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Great Walls and Cyberpunk Cities! Celebrating 5 Years of Chatsunami in China! #2
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It has been five years since we started Chatsunami and it has been an incredible journey. Huge shout-out to our amazing Pandalorians who have supported us for all this time you are all incredible!
In this episode, Satsunami is joined by his amazing partner MsTsunami to talk about their experience in China! In this part the duo discuss their journey to Beijing and Chongqing. What was it like walking along the Great Wall of China? How did China's Cyber Punk city hold up? And what were the highlights of the trip? Let's find out!
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Transcript
Introduction and Anniversary Celebration
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to part two of our episode of Chatsunami in China. This time in our journey, we explore the beauty of Beijing and climb Chongqing. If you want to hear more about the first part of our adventure, please check out our website chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. Without any further ado, let's dive in.
00:00:22
Speaker
What a lovely day. Hmm? Yo Martin! I am so hyped to get started on this episode, can you believe it's the 5 year anniversary already? Hey man, what are you exactly? What do you mean? I'm right here where you said. I dunno, you can't do what I said to me because I'm where I said it would be Chinatown, Asgard.
00:00:43
Speaker
That's right, China. That's what we agreed on. You weren't paying attention meetings were you? I, uh, I'm gonna have to call you back.
Travel Experiences and First Impressions of Beijing
00:00:53
Speaker
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about taking my first domestic Chinese flight in Hangzhou, but after a rather precarious taxi trip that really woke me up, we soon found ourselves in Hangzhou International Airport, sitting across from a group of influencers also waiting to board. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to slip them my Chatsunami business card, but that's another story. Once again, we found ourselves on a flight.
00:01:17
Speaker
this time flying on He Ran Airlines which not only gave us breakfast, but the staff were also dressed very thematically, with the air hostesses and intricate chongsams. Seriously, look it up if you're curious. But after a few hours trying not to drift off, we eventually found ourselves at last in the capital of China, Beijing.
00:01:35
Speaker
From the Great Wall to even more great sights, this was by far one of the most memorable parts of the holiday. Take it away, pass me! Let's talk about Beijing, which is honestly a city that I genuinely didn't expect.
00:01:51
Speaker
See, before go into my thoughts about it, because I know I was saying this to you before we started recording, what did you think about Beijing? I've been to Beijing before, but that possibly happened 10, 12 years ago. I didn't remember it a lot, to be honest. And it's all blur memories about this city. I kind of knew to the place. So to be honest, I didn't feel much about this place when I arrived. It's just another place, I mean. Where we were staying, and obviously I'm not going to point out where exactly we were staying, but we stayed in more of the old town, which you were saying, of course, the government has decided to preserve. It's kind of the equivalent to British closes, isn't it? Rather than preserving it, I think possibly it's too expensive to change it.
00:02:43
Speaker
So they have to keep it. But it is a very old part of Beijing. So I would say the building complex is the equivalence of the clothes in scotland it's a very traditional type of building complex people used to stay and they are still staying so i think it's maybe good for you to see because you couldn't just see all the glamorous parts of a city you have to see a very normal part how normal people stay in such a huge city it's a capital i mean but yeah when you think of capital cities and this is something I said to you at the time that I was really surprised when when we got off the metro and immediately you're hit with the older buildings as you said the older kind of close buildings and where we stayed again the hotel initially when we went in we were a bit unsure I think that's probably because we were riding off the high of getting upgraded and
00:03:43
Speaker
And then we went to this hotel which had the shower in the same room, although it was partitioned, of course, but for legal reasons it did have a curtain that you could pull down and everything for privacy, but initially we walked in and we're like, oh, this is definitely different than what we're used to, but it's a city that definitely, for me anyway, I definitely
Exploring Beijing's Cultural and Historical Sites
00:04:04
Speaker
warmed to it. Yeah, it definitely grew on you more and more, and it's also grown on me more and more. because even with the staff at that hotel, they were absolutely lovely. They couldn't have been more friendly to us. Especially the couple of days where we were walking constantly and you could ask for a bucket to soak your feet in everything. and Oh, it did help. Oh, absolutely, 100%. Because as soon as we found the hotel, we dumped our bags and we were right out. We visited the Llama Temple, which was fantastic. And the location, I have to mention that location, location, location. Oh, yeah. It's wonderful. So we were close to a lot of attractions. We were close to a metro station in Beijing. That's a very important thing because we found we were relying on it so much. We basically used it to everywhere. we even found a metro that is very similar to the Glasgow metro. Yeah, it's a loop. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a big loop. I was like, oh my god, I feel like i'm home again. I know, but it's just so convenient. Yeah. So back to the Lama Temple, it was my first time being there to see whole temple and i just felt to all very impressive. How about you? Yeah. Yeah, no, it was definitely impressive. And it felt as if it was a mix of people who were just going there, like myself, of course, just to see the temple, just to see the historical and religious significance of it. And the devout people who were going there to pray and everything because they gave away free incense sticks, which you definitely knew it. There were incense sticks there because there was a massive cloud of smoke going through the temple and everything, people praying and whatnot. So, I mean, it was fascinating to see. you And it was also cool to see the monks on their phones on WeChat talking to one another. It was, it was absolutely fantastic to see. But along from that, you've got some very famous streets that loads of people were taking their picture against red walls, which I was a bit confused because we were walking down the street and there was this young woman there, with, I don't know it was a friend or photographer, she had someone holding up, you know, one of those tinfoil kind of disc things for the right lighting. and that's what I was asking you. I was like, what the heck is that about? And you were saying that the red walls in Beijing are very famous to get your picture taken against. Rather than saying it's famous, I would i say it's just very unique. You possibly wouldn't find a second place for that type of thing, like just the green roof tiles and really red walls. It looks great on your photos. So I suppose that's why it's so popular. So many young people just taking their photos there. And much like Shanghai, Beijing had a lot of people dressed up in the traditional clothes. They were getting their photos taken as well, both at, maybe not the Lama Temple, I don't think there's so many there, but beside it, we visited the Confucius Imperial College, which, again, you go in, it's got a very similar colour scheme, you know, and buildings that, when you went in... Again, it was one of the more historical sites because you see a lot of the temples inside and especially there was a lot of stone tablets there that had all the old writings carved into them and it was so impressive seeing it up close. And there were hundreds ah of them, weren't there? I mean, and that would be the perfect places to do your photos wearing the ancient clothes. I mean, you feel like you're flying back to those old times and you're just one of them, if you know what I mean, in old times. Yeah, like you're stepping into history. Exactly. And if we go back again, i possibly would hire a costume for you and me. Maybe weki you can try the emperor costume or something like that. I think I'm going to get photographed for all the wrong reasons, to be honest.
00:08:07
Speaker
That would be fun to see. I mean, i mean that is true, but I'm just thinking of a local man from west of Scotland caught dressing as emperor in China. I can't see how that would go wrong. But yeah, we ended up seeing that and afterwards we kind of had a bit of a wonder, to be honest. We saw a lot more of the old books. part, we got to try my new favourite food, which was a kind of meat bun. Honestly, if you see this meat bun in Beijing, get it, eat it. Obviously, if you're a vegetarian or vegan, ignore this advice, but if not, it is one of the most delicious things you will have in your life. It amazing. I don't know what the official term is. The food is amazing there, which we'll get onto, to but yeah, after that, we walked around. we saw the drum tower. We walked by there. There was a London bakery there at one point. which I thought was quite funny but still it looked really good but we then ended up going through the touristy bit Qianhai Park wasn't it? It has another name possibly you would to be more familiar with it's also called Cha Hai and I suppose because it's so easy to find so there are a lot of you know the tourist groups they meet over there or they end up there and it's just that we were passing a lot of groups
00:09:22
Speaker
over there. Yeah, there was a lot of tourist buses, as you said. It's a beautiful area lit up at night, i have to say, but very busy. Definitely. When we were coming back, it was very busy there. are But of course, we walked through there and eventually we came across a place called Jing Shan Park, which was a place that has a bittersweet memory for me because on the one hand, beautiful park, It's very cheap to get into. It's only a couple of yuan. You go in and it's gorgeous because it is. It's just a massive park. You could spend the day just wandering about and everything. you can go up the stairs and you can see a whole view of of the Forbidden City and the rest of the city is gorgeous. Unfortunately for me, as we were walking up that ramp, I decided to fall uphill, to which many people who I told about this asked me, Satsu, how did you fall uphill? To that I say, I'm sorry, I don't know how, but yeah, I fell. I got back up again, in the words of Robbie Williams. And we ended up going uphill and seeing the Forbidden City and the kind of mist, because when we got there it was quite misty, wasn't it? Unfortunately, yeah, we didn't get much luck on that day. As you said, you fell. I mean, briefly. Yeah. You nearly fell and we just didn't get the best view of the Forbidden City on that day. but But the smoggy weather did give the Forbidden City a little mystery look. But yeah, fortunately we got to go back to that particular park later on and it was a lot nicer weather so we got some fantastic shots of the Forbidden City. But then that night, of course, we went through that tourist area again, where not only was it mobbed with tourists, but it was also mobbed with people s singing. But then, of course, we ended up going for some very nice hot pot and had a nice slice of bagua, which of course translates to gossip, where a couple of patrons weren't very happy, so they were kind of having a tiff with the owners. So yeah, we got dinner and a show that night, didn't we? Yeah, absolutely. But we didn't get the end of the whole story, so we didn't know how it ended. Shame on that. Nah, it wasn't great.
00:11:35
Speaker
and i mean, we saw the margin outside and everything, but unfortunately we didn't get the end of the story. But that, of course, leads us into the second day where we decided to explore the Summer Palace.
Journey to the Forbidden City and China National Museum
00:11:47
Speaker
We had another boat ride that day, which, again, the Summer Palace is one of those places that you could honestly just spend the whole day No, I would to say more than one day. But we always spend really a couple of hours there. Yeah, so I look for the tips for that palace because I knew we couldn't cover the whole thing. So I just follow the guidance online that we covered the main parts of the park. And I would say it was very impressive. Because unfortunately, again, we didn't get great weather. So from our photos, it all looks a little bit grey on the background. So I just hope if we have a chance to go back there again, i would definitely spend a lot more time just to to explore more of the summer palace. Because I think we got about halfway round it and then we had to get the boat back.
