Coming 2028 (hopefully)
😂 This would be such a cool movie poster! Maybe I try to audition in the next one if they reboot the franchise.
After Chengdu and all the panda merchandise, I came to the conclusion that I need to buy an extra suitcase, so where else better to buy than at a fake market!
The fake market opens around 11 AM, so we got to sleep in a little. The hotel room had these automated blackout curtains, and it would be pitch black. Super luxurious at such a cheap price. $52 a night, but split with two, so $26 a night! Here's the view from the hotel room:
Another view from the hotel:
That's one thing that really saddened me about Chongqing, the disparity of wealth in the city. Although it is not to the extreme like Hong Kong, Hong Kong is known for this contrast and coexistence. Chongqing's skyline only erupted in the past 10 years, and they could not renovate the surrounding buildings with it? I could not imagine waking up to no sun, and not even knowing there's a whole metropolis above me.
Any ways, here is the complimentary breakfast:
By far the best hotel breakfast I ever had. Beats every continental breakfast with frozen eggs I had during my hockey tournaments.
The fake mall was about a 20-minute walk along the embarcadero from the hotel.
The more I think of it, the more Chongqing is like San Fransokyo from Disney's Big Hero 6. That is probably the most accurate comparison and description of Chongqing.
On the way to the fake mall, we passed by Luohan Temple. Here are some photos:
I probably should have done more research into this fake market before coming because these were some of the worst quality fakes I have seen in my life.
I was looking for just a cheap carry-on suitcase, but I was not willing to negotiate any suitcase they offered because they were terrible. Take a look some of the bags they have here 😂:
I felt bad for dragging Cole out to the fake mall to end up getting nothing, but he said the misprinting was worth it for the entertainment.
We ended up walking back to Jiefangbei Square to shop at an authentic mall. I came out with a suitcase and got a DJI camera. My bank account was not ready for that hit, but money comes back (hopefully). Nevertheless, once I get back to the States, I will do this to my bank account:
Do not entirely know where or how I am going to build my income for the next year, but I am very optimistic about the parlays for the upcoming NFL season. Who knows maybe the YouTube video I post goes viral, and I get a NIL deal as club-hockey player 😂.
After dropping my new suitcase back at the hotel, we headed to Kuixing Building. This is the spot that went viral for being 22 stories above street level, while somehow also being at street level right where you stand. It is pretty hard to explain, so hopefully my photos do it justice!
Marvelous engineering by the Chinese. I get San Francisco cannot build many high rises due to seismic activity, but they could have at least made Millennium Tower not tilt 😂. Honestly one of the most bone-headed decisions a builder could make because what was an originally $4 million dollar estimate to anchor to solid bedrock turned into a $120 million controversy. I guess $120 million controversies are a thing in San Francisco! Aiyuk 🤧!
Sorry I had to sneeze a real-quick. I do not think that joke lands with anybody that does not know football. Hi family, if you are reading 👋
Here's some more photos of Kuixing Square:
I should have brought my neck fan from home that was my biggest regret 🤦♂️ I was sweltering 24/7 in China.
The color of the Yangtze River bothered and disgusted me so much, but I learned it is that muddy-brown because the amount of natural sediment picked up from land erosion.
After Kuixing Building, we decided to head Shibati, a famous neighborhood in the Yuzhong District of Chongqing, but first street food!
Shibati is pretty much like Gion in Kyoto, but super gentrified. The scenery is pretty.
Same thoughts, but I thought both are worth sharing!
We needed an essential Mixue pit-stop! It was ridiculously hot in Chongqing, 35°C (95°F) 🥵
After Mixue, we walked around Shibati a bit more before heading to Raffles City.
More shots of the bridge!
The walk to Raffles City Building was about 50 minutes, but there were so many sites, we just happened to stumble upon.
For example, The Great Wall display:
The Great Wall was a terrible film, it worries me how that got green lit!
We also stumbled upon a church too.
There are so many underpasses in Chongqing as the city is so elevated. One could probably go down a staircase for days on end. Here's something I thought that was pretty meta.
I thought this mural was so meta because Chongqing is such a modernized metropolis, but making a bronze bas-relief mural gives the city such a rustic ancient feeling, even though it is not. It was like I was looking at the original plans for Zootopia 😂. Now that I think about Zootopia just took inspiration from Chinese cities and that is why the movie did the best in China.
We definitely could have got to Raffles City Building way earlier, but I was so invested in this city, we took a lot of detours. I appreciate Cole a lot for being a trooper about putting up with spontaneity!
Outdoor gym with a view! There's a lot of park gyms in China, and I think the U.S. should adapt this style too. Being fit and living a healthy should not be a subscription 🤦♂️. Having gyms at park is a benefit to everyone!
