Elephant, chatting, and drinking. The birthday parties were always amazing events filled with birthday cake, gifts, great music, and more fun on top. A few of the times, we had parties at some of my other friends’ apartments. At my favorite coffee place (Milk Day), the owners hosted parties for us and movie nights. Over the year, I had become good friends with the owners of the place and they hosted our farewell party at the end of the year. These parties will always be wonderful memories overflowing with laughter, jokes, Chinglish/Chinese puns, etc.
Friends
The friends and other people I met during my time abroad are the ones that truly made this time in Chengdu a wonderful experience. Without them, I can’t imagine how my time abroad could have been. From our hilarious Wechat group chats to our outrageous adventures past midnight, they all contributed to the overall fantastic study abroad. The last night was truly one of the best. Most of my close friends stayed over from 7 pm until 6 am in the morning when I had to walk to the West Gate and catch a taxi to the airport. During that time, we talked about everything under the sun from politics to languages. I was super touched that they would consider staying up all night just to spend those last moments together. May the Fellowship of Milk Day live on forever!
The final months of my stay in Chengdu sped by in a blur. The last months were some of the best considering we spent a lot of time together laughing and discussing history, politics, and linguistics (all some of my favorite topics). I also felt like I really was improving my Chinese in leaps and bounds. I was finally remembering words and phrases that I had been struggling to remember. My farewells were bittersweet; on one hand I was beyond grateful to have spent such a lovely time with them, while on the other I was already starting to miss them knowing that I might never see some of them again. Another wonderful period of my life has ended, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter and what it might hold.