China again!

Many people may not know or heard of a province called ChongQing (重庆) in China before, same goes for me. We recognized Shanghai as the financial hub and Bei Jing as Political hub, however few are aware that ChongQing is the largest and most populated (31 millions) municipality of China's four provincial level municipalities (along with TianJin, Shanghai and BeiJing).

Skyline of ChongQing

Surrounding by two mega rivers, Chong Qing is known as a "Mountain City", it's main topography is hilly and the whole city was constructed on the mountain slopes. When i first touched down, its a sheer surprise for me to discover that the unknown city which i never heard before is a Metropolitan bigger than the entire Malaysia itself. I've been to London, Edinburgh, Singapore, Hong Kong, but seriously, they are not even on par with Cheong Qing. Sky scrappers and alternating highways standing high up in the air, it simply amazing.

I flew to ChongQing on late Sunday evening (touched down at 11pm) and flew out on Tuesday early morning (8am), which means i only have 1 good day to do my business meetings, discussion with vendor and perhaps some sight seeing and local food tasting as well. Although it spells I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E, I've actually done it (Kudos to myself!). Morning started with a hectic business presentation and heated discussion with CheongQing Medical University, panel of Forensic Pathologist and Police representative. This is the first time i'm presenting using Mandarin and frankly i was completely dried after the 2 hours meeting as i have exhausted all the Chinese vocabulary i know for my entire life.

During the meeting and infront of Chong Qing Medical University

The customer was kind enough to treat us a luxurious lunch, which was hosted at somekind of weird restaurant with authentic chinese food and OLD European style internal decoration. The food was fabulous but the ambiance was wrong, its like having two conflicting and split characters under the same roof. You can see flora pattern, vintage ceramics bowls, spoon and fork utensil, and .......waitress dressed in french maid custom! My jaw dropped the instance i saw the cosplay waitresses.

My jaw dropped two times when i saw my Indian colleague simply cant take his eyes and hands off the waitress. Who the hell shake hands with waitress so passionately when they came to restaurant???

In fact, the vegetarian dinner we had was equally fascinating, which looks like this:

which i will write in greater length another time.

The city tour ride after the dinner was the highlight of the day. Being a mountain city, Chong Qing has the most interesting architecture and city contour. We went up and down the hill, cut across multiple mega bridges and hilly terrain, and ends up at the best photo shot spot, which is at the intersection of the two rivers at opposite side of the city.

The photo was taken at the 'ark' where two rivers Yangtze and the Jialingjiang intersect.

Overall, it was a good experience for a short business trip. The only problem was the hours and hours of transfer in between the provinces (flights, rides) which wears me out completely. In fact was having nose bleed the night i came back from shanghai.

Guess i was overdosed with China.