7th November: Chongqing, China to Wushan, China
Looking out on one last morning in Chongqing, coal ships pootled on down the Yangtze. Fog shrouded the mountains and their human equivalents in the foreground. It was time to leave the 8th dimension. I still felt very fragile and even more so when I smacked my head as we were leaving. A little behind time, we still got ourselves to the station in time to get coffee before boarding. Such are the size of Chinese train stations, Chongqing North has two metro stops on the same line – one at each end of the concourse!
We were heading out in to provincial Chongqing. The city government itself runs an area about the size of Austria, which is why it is sometimes mistakenly declared the world’s most populous city. It is, if you include the 70% who live outside of the metropolitan area!
It became sunnier as we headed northeast, following the direction of the Yangtze. A baby behind me climbed over the back of my seat to say hello. We then had great fun opening and closing the blinds. When his mum looked the other way, he came around and perched next to me. It made me smile and was exactly what I needed this morning. We’d been allocated separate seats, so Kaja missed the fun!
As we passed Yun Yang, the impacts of the Three Gorges Dam became apparent for the first time. The infrastructure here was incredible, even by Chinese standards. Incredible amounts of high-speed rail and highway viaducts crossed deep flooded valleys before plunging into tunnels. It was through these tunnels that our train touched 307 km/h, the fastest we’ve been so far. Wushan station was perhaps the most picturesque place I’ve disembarked from a train. In the gorgeous afternoon light, deep green mountains shot up behind perfectly still deep valleys of water.
The bus to town took a while and deposited us at the bottom of about 150 steep stairs to find our hotel. The landscape of the town is so steep that it makes Chongqing look flat! The nearest comparison I have for it is Monaco. It was a faff to check in, as they weren’t sure on the paperwork for foreign visitors (and every member of staff wanted to look at our passports). This turned in to a theme as we headed out to explore. Heads turned and people stopped in their tracks to look at us, some open mouthed (I’m not exaggerating!). We’ve gotten used to being stared at, but this was on another level! I don’t think many foreign tourists must make it to Wushan.
It was a beautifully sunny afternoon, about 24C and with the low autumn sun creating gorgeous light. We ventured back down to the waterfront, along the promenade to where the Yangtze proper ‘flows’. It was a lovely space lined with street food stalls and locals playing cards, eating sunflower seeds, and chatting. We tried some fried potatoes and a deliciously refreshing passionfruit lemon iced tea. A musical water sprayer (yes, really) shuttled along the road to dampen down any dust. River cruise ships sat below, their passengers on day trips. The new red bridge over Wushan gorge dominated the view across the bay. Amazingly, when it was built, the road deck was 180 metres above the river.
The bridge begins to tell the story of Wushan, for the entire original town sits deep below the emerald water in the bay. The town of 100,000 was sacrificed to the rising waters behind the Three Gorges Dam, part of the total of 1 million who were displaced by the megaproject in the early years of the 2000s. New towns were built uphill and entire villages moved to other regions. Some stayed behind until the last minute to grow the final crops on their historical lands, before leaving in a hurry as water levels silently increased by up to 15 cm an hour. Most people here seem happy with the new Wushan, as development in this historically poor area was vastly accelerated by decades. I still can’t help but wonder though how often those old enough to remember the old Wushan think of their old homes and lands.
The new shoreline, halfway up what were formerly mountains above town, leads inexorably upwards into a very pleasant new town centre. We embarked up the main staircase, not quite realising that it was over 600 steps up to get to the square! More steps go up from here on a grand axis and further levels are still being built up to a viewing platform. I think it must be 1,500+ steps from bottom to top! One of the main streets apparently translates to the very apt Smooth Lake Road. This relates to a Mao poem, written after a swim in Yangtze, where’s he dreamt of becalming its treacherous middle reaches. In the town, we found a lovely little hot pot place where we had all kinds of tofu and veggies in a tomato broth. I enjoyed this meal so much, more than anything else I’ve eaten in weeks. It felt amazing to get some delicious flavours without oil and spice. Wushan even turned up with a decent supermarket where we got all kinds of unusual looking snacks and even some bottled oat milk coffee!