00:12:40
Speaker
And there is another side that we didn't cover last time. was shame, but we always have to leave something for next time, I suppose. No, I mean, that is true though, because there's a a lot of places that we unfortunately missed out on, or or have rather saw part of, but we didn't see the whole thing, but I mean, it was still cool to see it and to tick it off before we went to the Forbidden City the next day. was kind of like part one, part two. It was our Lord of the Rings is what I'm saying. After that, we walked around the city. We ended up at a place that I think I described to you at the time as what Dundee would look like if it was a financial hub. I think it was because of the weather, because it was tall grey buildings, it looked very grey, and it looked better when was lit up at night, granted, but yeah, we kind of just walked around, had some dinner, and that was also the day that we found the Mall of China, which is an absolutely behemoth myth of a shopping centre. The reason we were there wasn't for the shopping, of course, but it was because you had said that there was a building that looked like a pair of trousers. That, of course, being the CCTV building, Chinese television building, and it's literally called the Big Pants building. Is that right in saying? Yes, because from distance, the shape looks like a huge pair of trousers. It you go to the top of the Ball of China, you can actually get a good view of it. And yeah, it's a pair of trousers, not gonna lie. But we ended up having some nice dessert out of a Macau themed restaurant, which absolutely lovely. Pictures, of course. But we had to go back and get some sleep because we were going to the Forbidden City the next day, which I have to say, this is one of our busier days because we got up really early to do a guided tour and it was interesting well I say it's interesting but the whole tour of course was in Mandarin which I was picking up bits and pieces I'm so sorry my darling because the English tour is too expensive
00:14:38
Speaker
Actually, that is something I just want to point out, by the way. See these, and again, I'm not calling them out per se, but see these get your guides and things like that, booking.coms, they were extortionate for some of these tours, whereas the tours that you were booking from your end were, i mean, in comparison, that was just definitely a lot cheaper, which absolutely shocked me because I thought, it's probably a couple of pounds, a couple of yuan more, but no, it was actually ridiculous the difference. Going round the Forbidden City, we got to see where the Emperor lived, where his family lived, where all the eunuchs scuttled about when he wasn't happy, where the Emperor's mother lived, which turns out one of the Emperors really loved his mum. That was interesting to see. You know, you get to see all the historical artefacts. The pictures genuinely do not do it justice. This place is massive. And this is another place you could spend the whole day just wandering about until it closed. But it was quite a good time we got in because we got in maybe about half eight, I think, is when our particular tour started. And then it was, what, two, three hours later where they finished. because the tour are finished the inside of the forbidden city so you can still wonder about in that place to explore more so we did that and it's just like a huge mess i kind of feel i can easily get lost inside although they have different chambers have different names on it but they just look so similar and the way the path goes to different places all look similar you know the high red walls you couldn't see i feel like the whole place is like a huge maze and you can easily get lost in it it doesn't really help when you've got all the tour groups and things that start flooding in later on because it went from relatively empty to oh my god the forbidden city has been populated again You know, the ghosts of the past. But yeah, it was absolutely mobbed by the time we left. And it was definitely worth seeing.
00:16:45
Speaker
And I know you don't need us saying that, considering it's like one of the top attractions of Beijing. But definitely, you could get lost for the whole day in and that city. After that, we decided to do a hop, skip and a jump to the China National Museum. Which, I have to say, it was impressive, right? It was absolutely impressive to see, and you know me, I am a absolute history bird. Loved seeing all the different exhibits. They had one for ancient China, they had some of the terracotta warriors there as well, which I thought, my god, they're everywhere.
00:17:19
Speaker
We saw a lot of the artifacts from ancient China, which was really, really darn cool. All the sculptures. And that was only a tiny part of the museum. You know, we spent ages down in the basement for ancient China. But when you go upstairs, there's a lot more contemporary things, such as the exhibit for China during the Second World War against Japan. That was a big exhibit. There was China's tentaclysm. technological advancements, there was a jade exhibition, there was a Russian artist exhibit, which unfortunately we ran out of time because they were chucking people out by the time we got there. There was just so much to see. But the one thing I have to say that did feel slightly chaotic, and it was something that I genuinely didn't know was a thing in a lot of these types of museums was a lot of people were taking pictures of the exhibits, which, you know, is all finding goods. People want to take a picture of something and say, oh, this is what we saw, we saw this, we saw that. But there was one they actively had to keep people behind a red line, and they only let a few people across the line. And they were, correct me if I'm wrong, but they were swarming this glass case. And that's what I was asking you. I said, well, what's going on there? And it turned out it was the, was it the crown for...
Culinary Discoveries and Final Days in Beijing
00:18:35
Speaker
Queen's crown. Yeah, the t Queen's crown. Honestly, I have never seen it in a museum before. Like people actively wanting to take photos. i think it's because the crown is out there only for a short amount of time. So you possibly won't see it there all the time. And when people have a chance to maybe take a photo of it, people will just grab the chance. To be honest, we do like to show the photos of our trips. on the social media so people wanted to maybe show off what they've been seeing during their trips so this queen's crown i think it's relatively rare to see again i keep saying this that oh there's so much to see in this exhibit but ah but there was hundreds to see again you could just spend the day there as going to be the tagline for bijak absolutely all you need just a pair of comfortable shoes pretty much yeah yeah but One of the things that we got really lucky with when we came out of the museum, of course, during in closing time, was that the museum is right across from the entrance of Tiananmen Square, which we tried at least seeing it lit up.
00:19:45
Speaker
But around that area, there are is a heavy police police presence and everything, so you can't really get anywhere near even the entrance of it. Taking a picture is really difficult and whatnot. But we got really lucky because when you come back out of the museum, we were able to go across into the square beside it. And behind us was... People's monument for those who sacrificed their lives during the war. A bit like a cenotaph. Then behind the monument is Mao Zedong's Memorial Hall. Right along from that, of course, we were waiting for the entrance of Tiananmen Square to light up, which, again, it's still quite a bit of distance, but there was quite a few people gathering, of course, waiting for it. And before they turn it on, they have to lower the flags. There's six flags. many flags above the entrance but there's one big flag which I didn't realise this you can actually pay to be in the square in the morning yeah but it's like five or six in the morning it depends on the sunrise time yeah I admire the dedication but of course we caught the tail end of that where they were taking it down and everything and the soldiers were marching away and yeah it was quite Cool to see it light up and everything when we were there. And once it was over, we basically followed the crowd home, didn't we? And we went through another famous street that was lit up.
00:21:09
Speaker
It's called Nanluo Guxiang. You possibly would hear about it if you are in that area. It's just basically ah busy, full of small shops. and restaurants street food street popular with young people and all the tourists from everywhere and you wouldn't possibly miss it and it was a fun fact the first time that I learned that the Yunnan province is famous for its potatoes Yes, that's true. That's true. It's an area suitable for growing potatoes. And i think people's diets are heavily based on potatoes. Which I was really surprised at. so So if you're having Chinese food and anyone criticises you for having chips, you just tell them that you've listened to the Chatsunami podcast and the Yuan province actually likes potatoes. So...
00:22:01
Speaker
We would try that. They have different ways to cook potatoes. If you're a huge potato fan, you would love that. Oh, absolutely. And they were are nice, though. They are. But that, of course, set us up very nicely for the next day. And really, our final day, because our proper final day was us preparing to go to Chongqing. But, of course, we went back to that park to see the Forbidden City. Yeah. That was all we did before we left. yeah because we went there and then we went to a park called Baha'i, which was the park with the famous White Tower. Yeah, that was really it before we had our last meat bun and we cried as we waved... Very confused shop owner, are we? And yeah, then we went to Chongqing, but before that, our last proper property was us tackling quite possibly one of the most famous sites, although, then again, I don't think many of you probably have heard of the Great Wall of China, you know? Quite a hidden gem. as it were. No jokes aside, yeah, the last day we ended up going to the Great Wall by Metro, which was very interesting. I have to correct you there. We took a Metro over to the train station. We took train over there. Ah, okay, okay, yeah. See, to be fair, the train was fine, because when you book the train, you have to book a seat, don't you? i mean, you can't technically stand, but yeah, you usually have to book a seat and everything, so that bit was fine. But the actual metro trip was so, so busy. Everyone was crammed in. They were clearly going to see the Great Wall of China because let's face it, if you're going that far out, unless you live in that area, chances are you are going to be seeing the wall. And we went to the north side of the wall. I have never seen a metro or train station so busy in my life. because it was so busy that they actually had to put up a barrier to let so many people through to the escalator. Then they let so many people through again, and it was just a sea of people, which was really weird because when we got the actual wall, it was relatively okay. You know, it was quite spacey. I mean, it's a long wall, and... Well, true, yeah. People can space out, by as you say.
00:24:13
Speaker
And one thing I was really surprised at, and I don't know if this applies to the south side of the wall, but for the north, there's a kind of mini street. You can get coffee, you can get, weirdly enough, KFC and Subway, which really threw me off. You can get a miniature Chinese flag if you're feeling particularly patriotic. take that day. You can get all these small knickknacks and refreshments. You can go to the loon, whatever. That was really surprising because I don't know what I expected when I went to the Great Wall. I don't know if I was expecting it to be, you know, in the middle of nowhere. there was just maybe one toilet there and it's like, okay, now you have to climb the wall. I didn't expect this area to be so built up at the bottom. But I mean it's a very developed, commercialised Attraction. Attraction.
00:24:56
Speaker
Uh-huh. Well, that ah is true. I mean, yeah, there's hundreds of Eden places and things, and yeah, by the time we actually got there, it was a breathtaking experience that I got to share with you. And what was even cooler, which is something that i didn't mention, was we did all of this on Halloween. So how many people can say on Halloween, other than the people there, of course, but how many people can say, oh, what did you do for Halloween? Oh, I went up the Great Wall of China, what about you? And they'd be like, wait, what? But yeah, it was really cool to spend it with you. It wasn't overly cold, but it also wasn't overly warm. It was just perfect because you had that breeze coming in. And finally, the smoggy weather disappeared.
