No change in the weather today and we learn Chongqing experiences rain and mist (or is it smog?) most of the time. The sun is a rare site according to Amy who works at the hostel. We are running out of cash so our first task today is to find a bank. The nearest one turns out to be in the ‘downtown’ area of Shipingba and involves finding our way by bus. Amy kindly comes to our rescue as she is heading downtown to pick up some tickets and we are able to take the bus together. We have to make our own way back as Amy has to go to her university where she is studying Human Resources, so after taking instructions on where to catch the return bus we make our way to the hostel. We stop on route to purchase some dough cakes at the most popular stall on Ciqichou Main Street. The cakes here are so good that people come from all over the city to join the orderly queue; something quite exceptional here where queuing is an anathema. We spend the afternoon exploring the maze of streets that make up Ciqikou
Shipingba shopping area is centred on the Three Gorges Plaza which is dominated by high rise shopping malls with a pleasant water complex in the middle. As with other cities we’ve visited, Chongqing is a mix of the ultra-modern high rise, the rather dowdy older apartment blocks and the even older, back-street low-rise housing where the living conditions seem very basic. In China the contrast between the new, ultra modern malls with their sleek, western-style designer boutiques seem a million miles away from the China we see all around us and where the average urban wage according the newspapers is around £800 pa. Who can afford to shop in these stores? Given that the more up-market malls are largely deserted even during the holiday period, it must be a very small minority. But of course, as we keep reminding ourselves, a small minority here is many millions of people.
Back at Ciqikou and we spend a couple of hours exploring the area. The streets were built according to Ming dimensions with the roads and houses in a proportion of 1:1.5. Away from the bustling, noisy Main Street and the tourist shops and eateries the streets meander around the hillside in the area between the main road and the river. Here the shops and restaurants give way to the more mundane everyday shops, barbers, hardware, as well as the calligraphers, embroiders and Mah Jong dens. The latter, frequented mainly by women, are filled with the clickety-click of the Mah Jong tiles on baize-covered tables. In the street we come across a man gutting fish and a women sitting in her doorway plucking a chicken. Life is lived on the street and in the doorways although from time to time we glimpse activity in the murky interiors. The area has a fascinating charm for all that.