Our last day on the boat was nice. We were given a really nice dinner the night before and they even brought us a pizza. The boat had a good chef so the pizza was actually better than a lot of the pizza I have had in America. That night we hung out and made friends with some of the people who were on the cruise. We all sat in a big circle and they spoke Chinese and we spoke English, but we just danced and laughed and had a good time. That night, I learned that it is even more difficult to understand Chinese when it is coming from someone who is drunk. In the morning, we had one last breakfast on the boat and then we left to take a bus to Chongqing. When we got off the boat, there were so many stairs that we needed to climb to reach the bus. If I were to guess, I would say there were about 60 stairs we had to haul our luggage up. Some of the local people were standing at the bottom of the stairs because they charge a small fee and will carry your luggage on their back up the stairs for you. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was really sweaty. Everyone was. When we got on the bus, the driver did not have the AC turned on so the windows started to fog up. We all thought that was pretty funny.
Fancy napkins on the cruise ship.
When we finally got to Chongqing, we were trying to turn around so we could get all of our luggage off the bus, and while we were doing that, our bus hit a car. There really don’t seem to be any rules when it comes to driving in China, and because of that, I have absolutely no idea whose fault it was.
Good noodles right next to the hotel! Perfect!
Once we got to the hotel we got some lunch and headed over to the Three Gorges Museum.
Three Gorges Museum Plaza. The landscape upkeep in China is amazing. Especially on highways and city streets.
We explored the museum for a few hours and watched a 360 degree movie. It was mostly in Chinese, so a lot of it was hard to understand, but it was cool to be able to look all around you, even behind, and see the movie. I wondered how the made the movie and fit each of the screens together so perfectly. It was like an IMAX movie but the film extended the whole way around the theater.
After visiting the museum, we went to the zoo for an hour. We got to see pandas, tigers, yaks, hippos, rhinos, camels and a lot more animals. The zoo in China is a lot more lenient than the zoo in America. There were people throwing Cheeto type food directly into the animal cages and there were no guards yelling at them or anything. I feel like you could walk right into the cage and not get caught for a minute or two.
I saw this woman walking down the street and thought I had to get a picture. We saw this occasionally. Seems like a lot of work.
After visiting the zoo, we were on the way back to our hotel when our bus broke down. We waited an hour for a repairman to come fix it, but once he did we were able to get back to the hotel.
It was bound to happen eventual, and of course we were all interested (and slightly aggravated?)
That night, a lot of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. My Chinese teacher told me that Pizza Hut in China was a lot different than Pizza Hut in America, so I wanted to check it out for myself. The biggest differences were the elegance and the portion size. The medium pizzas were a lot smaller than they would be in America. A medium was basically equivalent to a small. And they also charge you extra money to get cheese on the pizza. I guess they usually don’t get cheese on their pizzas?
Better than Pizza Hut, my friend bragged about where she ate instead.
Sometimes I don’t think people would believe my stories unless I had pictures. This was our bus driver for about two weeks…he became our friend.
After dinner I talked to family and then went straight to bed. I have been sick for a week and I am still hoping that I can just sleep it off one night and wake up perfectly fine, so I have been going to bed as early as I can.
The next day in Chongqing, we went to visit the Changan Ford assembly line. I have watched a lot of How It’s Made episodes, and this was a dream come true for me. As we were walking through the factory I felt like I was watching How It’s Made in person. The CEO of the factory was explaining everything as we went, so it was really amazing me. I think I had my jaw dropped for 75% of the tour. There were a lot of automated steps along the line and a lot of robots assisting the employees. I was amazed at how calm it was in there. There really wasn’t much noise because everyone was focused on doing their job. There also was almost no dust or debris. The factory was very near perfectly clean.
We were told that Ford caters these cars specifically for the Chinese market. They add more seating in a lot of their cars due to the fact that many people live with their grandparents, parents, and children all in one household. In the smaller cars, they give a more luxurious backseat than we may be accustomed to in the United States. They say the main reason they do this is because a lot of Chinese businessmen will have a driver, so they want to accommodate their needs and give them a nice backseat. They also told us that the most popular color of vehicle in the Chinese market is white. They said that 50% of the cars sold per year are white, so most of the cars coming off the assembly line were white.
After viewing the factory, we got to ask some questions. I found it really interesting that the employees of the factory work 11 hour shifts 6 days a week. That seemed insane to me. And instead of closing the factory at night, they just have another set of workers work the night shift. So the factory is able to really increase production and maximize the factory’s capabilities.
After leaving the factory, we went to meet the CEO of Changan Ford. He talked about the company for a while and then he gave us a very motivational speech about making the most of our lives and believing in yourself. The visit with Changan Ford was definitely my favorite part of the trip so far and I think it will be hard to top.
With the president of Changan Ford
After visiting Changan Ford we went to see a building that starts on one street level and leads you out onto another street level. Chongqing is kind of like San Francisco so there are a lot of hills the city is built around. We climbed up a bunch of stairs from the ground level of one street and when we got through the building, we were at the ground level of another building. I have never seen anything like it before. It was really cool. It was like going around the block, but instead of walking around on a sidewalk you can zigzag up some steps and make it to the same place in just as much time – although I thought the stairs were pretty tiring.
After visiting this building (I have no idea if it has a name) we went to dinner. Ting’s Dad does a lot of business in Chongqing so he hosted us for dinner at a really nice restaurant. It was really good food and a lot of fun. We got to see the city light up at night. It was really beautiful, especially because it is alongside the Yangtze River.
The Yangtze River from Chongqing. The city reminded me of Pittsburgh.
Location: Chongqing, China