00:25:36
Speaker
disappeared yeah everything just perfect it was a very clear day although one thing i i have to say was very strange about the wall and i'm not knocking the previous architects of the great wall was the half of it had stairs but then the other half of it it was like a slope which some areas were all right they were very manageable but other sections. I nearly fell down at one point and we were grabbing one another being like, okay, maybe let's not explore this part of the wall. Because I mean, we did really well. We got to the highest point of the wall, at least of that section. Again, there were bits that were busier than others, but I'm just glad that we walked it and we didn't do the cable car bit. It's another option to get onto the Great Wall if you are not so confident to start from the very bottom to the highest point. I mean, it's very convenient for different groups of people.
00:26:34
Speaker
Some may have mobility issues and they also want to get onto the
Arrival and First Impressions of Chongqing
00:26:39
Speaker
grade board. The cable car definitely is a very good option for them to do so. I would definitely suggest you to choose a dry day. At least I know the weather is unpredictable. It can change it at any time, but I just feel it may be not so safe to climb the great wall on a very rainy day because although they have stairs but the stairs to be honest they are not even and some are tall some are really low so you really have to mind your steps and the slopes they are manageable but because it was on a dry day I do not know what's gonna happen if it's a really wet day. Even in the ice and snow, if you're doing this in the winter, why? Why would you do it? Because even I was trying to keep my foot in. Like, at the beginning, it was absolutely fine. And what's really cool is that when you're coming back down the wall, you don't have to come back the way you came. You have the option to go down. It's like a path
00:27:41
Speaker
that they've built beside the wall. So you can go down this set of stairs and you can walk down this very serene, very quiet path down, which is absolutely fantastic. You don't have to worry, but my God, some of the slopes on the wall itself, it was like, okay, keep me a balance. And what was quite interesting as well was, although it does warn you, be careful because there's not as many toilets on the wall and everything, is that there's a burger place. in the middle of the wall. Well, I say burger place. It's like burger or ice cream. You know, it's like an eating place beside or nearby where the cable cart bit is. I mean, such a great place to do business. You know, I feel kind of, again, not sorry for them because they must be making that hell of a lot of money but the people who well then again they must get the cable car up but that's what i was saying to you when i saw all of the not police officers but the security and everything standing there and other people because i was walking thinking oh there's not many security people and i thought well obviously not because they must take them ages to walk up the wall and then two seconds later I saw one and I was like honestly his legs must just be built like terracotta warriors because my god walking up that every day they must be used to it and once you get used to it I suppose that it may take them half an hour yeah from bottom to the highest point It was honestly one the most memorable, if not the memorable part of the holiday, wasn't it? Just seeing the Great Wall. And the thing I don't know if you feel about this with your experience growing up, but here, especially in the yeah UK, we're told in school that the Great Wall is one of these wonders of the world and everything. We see it in textbooks, we see it in cartoons and films and things. It's this very mystical place, although obviously it's quite touristy, but you see it very much built up and legend and everything so to actually see it was just really cool to be honest this do you feel the same way yeah absolutely i'm just wondering did it live up to your expectation i think it was definitely different but in a good way this isn't a different where you know we were trying some foods and things and you say is that good and i go yeah it's different but this was really, again, it wasn't what expected initially, but I don't mean that in a bad way. It was at least very easy to walk up for the most part. It was scenic. You saw the hills rolling for miles and everything. It was so picturesque. The wall just kept going on for miles. The catchphrase of this section, you could spend the day there, but you genuinely could if you wanted to just take it easy, slow down, walk at your own pace and everything. it was absolutely majestic. So I would say, yeah, absolutely. And I think that really summarises my thoughts about Beijing, that I wasn't really sure what to think of it. And I kept saying this to you while we were there. I kept saying, I don't know what to think about Beijing. I don't know whether to think it is just like any other city, because it's not like any other city. It is compact. completely different compared to the other cities, but at the same time, it was just absolutely steeped in this history. I mean, you had the museum, as we said, we had the Forbidden City tour, we had the Summer Palace that we explored, there was Junshan Park, which of course has its own history as well. Of course, we went to Tian Tan Park, which had the, is it right in saying, like a temple place? It's the places that the emperors and his families pray and the worship the gods, their ancestors. So, yeah, it's a really important place for the royal family, I believe. I haven't heard that. this until you'd brought it up and i think you were looking for places and we decided to go but I think we got very lucky because it's a tower that as you said I mean everybody was there waiting for it but at night time they put on the floodlights to illuminate the tower but we got very lucky didn't we because you were telling me that that night was the last night that they were going to light it up for a while The place is let up every Friday and a Saturday night. There was a rumor saying that as in November, they are not going to let public go inside closely to see the building. I'm not sure if it's true or not. So the building is still going to let up every Friday and a Saturday night. But people just couldn't get closer to see it. That's it. So we got increased. Incredibly lucky to stay there until sunset. We got to watch the sunset together. was all very romantic, wasn't it? That's really nice. And seeing people just taking photos. And I'm glad that we made all the memories with those people. We possibly wouldn't see them again. Yeah. But it was very good atmosphere. And just ah waiting for that moment, the lights up. That was great. And of course, we couldn't leave Beijing without a very important foodie memory. We decided that we weren't going to leave without trying Peking Duck, of course. Initially, we found this franchise restaurant, I think you told me, and I don't know what it was about it. I think maybe because of the amount of tourists that were coming in and you started reading
Unique Atmosphere and Culinary Adventures in Chongqing
00:33:05
Speaker
the reviews, I started reading reviews, and it just was kind of lacked. It wasn't saying that the food in there was terrible, but definitely wasn't anything to write home about other than to say, yeah it's not that good. So the restaurant has a long history and it is a well known to people not from Beijing or locals from Beijing. It is famous, but unfortunately, the branch we chose on that day doesn't have
00:33:35
Speaker
good reputation if you know what i mean so the restaurant is a good restaurant so just that that branch happens to be not so good one it was your first experience of picking duck so i want you to have a nice memory about it so i think that's why we decided maybe we give it a miss on that branch and we try another restaurant for some nice experience, I suppose. So that ended up leading us back towards a hotel, wasn't it? It was quite nice in a way because although we didn't go to that place and were worried that the other place was going to close, we decided did that we were going to walk back to our hotel. Well, I think technically we got the metro, but then, you know, we walked back and everything and we found this place that we had walked by a couple of times, I think, because there is a, I think it's like a big duck
00:34:31
Speaker
outside wasn't it like you could sit beside yeah there's a bench outside and they put a stuffed toy duck out there and they were jokingly say this duck has name and duck happened to be the manager of that restaurant yeah but So it's been punished because the dad didn't do his or her job properly. So that's why he was putting or she was putting outside to be a mascot. So that's just a little bit funny story. It was weird because again, as I said, this was Halloween. This is probably one of the, I i mean, in the best way possible, but it's one of the weirdest Halloweens I think I've ever experienced. where we walked the mall, we walked in and Beijing, and then we ended up in this restaurant where we're about to have Peking Duck. When we got inside, because it was Halloween, they decided that they were playing Harry Potter, or at least part of the Harry Potter soundtrack.
00:35:30
Speaker
But it was the same song, you know, the... But it was, like, constantly on repeat. So as soon as it ended, they just played it again, and they played it again. And this went on for a good two, three hours. Ha! before, okay maybe not three hours but a good two hours before they changed it to something else and we had some different dishes and they said that if we wanted the duck it would have to be 45 minutes or so to which we said yeah that's absolutely fine but then unfortunately one of the ducks decided that it didn't want to be part of dinner and And by the duck, I mean, it was already cooked and everything, but the meat fell through into the fire. Yeah, so we had to wait for another duck to be ah available, which was absolutely fine. But once it came out, and I want to preface this as quite possibly one the strangest things. of this trip. And again, in all the quirky ways, but when it came out, I had seen another couple get something similar and they had a briefcase on their table and it looked like a kind of Louis Vuitton briefcase. And I genuinely thought initially, oh wow, there must be business people. But then they left and they left their briefcase behind. So was like, that's really weird. I wonder why they left their briefcase. And then two seconds later, when we were getting our duck, the waitress came over and put a briefcase on her table and then started opening it and I thought okay what's this all about and then she opened it and we're inside and shout out to Andrew my fellow friend co-host who pointed out that looked like a funeral for this duck because she opened it up and it was this painting inside of the briefcase with these plastic flowers around the case and you know it was just this plate with half of the duck in there don't get me wrong the duck was absolutely delicious wasn't it it's nice it was nice so good it was so tasty but what were your thoughts on the presentation i didn't see that before because different restaurants have different presentations for their picking duck but
00:37:29
Speaker
I have to say this one was blowing my mind. As I said, I've never seen that presentation before and i think it's quite unique. Unique's one word for it. I know, I know. Honestly, when the briefcase came out, to borrow your words there, it blew my mind. I was like, yeah, this is Not something I expected, and that's what I was saying to you, that it was one hell of a way to actually spend Halloween in Beijing, especially. Because the fact we're in Beijing to begin with on Halloween, that was incredible. But the fact we went to the Great Wall, we managed to see the tower light up in Tiantan, and then of course we rounded it off with, peking duck in the briefcase. I don't think there's many people who could say that they had that exact same experience that day, but honestly, to summarise the trip, though, in Beijing, I would definitely say that it was amazing seeing how historical it was to get to see the history, to get to see the culture and everything. What about yourself, though? What are your final thoughts on this part of the trip? There's so much to see. There's so much to do. Every day was so different. And unlike other cities, you may find a little bit boring at the end of the trip. But I feel I will never feel bored about Beijing because you always can find somewhere to go, find something to see. if Like yourself, if you are big history fan, you would absolutely love the city. I just hope we can go back at some point in the future and explore more about this gorgeous city. No, that's agree with that. Beijing is definitely the city that leaves you wanting to see more of it. As we said, you know, we didn't get into Tiananmen Square, which is probably a place we'll try to visit next time. We've got the rest of the Summer Palace to see. We've got the other side of the wall to walk. I suppose. The easier parts, though, I've been told. I doubt that, but we'll see. But, yeah, there's honestly so much to see. It's steeped in history. It's got some great, great food. I know we've been going on about buns, but the duck as well. All of the treats, honestly. Just go see it for yourself. It's fantastic.
