It's summer holiday! And that means travel.

Truthfully I've been getting stir crazy lately, what with most of the world closed or effectively closed because of the massive inconvenience. Which means it's domestic travel time! Not that I'm opposed by any means, there's a lot to see in China that I haven't. But to start, it's back to Yunnan to see the parents. 

Truthfully, there's not much to say about trips to Yunnan, because we don't really do anything. Go on errands. Eat. Sleep. That's about it. But honestly, that was exactly what I needed. It was a whirlwind of activity up until the day before we left. Ella was cramming for a teaching certification test. And I was helping her, taking care of life, and on top of that working a gig a friend recommended to me. Basically, I recorded videos in front of a green screen for a university in the US. So, sorry to those students, but I'll be the idiot welcoming them to Unit 1, and telling them all the exciting stuff they'll be learning in their MBA. Anyway, point being, the day after we arrived was the first full day I had off in a while, so doing nothing sounded really nice.

And that was it for about 4 days, before moving on to travel. Our first stop (with mom and dad) was Chongqing. Which, is a place people should be more familiar with. Everyone knows Beijing, Shanghai, and maybe Guangzhou (aka Canton). But Chongqing is a monster city as well, and actually the largest city in the world. That is kind of cheating though, because China defined Chongqing city as the size of Austria. So outside of the downtown core, a lot of the "city" can be pretty rural. Also, this has completed a stupid record, that by any measure of the most populous blank, I've been there:

Country - China
City proper - Chongqing
Metro Area - Tokyo
Area - Pearl River Delta
Densest City - Manila
Densest Region - Macau
Densest District - Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Chongqing is one of the 4 areas directly managed by the central government, the others being the aforementioned Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Tianjin. (I've not been to Tianjin, but it's pretty close to Beijing and has basically been its port as far as history goes. It doesn't have a great reputation for tourism, but maybe one day.)

Chongqing overall, I think is one of the coolest looking cities in China, and maybe the world. Maybe because Beijing and Shanghai are as flat as pancakes, but Chongqinq's massive hills make a big impression. Someone compared it to Hong Kong, which is fair but I don't fully agree. Hong Kong is hilly yes, but if there is a hill at most Hong Kong may turn it into a park or nature trail. Instead, Chongqing says "No reason why we can't build a 30 story building into the side of that cliff." It's a very twisty, vertical city, which gives it a Blade Runner sort of vibe. The insistence to build everywhere feels as if the only reason to build up is because there's no choice to build out, like a zombie apocalypse is beyond the border. It makes it a nightmare to get around, because a place that's 100 meters away on the map might also be 100 meters above or below you. So get used to stairs and having to take a super roundabout way to get wherever you want to go. As someone on holiday I loved it, like it was a puzzle to figure out, where you're rewarded with a neat coffee shop. But if I lived here it might get old fast. Still, having a local knowledge of "Oh, to go there, take an elevator in this building, get out on the 16th floor, then cut across this business's lobby" would be really cool, and make you feel like you're really part of the city.

Speaking of the city, there's a fair bit to do. And I was honestly a bit surprised by that, considering how many travel agencies there are around. I suppose most of the travelers are domestic. With our first day almost done, we only had time to go to Hongyadong, a sort of shopping center in a cave. Or I guess, a cliff with a cave they built a shopping center around? It's honestly really cool, and although touristy, really leans into Chinese architecture to look super neat. There's not much to do but take photos, shop, and eat, but it's unique enough to be worth it. 

With sleep and full days ahead of us, there was quite a bit on our list. The Chongqing Art Museum, which is not my thing but the entire Yang family are artists, so that's their jam. The building is my thing though, it looks like a house made of chopsticks. After was Luowen Temple, which I'm happy to say, is one of the 1% of temples in China you SHOULD see. It was super cool! They had a giant hall full of colorful statues in weird poses, so, check. It was just pretty overall, double check. And being in the heart of downtown, the contrast of "giant shiny building" towering over the temple was triple check. Definitely worth a visit.

After we took a car up to the mountains to see Chiang Kai Shek's mountain headquarters. History time - CKS was the head guy for the Nationalists, the group who ruled China until the Communists in 1949. They're the group still in charge of Taiwan. During WWII, Chongqing was the capital of China, after the Japanese took over Nanjing. CKS directed the war from here, basically just a little collection of cottages on the mountain. The Japanese never found him, so I guess he chose correctly. Honestly there's not much to see, but it's only a 20 minute taxi ride from the city, and is really cool how you can quickly go from crazy metropolis to mountain forest. And I do mean mountain, Chongqinq's high hills and low valleys give an amazing view on the way up, not unlike Hong Kong's Peak.

Another destination was Ciqikou, a traditional folk street with lots of shops and food. Similar to other places in China, they're kind of cool, but this one seemed more authentic than those in Shanghai, so it was worth a look. Along the way we took the metro, which has some unique things worth mentioning. One, it's a genuine bonafide electrified monorail. Second, and this is too cool, it has a station that is INSIDE an apartment building. I thought I'd be the only one that cares how weird and awesome that is, but turns out no, there were lots of people standing around talking photos. Supposedly the apartments above have a lot of sound proofing. As much as I like metros, I have to admit I would really like to live in this building. Like, imagine catching the elevator to a monorail? So cool. In fact, I liked it so much, I got two videos - one from the ground, one from in the train.

Speaking of things only I find cool, one day Ella and the parents were feeling tired, but I still had some energy. I went to The Flying Tigers Museum, which means more of history lessons! During WWII, a group of American pilots volunteered to come to China and help defend it. They had a base in Chongqing, and now there is a house-sized museum about them. It was really moving actually, and I think worth the trip, despite being light on memorabilia. While I was coming in, a foreign language student was coming out, and the museum curator wanted to have her ask me some questions after she found out I was American. Not about The Flying Tigers, I guess about me, because I don't think they got a lot of foreign visitors. Anyway, after the museum, I decided to climb up the mountain behind it. Actually this was part of the plan, because while not the tallest hill in the city, Erling is right in the middle of downtown, so I thought it would have a great view. But oh wow, what a climb! You didn't walk up the stairs, as so much climb them. About midway up the trail intersected with the road, and I decided to rest on a bench. And who did I see but the foreign language student, who insanely had a rolly suitcase she just brought up the same trail. She told me she is traveling with a friend, who she is meeting at the airport after climbing. And since she already checked out of her hotel, the bag is with her. I thought she was crazy for at least not taking a bus or taxi close to the top. But she and I were going the same way, so I helped her lug her stuff to the top. Fortunately it was along a road, so we could roll the bag. At the peak there was an old Australian embassy she wanted to see, but had no internet in climbing the 10 story observation tower. Her loss, because it was a cool view.

And that was about it for Chongqing. There was a lot more I didn't mention, some museums and historical sites, but none of them really stuck out as noteworthy. One of the last nights there we took a river cruise, which in typical Chinese fashion was pretty crowded and overbooked, but in the end we did get some nice views of downtown at night. Mom and I really liked it, at least. Anyway, we're keeping the travels going by taking a train to Chengdu, Sichuan province. Home to pandas, spicy food, and hopefully fewer stairs.