Due to my detours, our navigation service redirected us to pass through a tenant building. This is the most insanely dense building I have ever seen.
Seeing people live in a building of this condition made me so incredibly grateful of my privilege. What I can not imagine of not seeing the sun is a reality for some. That's deep. I guess Anthony Bourdain was right with his quote: "Travel is not reward for working, it's education for living." By chance or God's grace, I was born in the USA, and extremely privileged. What I stress or complain about is something so little compared to their problems, and they would probably kill to have the opportunities I have.
Aside from my spiel, here's some more photos:
Good thing I took the camera out because the camera-man always lives, otherwise there would be no way to get the footage 😂.
We were lucky that we only had to walk down 22 floors and not up 22 floors 😮💨
I cannot believe you can walk out of that building, and see this view right away.
So this cave only comes alive during night I guess!
The spotlessness of Asia never fails to amazes me. After seeing this, the thought in mind of "enjoy this now because in one month you will be watching your step every day". I am working on living in the present more and trying to not think about the future, but things always creep up. It's like the "Quick! Do not think of a pink elephant" fallacy, you know.
We got to Raffles City, and we had some time to kill before we went up to the observatory, so we just window-shopped around the mall.
Look at this food court!
Ignore the random Chinese kids please! I did not mean to take a photo of them. I was just trying to photograph the LEGO building of Raffles City.
We took another pit stop for boba! This time trying "HeyTea"!
It took us a while to find the observatory because we originally went up to the wrong deck. We ended up on an outdoor service, and were wondering where the employees scanning tickets were. Turns out it was just a free open deck. Here are some photos:
I would love to visit here next time!
No context, but I thought I would throw this photo in since I have it. This looks like a knockoff Domo.
We got to the observatory around 6:30 PM to beat the sunset crowds, so we just pretty much camped out there until golden hour, so we were priority queue for the skywalk.
Fear and phobias are weird, the same people who are scared of walking on fool-proof engineering, glass walk, will get on an airplane, and trust a pilot with their life without ever knowing them. That is probably a bad analogy, but that was what I was thinking when I was out on the deck. If I am able to trust a pilot to get me to my destination without ever seeing them, I should be able to trust God to get me where I need to go. That is just my personal opinion and I will leave it at that.
Back to the photos!
If my memory serves me well, in 2nd grade, I had a project where I created a Flat Stanley of myself and I mailed mine to Toronto or San Francisco I believe. I need to look for those memory books back at home to confirm the exact location, but that has to be one of my favorite projects I did in elementary school. I bring this up now because maybe I should do the same with my Panda clip, and these logs are the adventure book!
In total, we waited at the observatory for about an hour and a half. Definitely needed since it was scorching hot and humid, we also needed the rest too.
We got out on the skywalk at about 8 PM, right when the lights come on in Chongqing.
We could only take our phones on the gangway, so apologizes if the quality is terrible. Also, our phones were trapped in a clear bag that was tethered to our harnesses.
My iPhone had an epilepsy with this city!
I wonder how much the rent is in these buildings! Can not be as high as San Jose!
Chongqing definitely has the most impressive skyline I have ever seen.
Not sure how I would feel working-out and seeing people just walk across a rooftop. They definitely could have moved the gym up more.
No clue what I was smiling about, I have to go back to trying to solve circuits in a month 😂.
This is my Spider-Man moment:
I wonder what would happen if I just dropped-down. The harness would catch me, but I do not think the workers would like it very much. They were already pretty ticked off by my antics.
There was a camera on the actual skywalk, but you have to pay for those photos, which I think is a scam. They already make enough money from the skywalk.
After Raffles City, we decided to go to Deyi Plaza for the lights and dinner. Another boneheaded decision we made was to walk to Deyi Plaza (I wanted to see All of the Lights).
I thought it would be more neon and illuminating as seen on social media. It was still pretty cool, but the lights were not as bright as advertised.
We made another stupid decision and decided to get hotpot again!
Hotpot is over-rated in my opinion. Good thing it's cheap in China, otherwise I would be in huge debt. Hotpot is more of an experience than cuisine, maybe we were not doing it right. Either way you cannot really do hotpot with two people. I still prefer Korean Barbecue over hotpot.
Moving along, my lips and whole body were numb again. I left the restaurant huffing and puffing, when the spice gets to your lips, it's brutal. One of the waiters was laughing at me on the way out, so I decided to grab a photo with the waiter.
I am pretty sure that's how that The Weekend lyric goes.
My lips were so inflamed, I had to get a street dessert.
The timing could not be more perfect to get that street dessert because the lights turn off at 11 PM, and had we not gone to that vendor, we would not be able to get these shots:
This was on my digital camera.
This is on my iPhone:
I wonder how Spider-Man got there, but pretty cool touch. That pretty much wraps Day 2 or whole Day 1 in Chongqing!