Tourist Aspects and Cultural Reflections on Chongqing
00:39:46
Speaker
But, of course, unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Beijing on that rather sunny morning on the 1st of November. Hopped on a flight from Air China and we ended up in Chongqing, which is the next part of our adventure.
00:40:03
Speaker
Once we finished our holiday in Beijing on that final sunny day, we prepared to fly over to the highly anticipated Chongqing. While I feared that this experience had peaked back in the other places we had visited, I was really more hopeful about this one. After all, this was the illustrious cyberpunk city that many on social media had been praising. But did it live up to the hype?
00:40:25
Speaker
Well, let's find out. As I was saying there, our last trip took us to the wonderfully unique, let's just say, city of Chongqing, which, yeah, it was an experience, wasn't it?
00:40:40
Speaker
Yes, I've been seeing a lot of advertisement kind of videos about this city. It all looks gorgeous, and I believe the spicy food, that I'm a huge fan of spicy food, so that's always the place i want to go to try their spicy hot pot. Which we did, of course. Which we did, but I thought I'm pretty good at handling spicy food, but I really think it's really, really spicy over there, so they have different levels or definitions spicy food. Spicy. I mean, this is literally the city that has a giant hot spicy pepper statue in the middle of it. They do not hide their pride for their spicy food, their food in general, their hot pots and such. can't... completely agree with you there, just touching on something you mentioned there, that there are a lot of people online who seem to be absolutely praising Chongqing out the backside, because they're so saying, oh my god, it's the Night City, it's the Cyberpunk City, it's so cool, and don't get me wrong, it is crazy. cool on the first day, and we will get into why, you know, we think that. But unfortunately, our first impression of Chongqing wasn't a great one, to be honest. I mean, it was cool. When we got in, we wanted to try and see the famous drone show, and unfortunately, because of the flights and everything and the timing, we missed it. I was really annoyed about that. More about myself because I tried to figure out what is the best flight, right what is the best time we can fly over from Beijing to Chongqing. But it turned out ah the flight that we took it might be the best one we can choose for that day. i thought we possibly could make it, but unfortunately we just missed it. Yeah, and we went with Air China, and Air China wasn't too bad, I have to say. It was very good, you know, very good airline, but there was one guy, and I keep bringing him up whenever we talk about going to Chongqing, he was sitting right across from where I was, and he was one of these people, you've probably met a million of them wherever you're staying, dear listeners. where he was on the phone really loud and he was saying how, according to your translation, of course, he was going to meet the governor of Chongqing or something. All big figures. Yeah, he had his laptop out. He wouldn't put his stuff away, even when the air hostess asked him to. He was treating them like...
00:43:10
Speaker
waitresses. he was a really horrid person, but it was so funny because as soon as the plane landed, and you know what to do when the plane lands. The plane lands, you wait for the seatbelt sign to go off, you unbuckle yourself, and then, you know, in an orderly fashion, you get your hurt bags and everything and you go to the front of the plane. This guy, I i think, was embodying Sonic the Hedgehog. He literally, as soon as that plane hit the tarmac, he grabbed his bag, didn't he? And he did the 100-meter sprint to the front of the plane And I was like, who is this guy? but It's all very confusing. I mean, this guy, and he acted like he has the most important job in the world he has to tackle with. But I mean, really? it was kind of a bizarre introduction. But you thought, you know what? It's just the plane. You can't decide who you're flying with. considering we flew with an influencer as well when we went to Beijing initially. The makeup artist, of course. Before anybody asked, no, I didn't ask him for a Chatsunami collaboration. I don't think he would have came out. But find social media. You did, actually. You were really good at that. i was actually scary how fast you found him. You were just like, you go. I was like, oh my god. Yeah, I basically just searched for a makeup artist with a tattoo all over him.
00:44:32
Speaker
Here we go. Miss Sunami's the head of research at Chatsunami, by the way. It's the quickest way, trust me. No, so we landed in Chongqing, we got our bags, we wanted to try and make it for the drone show, and we got one of the taxi services from the airport. Now, for anyone going to Chongqing, do not get this. Do not use that service because I think that service charged me double the price. And the thing is, I can understand it's a service from the airport to the city, you know, usually they're overpriced. But what I didn't like in particular was the attitude of the driver. Now, you might be thinking, oh, how bad was he? And he was fairly, you know, all right, yeah. Yeah, he was very pleasant to talk to at the beginning. At the very beginning, yes. Then I just tried to make the conversation flow. I asked all the questions about Chongqing. I asked if we can make it to the drone show. And told us, yes, of course, you can make Because according to him, the drone show usually starts at 9pm. So I remember we were taking the taxi around maybe just 20 past 8. So we thought, oh, enough time to make it. Yeah, we have plenty of time as he was driving down. Yes. So the driver offered take us to the place which seems to be the best place to see the drone show. I thought, how lovely the guy is. When we were approaching the place, we actually saw a lot of people walking. Walking away, yeah. Walking away, exactly. Then I asked him what's going on here, why people walked away. said, oh, maybe they just tried to find the best spot to watch the show. And urgently asked us to get off the car. Yeah. Yeah, so we jumped out the car, even though technically don't think we were supposed to, but we jumped out the car, got our bags, we thanked him. I thought, what a lovely person from Chongqing, you know, what an ambassador to this lovely cyberpunk city, what a fantastic guy. And then we went out and we realised that the drone show had ended probably just- Five minutes ago. Yeah, five minutes ago just as we arrived. So not only had we got an overpriced taxi, but the guy had blatantly lied to us. And I didn't let you know. Chat tsunami exclusive. I tried to be polite, so I double-checked the price I should pay him. So I asked, oh, how much I should pay you? But actually, I knew the price. He actually added more to the price. I've been told. That's the thing that really annoyed me. And not so much missing the drone show, because at the same time, Chongqing is filled with many, many lights. You do not need a drone show to see the city lit up and everything. And it would have been cool to see, but at the end of the day, if you miss it, you miss it. It's something to come back to and see another time. But that's what really irritated me. And I was really annoyed when we were ...walking to the hotel because we're walking down the riverside looking at all these lovely things. And, you know, initially we thought, okay, maybe give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he didn't know. And then you're like, well, he's a taxi driver in Chongqing. Surely he would know that. So not only did he lie to our faces, but as you said, he charged you extra. I just didn't like that attitude. I thought that was really underhanded and sneaky. Again, it was like a really poor introduction to Chongqing because we got there when everything was kind of winding down, all the lights were off. There were still people partying and whatnot, but it just wasn't a great first impression. And then, of course, we had to get a taxi to our hotel. Before we went there, I checked all the social media about the drone show and people mentioned that it will be extremely difficult to take taxi back because... Everyone wants one. Everyone wants one. So because I have the Chinese version Uber's app, so I tried to have an Uber or taxi to take us over to the hotel, which wasn't far for driving, but just couldn't find anyone. Yeah, there was even one point you flagged down a taxi, didn't you? And then you just drove away. But the guy said, no, I don't want to go there. Yeah, exactly. Immediately, unlike Beijing, unlike Shanghai, unlike Hangzhou and Shaoxing, where the people could not have been friendly or could not have been nicer, I wouldn't say they were all very open, they were still quite reserved, but if you needed help, they were always there to help you. Chongqing! initially it just seemed like they did their own thing and you're like okay on that night we've been really tired after the traveling i feel like our limit had been reached yeah i feel like our limit had been reached to be honest but eventually we got a uber taxi yeah so it took us over when we arrived in hotel it's about 11.00
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, about 10, 11. And the hotel, oh God. This was definitely the one that took me most by surprise, even more than Beijing, because as we were saying before, Beijing's hotel was in a very old part town and everything. You had to go down all these narrow streets and things and closes. Initially, i thought, oh, I don't know about this hotel. And then eventually when we stayed there, as we said in the last part, the staff were lovely. The hotel was clean, it was safe. Put for trouble.
00:49:53
Speaker
che So we passed by i think it was up the hill from Jifung Bay. For your information, Jifung Bay is a really, really famous tourist attraction. Yeah, it's like the famous street where all the eating places are, where all the shops are, where the Liberation Square is, or Liberation Monument. Everyone was taking a picture of it. So we passed by all these hotels. There was a Hilton, there was a Hyatt, there was Weston, just nearby. And we're going who And you said, oh, the person said it's here. And it was like an office block. We walked through and we're like, where's the hotel? And you were saying, no, it's definitely here. And we're going into this building and that had like a convenience store and a reception. it Turns out that's the top floor of this building, there is another tourist attraction. Yeah. So it's the eye of a city. I couldn't remember the proper name. It's an attraction so you can go up and to just see the whole city. See the whole city, that's it. We were kind of confused. How could it be? And they left, I have to say, it was extremely confusing. It was shocking. We were both exhausted. We were really annoyed at the taxi driver, as we said. We had been walking about maybe an hour through Chongqing trying to get a taxi and carry in our luggage, even though there were small cases, but that's not the point. We were just really tired. It's one of these buildings that's so tall, it's like you have to get one elevator to the 47th floor, and then you have to get out of that and get another lift up to the 64th floor. Which was our hotel, the floor. Yeah, and at that point, i don't know if I said to you at the time, was in the lift. and there was a guy staring at me and usually i look away or I meet their gaze briefly. I just glared at this guy. I was like, I do not have time for you going, oh look, a Westerner. I'm like, this is not the time. This is not the place. I am tired. I am ticked off. Go away.
00:51:51
Speaker
I just glared at him through the mirror because it was sneaky as if I'm going to sneak a peek him through the mirror. like, oh you dare. You put your eyes back in there. So we got to the hotel, which I have to say the hotel itself was at the very least very clean. The room was actually alright. It looked like something out in the 1960s or 70s in terms of decor, i would say, but it was actually a really nice hotel room. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
00:52:16
Speaker
You don't sound convinced there. Uh-huh. No, what I will say is the view for it was incredible. I gave you that and the view was good. The view was absolutely stunning. If you're looking for the view, this is a hotel for it. Bear that in mind that we were at 64th floor. Yeah. What I found quite funny was they had a bath right beside the window where you could look out at Chongqing and everything. I hope no one was doing that during the day because that would be weird. You're in the office across the road and you look up. and there's someone washing themselves. I don't think it from outside can see. Probably not, to be fair. But I didn't take a bath, but i did the cyberpunk thing where I sat in the window very, you know, wistfully looking out at the light. Pouring up a cup of coffee. I did, actually. And at that point, because we were so run down that I caught a cold while we were there, so i was nursing a lame sip as well. Like, oh yeah, I am so hardcore. LAUGHTER
00:53:13
Speaker
but The view was absolutely incredible. And what was quite cool as well, this is a minor thing because we didn't use it as much except for night time, but they had a projector in the room. So they don't have normal TV. It's just a projector. And of course, the projector was connected to the internet, so you can choose... all the films, TV series on the platform. So it was a new experience. So that was cool. But what were, other than the one I'm thinking of in my head, but what was the issues you had with the hotel? So you mentioned the hotel is super clean.
00:53:48
Speaker
Mmm. and I'm not sure about that. Remember, first night or two, i think it was okay. No one disturb us in the morning. But after we came back, after a long day being out there, it's all tidied up. So I'm happy with that. But one morning, I just the found a a fake eyelash sticking to the wall. And you know me, my eyelashes are natural. So it couldn't have been me. So and just for your information, I don't do any makeup at all. Whose eyelash? What was
00:54:19
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Yeah, it was definitely neither of us. And you went to the reception, didn't you? Yeah, so I went to talk to the girls at the reception. They just said to me, oh, sorry about that. so It may be just that the cleaner accidentally. Not saying the cleaner is put to the eyelash. there but it may be the eyelashes stick to their clothes then they touch the wall then the eyelash just stick to the wall and the girl told me they will ask the cleaner to clean this up to be honest i was expecting more about their attitude do they just say okay we'll clean that that's it you can go it was kind of like a there and done situation wasn't it i mean this kind of thing happens It does happen, but it's just the attitude a lot of people. just want their attitude to say, oh, I'm really sorry about that, blah, blah, blah. But they even didn't say that. They just said, oh, that just happens. We'll clean it. On our last day, when we were leaving, there was a guy who came out shirtless. Shouting to the receptionist, saying, waitress, where is my top? So basically, this is true, by the way. So he just came
00:55:26
Speaker
It's just the mental image of we're going home, more like, you know what, we're going back to another place in a couple of days and then we're going home to the UK. It's the last image you think of of Chongqing. It's this guy with his shirt off going, I need my clothes. Yeah, so the story, i thought it might be the guy used their dry cleaning service. Yeah, yeah, He just shouted loud, said, where is my top? And i find that it's very weird to call people waitress. Oh, yeah, 100%. In a hat hotel.
00:55:57
Speaker
Like, ah for anybody. Yeah, well, yeah, that too. But just to treat staff like that, they seem baffling. And it wasn't even, you know I didn't look at them long enough, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same guy from the plane. Yes. You know what I won't choose that hotel again. Although it has a lovely view. The score on the booking.com. It was so high. Right, what I'll say is for this particular hotel, it was rated really good. Everybody was praising it online with the reviews. And it was actually really cheap for, well, again, not really cheap, but it was compared to some of the hotels that we'd stayed in, it was really well priced. And I thought there must be a catch here, surely there must be. I know, but you know what? Next time i possibly would to choose bigger brand. Yeah, absolutely. You know, at least we had Shung Kang.
00:56:47
Speaker
um That that one was paradise. Yeah, that was the best hotel by far, 100%. But as we said, the view was genuinely lovely, but it was 64 floors up, so obviously it had to be in some regard. Once we had a sleep and we shook off that very poor start to the trip in Chongqing, we decided to have, and I put this in my notes, we had a lazy day, which it is not a lazy day at all, because we kept saying that to each other, didn't we? That, oh, we're going to have a lazy day, and I think we only had a lazy day at the very end of this trip, because we were just exhausted. I want out. We really were, mean, between Shanghai, between between Beijing, Beijing especially, Chongqing had just wiped us out. Yeah, can you imagine 30,000 steps at every single day? Yeah, it was absolutely strenuous, let's just say.
00:57:35
Speaker
ah But we decided to go to J4 May, which was, as we were saying, is the tourist area. It has a lot of food. It has a liberation monument and everything. It's definitely, you go there and it does feel very cyberpunk-y because you've got the neon lights going that never stop. Same with the tooting in the street. By the way, fun fact, in this tsunami, I fell asleep one of the nights and I did the sitting the window and I was taking notes and everything I was looking out wistfully to the city. The tooting outside didn't stop until two in the morning and even then there was the odd brr brr. And I think I said this in our Shanghai part of the episode that people say, oh, the city that never sleeps. Shanghai's the city that always beeps. I, a apologize to Shanghai because it has nothing on Chongqing when it comes to people constantly beeping their horns. And that is a thing in these types of roads and big cities. But even for that, that was just ridiculous. You could hear it. do think Chongqing was much more busier. Much, much, much busier than Shanghai. You know, Chongqing is a city built on a mountain. Yeah. So the streets or the roads are relatively narrow and they have so many cars... Because they have, and I laughed when you told me that, they have a thing called the Chongqing Ferrari. And I thought, oh, wonder what that is. It turns out it's just a yellow taxi, which seems very similar to the ones in New York or something. Because you said that when we were walking up, there's a street that's modelled after Manhattan. Tiny section. Yeah, it a Manhattan. Yeah. at it, you went, yeah, I can see that, I suppose.
00:59:10
Speaker
It was quite funny, but of course that first day we walked down, we had some lovely Chongqing noodles from this place. The person was hand-making them, of course, and it was absolutely delicious, that. But funny enough, we came out and you had said that there was this particular speciality from that region that it was double deep-fried pork. or something. Now, if you can hear the accent, of course, we're both in Scotland and we love a bit deep fried food. I'm getting a frowny face there. I love a bit deep fried food. I love it too. It's not deep fried Mars bar though. can't even remember what town it was if it was Stonehaven, but we've actually been to the town in Scotland that invented, quote unquote, the deep fried Mars bar. I'm going to say that there's going to be a Scottish Pandalorian who reaches out and goes, no, no, no, they didn't make And we made it! So we were like, okay, we're curious, and were waiting for ages for them to do it But we were standing behind this guy, and we thought, okay, he'll get his order, then we'll do it. And I thought, okay, I've got to cook it. Let's not rush these things, especially when it comes to meat. But then you said, let's go. And I was like, why? We're next in the queue. And you said, oh, because the guy's bought up all with the pork. And I was like, you're joking. Yeah, and they were just boxing up. They literally made a massive batch of this stuff. And immediately, as soon as they bought all, everybody just cleared out. So again, the report card wasn't looking good for Chongqing. I was like, okay, this is ridiculous. But we had a walk around. It was lovely. And then we walked up the, well, what Chongqing's famous for. Because as you said, it's a city built in the mountains. You can be on the first floor at one point. But it turned out it's other people's 22nd floor. Exactly. So we went up, I think it was Shanchen, the footpath. So we climbed up this tourist hill. And again, as you said, very narrow old staircases, very narrow streets. You're walking up. It did feel like a slice of old China. And I think that kind of grounded me and brought me back to liking Chongqing a little bit more. Because before, it as I said, you're blinded with the neon lights. Everyone's like, oh my god, it's Cyberpunk City. they Like, I know, I've been to the Bund for good sake. But I was like, okay, bit annoyed. And then we got to this bit. And honestly, I was like seeing slices of history because, yeah, there were derelict buildings that I'm assuming they're either going to tear down or reform or whatever. But There was also old residences and stuff like that. And that, to me, was a lot more interesting.
01:01:34
Speaker
It's the same with Beijing, when initially I was like, I don't know, because it seems very antiquated in comparison to what I expected. But then I grew to appreciate that, appreciate them preserving the history. And it was the same with Chongqing, because we walked up these stairs, and we even found, of all things, it was a French church. This is something that is rooted in Chongqing's history, that during the Second World War, it was heavily bombed by the Japanese. So we also found a bunker that you go into for free and learn about the history of Chongqing and how, obviously, the Japanese conveyed it, so they had to bomb it. There was a lot of shelters, bunkers, and this particular French church was a place that they took in people to look after them. And it was a was amazing to see you're like, oh, My God. And then along from that, there was an old primary school that is no longer in use, but they've just preserved it. Funny enough, we looked inside the classrooms as well, and it was really cool to see because we love history. But there's a video I took, and I had to angle it very carefully because there was just people inside having their lunch. And I don't know if this was locals or... I don't know. I think maybe there was staff working there. Yeah, they were just having noodles in the classroom. I thought, you what, fair enough. But we went in, we had a look, and then we went upstairs, and you had to pay five yuan to get up, and it was like a library that you could just sit in for the whole day. could have a cup of tea. They did have some things for sale, but some of the stuff you looked at, even Beijing and Shanghai would have blushed at the prices and gone, how much? I know, lovely stuff though but just the price just too much yeah but we had a seat there for a while because it is lovely and then of course we found the star of the show which was just this cat just lying on a chair and we were right across from it and it just stretched it went so it must be used to people coming in and just relaxing beside it think so and they are not home cats are just straight cats After that, we decided to try the different food just while we're walking down because Chongqing was going to be our foodie part of the trip. I mean, we had the Peking duck. We had all this stuff from Shanghai. Your favourite bo bun from Shanghai. I don't know. The meat bun was a contender from Beijing. Honestly, I still think about that. But they're different. Oh, no, they are different. Oh, they're both. It's like apples and oranges. They're both delicious. I'm glad you used that for some point.
01:04:06
Speaker
It's like meat buns and ball buns, you know? Both amazing. We even had this kind chorizo sausage thing. was so good, wasn't it? It was really good. It was just the right amount of spicy. Oh, so good. Honestly, the food here, what I will say, is a positive. The food was absolutely amazing. But, of course, we walked down further and we got to the, think it was like the traditional townscape unit. You know, was like the more traditional buildings, which was... It was really weird to see because people compare it. This obviously isn't the part that both of us are thinking about, but it's like the spirited away part of the city or one of the parts. It's just the traditional look. Yeah, it's the traditional buildings between all the high rises and things like that. It was really odd, but it was still cool. But that's, of course, where the bunker is. We didn't really spend much time there, but, you know, we had a look and it was quite cool. And that was the same day that we actually had to get an elevator from the bridge, which was always lit up red at night, all the way down to a place called Hooguang Guildhall, where we saw, and I think this is something you found, because we're trying to look for the place, but... It's where have a courtyard and things that you look around, but they also put on performances as well. You buy a ticket and you can go in and you can have tea and snacks and watch the show. Yeah, so that was actually one of the highlights for me for Chongqing, because had the face changing, which I don't know how the hell they do it, honestly. It's so damn impressive, because the guy actually came out and just started doing it right beside you. You're like, how the hell are you doing that you had dancing as well you had the musicians you had the more traditional performance where it was the people stomping pulling the rope that was quite cool again it was quite interesting to see that side of yeah so maybe just the equivalence of you know the fishman singing or something like that Yeah, like a walking song, yeah. Like a working song, yeah. And they also had the really impressive tea pouring, which I thought was so funny because of them came out to pour tea. I have to say the water was lukewarm, but I'm glad it was lukewarm because I can't imagine flinging a teapot like that that was boiling water. But it was actually really impressive. It was almost like a mini watering can almost because it had a long... Can you call that? Yeah, log snoot. Let's go with that. We're just thinking of her paw ducer at home. Yeah, the long spout that poured the tea and, you know, they flip it around. That was really cool.
01:06:37
Speaker
its Extremely long and thin. Yeah, so it took precision to aim it. But the one that I have to admit was the funniest by far. This is where think Miss Nami's going to roll her eyes at me here. So these two guys dressed in the traditional suits and, like, fedora hat and these two women in cheap house. It honestly looked like the beginning of a bond. introduction, where it was like the women in the background, they were dressed very elegantly they were dancing, and the other two were dressed with sunglasses on everything, and they were singing and there was explosions and fire and everything behind them and the peppers going. And I was like, wonder what they're singing about? You know, this must be quite a deep cultural pop song or something. And what was it about? It's a song about hot pot. Yeah, it was a song about hot pot. It's like me coming out in glasses dressed as James Bond, singing about fish and chips or haggis. For me, I feel really awkward to see that. But for you, you maybe don't understand what they are saying, so you think it may be okay? Yeah, I thought it was alright, but could see you cringing at the same time. You were just like, no. It is very courageous. But it was still funny, though. And it's memorable, at least, you know. Okay, okay. So you're happy? The one time I'm being positive here and you're like, no, no, no, no. Don't you dare bring that to this. I definitely would recommend you to try if you are there. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely.
01:07:58
Speaker
It is actually really impressive. And again, you get, well, say free. You still have to pay for it, but you still get the tea and everything. It's all included the film. Yeah, that's what saying, though. It's like you have to obviously pay for the experience, but you get the tea with it and the snack and you have to buy extras if you want. But it was still cool. Yeah, I did like that. I did think that was really impressive. So after that, I'm actually reading my notes about what happened next and I forgot about this. I can't believe this was the same day. So after that, we decided to walk around and try and find Hot Pot, to which we were accosted by a stranger who came up and decided to berate you for your choice in Hot Pot.
01:08:37
Speaker
So the story was we walked into, ah you know, the bubble tea shop first. So I thought, oh, those people must from local. So I decided to ask them about my dinner choices. So yeah I asked them, what restaurant do you recommend recommend for hot pot? So the young gentleman told me, oh, there is a restaurant he likes and he would recommend to us. So, OK, I put that restaurant address on my map and we were just looking for the restaurant. Then all the gentlemen popped up from our back and just tried to talk to us. Say, oh, what you are looking for? I said, I'm looking for this restaurant. And ah he said, I'm not sure if I would recommend you to that. That restaurant is popular because of all the advertisements. But actually to the local, they are not that good. Then he started to tell me how good the other restaurant is I wasn't sure about his recommendation first.
01:09:38
Speaker
Then another guy popped around to say, yeah, that one is good. That one is it really good. The thing that you're underselling in this story is it wasn't like we were in the bubble shop, someone recommended it and then another person came behind us and said, no, no, that's not the case. We were coming back from this touristy square and There was several people dressed up as Sun Wukong, a gold military man, the king of typical tourist things, which I will get onto later. But we're walking away from that, and this guy popped out of nowhere because you were looking at it on your phone. And you just looked at your phone and was like, oh where are you going? And then did that is how we got into the conversation. like, no, no, no, try this place, try this. And have to say, i was half expecting him to walk in while we were having dinner at that place, that he was like a part owner or something. Of course, that's when we tried Chongqing hot pot. Well, I say we tried it. I tried the less spicy version. You tried the more spicy version. More spicy version is actually I only ordered for mild spicy. Was that mild? Yes. Oh my. God. There's a reason why they pride themselves in their spicy food, doesn't it? So they have different tolerances for Tolerance, absolutely. Absolutely, no wonder, that's ridiculous.
01:10:49
Speaker
Because I tried a wee bit and I was like, yeah, no, this is going to burn a hole through me. This is. not the best. Well, it's tasty enough, but I thought, no, way too spicy. But yeah, what were your thoughts on it though? Was it something that lived up to your expectations or were you just like... I mean, the flavour absolutely wonderful, but I feel like I can have the similar flavoured or similar quality hot pot everywhere else. So I don't think it's really special for me. That's my only thought about it. i
01:11:22
Speaker
really enjoyed it, but I just think it's not as special as i thought it would have be. Then after that, we decided to walk off the hot pot and we went to a particular viewing platform in one of the tourist streets. Again, I think it was Xia Ha Li Street, where it's like you walk up the stairs, there's all these things plastered on the walls. It's like I'm in Chongqing and things which, other than the fact it's advertised as the cyberpunk city, this is the other big thing that people seem to love about Chongqing, that there's big signs everywhere saying, I'm in Chongqing, just in case you forget, when you're halfway up a mountain and then you go, oh yeah, if I'm not in Beijing or Shanghai anymore, they really emphasise that for the tourists, don't they? Because there's a lot of spots I think are trying to, again, I'm not saying it's like Shanghai because it's completely different, but I think they're trying to do that similar thing of saying, here's our landmarks, here's the particular things, put that on Instagram or Red Note or whatever, to advertise this city. For sure. They're trying to lean into that. It definitely felt like that. On the one hand, it was lovely. There was a lot of lovely places, but on the other hand, it felt very, to borrow a phrase from you at the time, it felt very commercialised, didn't it? Which is a shame because, as I said, there's a lot of great historical areas and obviously you can pick and choose what you go to see Chongqing. I'm not doing a blanket statement saying, oh, it's the worst city ever because it's not. But it did feel as if they were leaning into the tourist aspect If I see one more TikTok or one more video describing this as the Cyberpunk city, I will scream because the amount of videos I got while we were there was flicking through my social media and it's like, oh my god, it's the Cyberpunk city. And it was the same accent every single video and I was like, I get it. They like their lights. They love their lights. They love their beeping. You can't get a wick of sleep. I get it. It just felt very repeat. competitive, you know that way? Because you can spot it a mile off when countries in particular cities are advertising for a particular place and they always have the same buzzwords. And you think, oh, that might be cool, or that might be cool. But this one seemed very overt and there was people almost everywhere just trying to sell you something. And don't get me wrong, you get that the big cities in China, like Beijing and like Shanghai, but I didn't feel it was as... much as in Chongqing? Yeah, because don't get me wrong, it's... quite, as you said, it's narrow streets for a huge population, so granted it's going to be a lot busier, and especially with the tourists, but it was just really, I don't know, it just it felt very different, didn't it? You mentioned that in Shanghai, in Beijing, people try to sell you things, but it's more like they try to sell you for their photographing service. Yeah, because with Beijing and Shanghai, there are on a lot of scenic spots, and there's a lot of spots that you would want to be on social media, like the Bun, the Pearl Tower in Shanghai, or the Red Brickstone or the Forbidden City in Beijing. So you can see why people would want to be photographed there and everything. And Chongqing did have a couple of those, but was like everything, wasn't it? Yeah, but I was going to say, in Chongqing, people try to sell you one-day trips.
01:14:33
Speaker
Uh-huh, yeah. It feels everywhere. People try to sell you these one-day trips or another three-day cruise trips. I feel a bit overwhelming, to be honest. It did, because it was like every couple of steps. It wasn't even like, you know where in Shanghai they were contained? to those areas in Beijing for obvious reasons, but for Chongqing it was like every time you went to another place there were just hundreds of them, and even when we went to the Spirited Away village place it was lit up at night, and that was impressive, but even when we went there there was just hundreds of people offering services and So that got a little bit annoying, I will say. And I know that might not be fair because it is a tourist place. They're obviously targeting tourists from China and abroad to say, oh, get your photo, get this. It's typical of a normal city like that. But yeah, it just it got very annoying very fast when you had to go from these other cities. And even in Hangzhou and Shaoxing, I know they're smaller in comparison, but even when people offered you stuff, you kind of put up your hand and said, no, thank you. Whereas these people were very persistent. You're like, bugger off, go. hey just to say i'm chinese right and i'm you're what sorry i'm chinese oh my god i'm chinese and it was my first time to visit chungqing even from my own perspective i think chungqing maybe not my place to go because personally i do not like my photos to be taken by million times i'm not a poser for photos and i do not like to share ah my personal life on social media either so i do not think that's my place to go but i do enjoy the food but if you you like your photos to be taken you like to share your traveling photos on your social media i would recommend you to go this place because you can absolutely take hundreds thousands photos and it would be lovely to show to your family friends or your followers online It's definitely good. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Because you could honestly make a social media channel just around Chongqing because it is so scenic.
01:16:36
Speaker
It's got, as we said, that hurts me inside to say it, it's got the cyberpunk aesthetic and everything, which the light pollution, you know, I'm not going to criticise them if they want to run up the electricity bill. That's the first thing you said after you saw all the lights. Very Scottish. say Very Scottish. Saying, my God, the electricity bill must be insane here. But it reminds me of, and I can't believe if we keep bringing Glasgow into this, but in the planetarium and the science centre, you can go and see the night sky and everything, or a simulated night sky, and they talk about how all the cities here have light pollution, so we can't see the night sky as clearly. You have to go to a more rural area to see all the stars naturally, obviously when it's not a cloudy day, but they show you a before and after of, oh, this is it with light pollution, this is it without light pollution. There was honestly a halo of light above Chongqing. That's how bright it was. And obviously they turned it off at about half nine, ten-ish, I would say. And I was like, this is... Again, it's cool to see and you take the pictures. It's different. It's different. It's very interesting. And then as soon as that first, second day wears off, if you're like, yeah, I've kind of had enough of this particular aesthetic. The other thing, this leads us on to day two, of course, was Chongqing, other than loving a good light and loving a good hot pot and a pepper, they love their shopping centres, don't they? Holy heck, how many shopping centres does a city need to have? Because the amount of shopping centres we were in And again, it wasn't even just the shop, it was just the kind of see them. And that might sound weird coming from here, being like, well, a shopping centre's a shopping centre, what can you see from it? It will blow your mind.
01:18:19
Speaker
It is actually insane how they love a good aesthetic. There was one with a waterfall and things, and we were actually be quite lucky, because if you wanted to go into that part of the... The grand floor? Yeah, you had to pay for it, but unfortunately... We couldn't. Well, fortunately and unfortunately. We couldn't because I don't have a Chinese number. So in China, a lot of service, you have to sign in with your phone number because i don't have one and i don't want to use my family phone numbers. So we just say, just leave it. And that was good because you could see the whole thing from above and all the other four. So honestly, even if you do have the opportunity and... I mean, if you want to see it, if you want to see a plastic pumpkin face to face, sure, go in and see it. But as I said, they had the waterfall and everything. That was just bizarre. And I remember you turned round to me at one point and you said, oh, one all of them has an aquarium. And I was like, okay, so what do you mean, like... They had cinemas in there as well. So I just kind of assumed, oh right, you mean like inside you walk in and you see it? No, no, no, no, no. It was in the middle of the shopping centre. There was a full blown aquarium. You know, I'm talking sharks, stingrays, all of these fish going by. People actually swimming in it, diving. Again, it was like a James Bond intro because you had these male and female divers just going down and coming up and everything. I was like, what in the cyberpunk is going on here? It was baffling. You I know, I know. Possibly you would expect that the shopping centre would be the last place so you see any sea life.
01:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, because the first shopping centre, the one with the waterfall and the plastic bumpkins, that was the, I know if it was the O-Ring or Ringel shopping centre. Apparently it's quite popular, but of course we kind of lost count about the names of these shopping centres because there's just so many. So many of them, i I don't know how could it be possible they have so many shopping centres because Chongqing, I assume Chongqing is not extremely big. Yeah, ahha because you have to get the metro out to them. But I suppose the people there must enjoy spending time over there and or spend their money over there. They honestly must, because these places were massive. And you know, you could get lost in them. And I don't mean that in the Beijing, oh, you could spend the day there. I mean more like Ikea. When you get in and you kind of find your way out, and you're like, oh my god, where's the exit? Get me out of here. Oh, Jesus. Sorry, I was having flashbacks to Ikea the last time went there. Yeah, so we went there, we came out. It was actually quite cool because we saw was like an area, it kind of took away the allure of it because it was right across from a Miniso or a Miso, you know, the Miniso shop. But there was a big statue where it was like, oh, this is where we found dinosaur bones. And I was like, oh, that is very neat. Yeah.
01:21:05
Speaker
Why is that a cross from a mini-sole? What the hell? But we went there and we went down this, again, food market. tried a couple of things. Huge shout out to you, Anne, for the potatoes. it a minute or two extra in the oven, but you're doing great.
01:21:18
Speaker
I think i didn't like the apple potato criy crispy yeah well sorry crespe they like Okay, that's a another way to put it. Again, that'll be for when we go to Yuan, of course. Yunnan. Yunnan actually was recommended by a lot of my families. They asked, why? Why you choose Chongqing over Yunnan province? you You possibly enjoy that more, but I wasn't even thinking about Yunnan province Because I think it may be too much further down south. So Beijing, for your information, is up north. It may be too much traveling to go. So we choose the Chongqing as the central part of China. I mean, would you like to go back? I mean, I possibly would go back to Chengdu, which is not far from Chongqing. But Chongqing, I may give it a miss for the next time. I would say so, yeah, because, i mean, after we went to the food market and everything, we did have that really nice cruise down the Yangji River. Oh, yeah, that was beautiful, isn't it? That was beautiful because it kind of reminded me a bit of poetry. Seven years ago when we met, that was one of the final things you and i did when we first met. Took the cruise on the band. we took the cruise in Shanghai down the river, it was all lit up, it was very romantic, but of course we did the same thing seven years later in the Yangji River, and it was beautiful because you got to sail by the quote-unquote spirited away building, and we got to see that very famous, you know, the building, you're on the first floor, and then you get the lift up to the 21st floor or 22nd floor, but oh! spoilers it's actually the first floor of this area you know we saw all the heavy hitters and things and yeah i be we went to the zoo which was really cool and we'll get on to that of course soon but would i go back i mean if you're passing through and you saw the drone show going maybe but i wouldn't spend this time we possibly spend four days there i would just cut it it it back to one or two days would be enough I would say so. Unless you're an extroverted person or you just love the area, you know. I feel as if there are certain things for you to do in Chongqing, but compared to... It's just not our thing. Yeah, it just wasn't our
Return Journey and Reflections on the Trip
01:23:31
Speaker
thing. And I do feel as if they oversell it. Because as I said, in the last day we took it a bit more easy. We went to the zoo, we went to see the pandas, which was so funny They're so lazy. were just eating bamboo. They had hundreds of people photographing them and watching them. would love to become a panda if I have the next life.
01:23:51
Speaker
Oh, no, they're just so lazy. They're so funny. We also saw the red pandas, of course, which I was extremely excited for. And after we saw the pandas and the red you guys are having a conference over there, remember? Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was very productive. I think we were talking about our quarterly Apple consumption. I think we had a good meeting for that. Unfortunately, Martin and Andrew can make it to the meeting or Adam either. But you know what? I think we had a very, very productive meeting. But the zoo's nice. The only downside of the zoo, and again, this is more of a foreigner than China mentality here, but the only downside of it was that when you're walking through as a foreigner, you almost feel like one of the exhibits with people staring at you. For the most part, I think people were too busy with the pandas and things, obviously, but there was a lot of people. And then all you hear in the background was these kids going, Oh, look, a foreigner. And you're like, oh, great, thanks for that. Oh, your Chinese definitely improved. Well, la wai, la mo ren. I mean, those are the phrases you hear immediately. You're like, yep, okay, what are they saying about me? But yeah, it was interesting to see that because you couldn't go to Chongqing or Chengdu without seeing the pandas. And we also went through that... So there's another thing that really annoyed me. It was something that everybody built up and they were look out for this metro station that goes through a building. And I think we went through three separate buildings because was like, is this the famous building? Nope. Is this the famous building? Nope. Is this it? Yes. So I was like, oh, okay. And obviously you're supposed to take the picture. And everyone was like, oh my God, it's a train through a building. And I was like, okay. I know when you saw that from other people's social media, you thought, oh, how amazing is that? But ourselves, we were just in that metro going through the building. It's just like go through other metro station. Yeah. There is no other different feelings. You literally would not be able to tell unless somebody pointed out and said, oh, we're going through a building. You're like, It is just a metro station, but above the metro station, they decided to build more residential buildings. So that's it. But from outside, does look like go through the whole building. It must be a pain in the backside if you have a cup of tea in that building, though. And then all of a sudden the metro comes rolling. Everything's shaking. I don't know.
01:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, after that, we definitely took it easy because I think they were building up to a, it was like some kind of certain event. And by that point, we were really checked out. We went to the museum there, which we're doing an exhibit on, again, calligraphy. China's favourite thing to put a museum, calligraphy and the official seals and stamps. But it was free for that day, so we just decided to walk in and thought, okay, fair enough. have. We are cultured. Oh, absolutely. We're culture vultures. But after that, we really just went down. We wandered about town. We had dinner. And then we just really ordered in, watched films. And yeah, we had a very peaceful end. Because I think at that point, we were both feeling really run down. We had a cold and everything. It was definitely a busy part. But of course, after that, we took a plane back to Hongjo with Sichuan Airlines. And you were very disappointed because they didn't feed us from the plane. But they gave us these biscuits, and for any Scottish panel, you will be very proud of my tsunami here. And we were eating these biscuits, and they tasted very familiar. And what was it you said in the middle of the air? They tasted like... Malted milk! Malted milk! I nearly choked on my biscuit, because I was like, yeah, you're right, they taste like malted milk. And then I was like, when have you had malted milk? And you're like, you know, you're there and everywhere. I was like, oh my god, you have definitely been... I'm half Scottish now. You are 100%. You are half Scottish by far. thought I'm so proud of you. But that, of course, led to us getting ready to come back home with everything. We got all our stuff organised. And, of course, yeah, we ended up getting our flight from Shanghai, where... And the last day we kind of spent some time in Shanghai. We just got our last minute gift shoppings and had our last minute noodles, which seems to be a thing that you and I do in Shanghai, isn't it? We go out to the city and we find a random noodle place because we did that. Of course, when we first left seven years ago, we had noodles as our last meal. And then, of course, we made it to the airport and then we just flew back home to Edinburgh back. I have to say, a kind of summary to the journey part itself, that was such a long journey, wasn't it? Yeah, because we had to take three connection flights when we came back. I didn't know, or I don't know why, when we went to China, it only had two connection flights. But when we came back, it just became three. Yeah, that was over 26 hours overall for journey. It was a really, really, really long journey. But we made it. We survived. Yeah, because the amount of times we had to go through security, that was... Three times. Yeah, three times. That was so annoying. Because the first time, obviously, Shanghai, expected it. That's absolutely fine going on the plane itself. But then we got to Helsinki and there was another line and it was like, Jesus, we have to. Yeah, because when we went back, we didn't go through any security check in Helsinki. But when we came back to Scotland, unfortunately, their border control rules have been changed. So I think that's why we need to go through another security check in Helsinki. And then when we went from Helsinki to... Heathrow. Heathrow. God, Heathrow. Of course, Heathrow, you have to go through the security check again. But the thing I don't like about the Heathrow one is, again, it's more relaxed, I would say, inside, not on the outside when you're boarding the plane, but it's when you come off the plane and you have to catch a bus to the other terminal and you think, alright, that's okay, we'll just get it to the other terminal and then we'll hop off, but no, you're immediately, once you hop off it, you're hit with the oh, by the way, did you know that You have to get another security check? And I was like, oh god, not again. So I was just absolutely shattered. But you were as well, of course. But yeah, we ended up just getting dinner. And you were just at that stage though, weren't you? We were just like, yeah, we just want to get home. And of course, the flight, you blinked and you missed it. It was barely an hour, wasn't it? It You were up in the air and you were back down before you knew it. No malted milk, sadly, but you did get an oat cake, which is pretty good. Honestly, you were like, oh God, it feels like... See, as a summary to this whole trip and everything, what were your favourite moments of it? And how would you rank each city that we visited? The most nice part, of course, seeing families. Of course. For me, seeing families. And be honest, I was glad I took you and showed you around because as Chinese, I kind of took it for granted. To be honest, didn't appreciate as much as do now after I showed you around. It made me look at the country or look at the cities from visitor's view. I found, there are a lot of things didn't even notice before. So it's a new experience for me as well. Although I've been to some of those cities before, but now I feel like have new understanding for those cities. about how to rank those cities don't know i like my own city i like hanzhou i like shanghai and beijing it's just i'm not so sure about chongqing still a nice place to explore but for me i possibly wouldn't go back but never say never i possibly still go back next year or in a few years i don't know Yeah, because I feel as if with Chongqing, it is very social media driven, you know, because have to say, you were really surprised when I said to you that, oh, I'd never heard of Chongqing before, and it kept popping up in social media right beside Chengdu, which I had heard of. Obviously about their panda conservation and things, but I had never really heard of Troll Ching before, and there was a lot of things even you were pointing out, and I was like, why is that famous? Why is that famous? Especially because unfortunately on the second last day, it started spitting with rain, and I was like, ah, it's fine, it's no problem. This isn't like the Scottish weather and then two seconds later the heavens opened and it was absolutely got drenched and there was this sign in the middle of just above a road, a really busy road, where everybody was out in the rain taking photos and videos of it and literally it's just a billboard that counts down and says, you're in Chongqing and it's like, Yeah, a lot of things is actually social media famous. Yeah, it feels like an influencer's paradise. And I know I said that about Shanghai as well, because obviously you've got the bund and things, but it feels like they're definitely trying to push that angle. Yet at the same time, you can definitely see a lot of the old part of town seeping out, you know? And I'm not saying that as a criticism. I'm not saying, oh, that's terrible, you should brush away kind of thing. Because would have loved to have seen more of Chongqing. historical areas and things. It was cool to see this city that is built into the mountains and things. It was really cool to see. I don't regret going there by any means. No, no, no. I definitely feel as if, compared to the other cities, it just seemed as if, ironically enough, much like the face-changing guy, it felt as if at times they were trying to put on that touristy mask And obviously cities like that have to because they need tourists to come in and give them money to invest in the city itself.
01:33:33
Speaker
But it felt as if at times, although they obviously didn't hide the history of it or who they were as people, it did seem as if it was very, oh, look at the pretty lights, oh, look at this. It was very bright and colourful. And I mean, it was very impressive. But compared to the other cities, and obviously I'm biased with Shaoxing, but I just loved how traditional at times Shulshengfelt and Hangzhou as well although technically we were in the touristy area and things but I liked those areas I did think they were very again scenic but also very open and honest about what they were and with Beijing and Shanghai they are international ...in national cities, so obviously you're going to get this clash of traditional culture versus modernity coming up with the buildings. And especially with Beijing, I would say of all the cities other than Shaoxing, because always love Shaoxing, big place in my heart here, but I feel as if Beijing is the one that surprised me the most, and it's the one that i thought, I don't know about this city, and then it really grew on me. Shanghai... Shanghai is Shanghai. Shanghai is Shanghai. It didn't really change very much from the seven years. I mean, it changed, but not drastically. You're like, oh, there's the band, there's the tower. That's not going to change anytime soon. Hangzhou, we didn't really see much of Hangzhou, but from what we saw... It's all similar from last time. Yeah, exactly. While I would say, and this goes back to a question you asked me, would I go back to Chongqing? Probably not. If we end up there, we end up there kind of thing, but I wouldn't go out my way to be like, oh, you have to see it. I mean, maybe for a day or two, yeah, go see the lights, go see the cyberpunk city as it were.
01:35:07
Speaker
Don't go out your way unless that's something you really want to see. But I have to just clarify here, we only speak our own experience. It doesn't to represent other people's opinions. Oh, 100%. For listeners from that area, we didn't mean to offend you by any means. This is something I always say in episodes of Chat Tsunami, that everything that I say is my opinion, or in this case, it's our opinion, and any other opinions are absolutely welcome. Absolutely. It's just that like we mentioned that before, the city it's lovely. A lot of things to see, but maybe those things are not our things. So if you haven't been there, please do not just believe me into the words and
Closing Thanks and Future Excitement
01:35:51
Speaker
we were saying. You have to see by yourself. Maybe it would be your favorite city. Go into it not listening so much to our words. Take our words with a pinch of spicy pepper, but conversely, take the opinion of all these influencers saying, oh my god, this is the most amazing city ever. It's really not. I don't mean that a criticism of Chongqing. What I mean that is, don't buy into the hype, whether it's Chongqing, whether it's Beijing. Temper your expectations initially. It applies to anywhere. Yeah, exactly. Temper your expectations going in and then see for yourself. Make your own decision about the city. Because, I mean, there was a lot of clubs and pubs and things, which I thought was pretty cool, to be honest, that were underneath the... The bridge. ah The bridge for the riverway and things. You had the metro as well going under the bridge. Another bridge, of course. And at night when the lights up, it was stunning. I mean, you can take it away from Chongqing that it wasn't beautiful, because it was. At times it really was, but it almost felt a bit overwhelming at times. So as a summary, I'm not saying Chongqing's bad. So glad that we got to see it. I'm so glad that we got to. It's well experienced. As I was saying before, the cultural aspects of it, when we went to see the school, the church, that particular area, which I know is slightly touristy, but we got to see a slice of Chongqing's past and everything. Whereas if you stayed in Jifongbei Street for the whole thing, I think you would get tired of it really fast. But if you are foodie, you can taste all different kinds of food. Oh yeah, 100%. This was definitely high up there for the food aspect of it. Yeah, that concludes our trip of China for the fifth anniversary. Absolutely. I just want to give a huge shout out to you, Miss Tsunami. Thank you so much for joining me and coming with me to see everything in China. na I enjoyed every minute with you going through all the cities and trying all different foods, taking a look of different places. I loved every minute of it. And i just hope we can do it in the near future. Hopefully next year can do it again. or the year after so i really appreciate how you invite me over on this episode and i know i could be really nervous at some point so i wasn't that fluent as you or your guest you're invited on the show before but i tried my best and i do hope everyone who listened to this episode can really enjoyed it and nice to be part of your fifth anniversary special show No, honestly, I can only reiterate thank you so much, because honestly, it was a fantastic experience. Again, not only doing the podcast and finally getting you on for an episode, because we've been talking about it for ages, being like, oh, do you want to come on?
01:38:39
Speaker
Oh, you know, I had to prepare myself. I was really nervous. I don't know what to talk about. But no, you've been absolutely fantastic. And I'm not just saying that because all love you, you know. So, no, thank you so much. And thank you, Pandalorians, for listening to this episode. So here's to thank more years of Chatsunami.
01:38:59
Speaker
You don't need me to explain how vast China is. After spending barely 17 days there, I still feel like we almost scratched the surface and there was so much to see. It's something this tsunami always tells me, to leave something for the next time we travel. And you know what? I am so excited to see what new adventures we have in the future. Not only am I the luckiest podcaster to have experienced this trip, but I got to spend this milestone of the show with the woman I love, and that is something that cannot be beat. And to all the Pandalurians out there listening, thank you so much for the years of support. What started as a silly side hustle in 2020 has continued to evolve and if not for both your support and of course my amazing friends, the creators that I've met and downright brilliant people who have encouraged me on this journey, I wouldn't be here talking to you.
01:39:47
Speaker
It's because of you i do what I do and I cannot praise you enough for it. So again, thank you so, so much. But as always, if you would like to check out more of our episodes, then you can check us out on our website, chatsanami.com, as well as all good podcast apps.
01:40:01
Speaker
I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, both past and present, for supporting us on this journey. You have been absolutely fantastic and we could not have done the show without you. Of course, I'm referring to Robotic Battle Toaster, Sonya, Ghosty and Cryptic 1991. also want to give a huge shout out to our other Pandalorian patrons who have been so supporting us. That is, of course, the Z1 Podcast, Danny Brown, Andrew, Middle-Aged Podcast, Rob Harvey, The Super Ghost Podcast and... Billy Shracken.
01:40:32
Speaker
Thank you all so so much for the support. Honestly, it means the world. And if you'd like to support us as well and become a Pandalorian patron, as well as fun similar episodes like this in the future, then you can check out our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. We will have a whole host of bonus content from early acts to exclusive episodes, Twitch VODs, bloopers and the like, so definitely go check that out.
01:40:58
Speaker
This episode is of course a proud member of the Podpack Collective. For further information check us out on our Twitter slash X page at Podpack Collect. But as always, and after five years Pandalorians, thank you all so so much for listening. You honestly are fantastic. Stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated.