Chongqing night cruise

Sleeper train to Chongqing

After four nights at Wulingyuan (or six nights at the Wulingyuan and Zhangjiajie area) we depart for Chongqing.

Our now regular driver picked us up after breakfast at 0930 to take us to Zhangjiajie West station.  It was our sixth time at the station having done trips from there to Furong and Fenghuang, in addition to just arriving and departing.

Our sleeper train departed at 1122.  It was our only ride not on the bullet train this trip and we had been separated into different compartments in the same carriage.

All four of the others had the lowest bunk while I had the top (third tier) bunk.  They were comfortably settled horizontally with the option of sitting up whenever it suited them.  On the other hand, I was forced into a horizontal position with limited headroom with the inconvenience of awkward manoeuvres required for toilet visits.

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The second half of the ride involved many tunnels, which saw the mobile internet signal cut off.  This must be a less developed part of the countryside as internet was more or less continuous on all previous rides.

After 6h24 we arrived at Chongqing North station at 1746.

Ride to our accommodation

A tout offered a very cheap ride in a van for all five of us to our accommodation.  Along the way, the driver tried to sell his services for tomorrow at an exorbitant rate but we politely declined with no problems.

But hearing that we were interestd in doing a cruise on the Yangtze tonight, he took us to a travel agent to make a booking.  The price was a bit more than the online price which was already pricey for China, and did vary a bit depending on the quality of the boat.

I guess our ride was highly discounted in the hope of selling add-ons.

As we approached our accommodation, our ride went underground.  The driver explained that we were in a network of underground roads (complete with traffic lights) which linked parts of the hilly city.  The network included carparking buildings which provided access to buidings as well.

We were dropped off outside our building.  Kim had arrived in Chongqing from Hong Kong a little earlier and had reached the hotel area.  He found me after a little difficulty and we took the elevator to the 28th floor of our building.  We walked up to the 29th floor for the reception and were accommodated on the 30th floor in a penthouse room.

It was a cheap place at about NZD50 for a central city location with awesome city views.

Chongqing by night

We had a very limited to to get our asses to the boat as we had been told the last cruise departed at 2130.  There was no time for dinner and I ate cake and milk while walking down to the Chaotianmen pier.

We found the correct pier and joined in time for the 2040 departure.  Onboard, it was chaos with no seating left on the rooftop.  E & BW, Kim and I paid extra to go into the VIP zone where had seats and also stuffed ourselves with fruit and snacks.

We cruised south briefly before backtracking, and turning into the west into Jialing which joined on to the Yangtze.  Here we had a good view of the iconic Hongyadong buildings which resembled the old buildings built on the hillslopes of Chongqing.

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The ride finished some 50 mins after it had started and by that time, around 2130, most of the decorative city lights had been turned off.

Returning to our pier, it was obvious our boat company had finished for the day.  We had taken their last service and could have easily missed the boat (literally) and wasted our money due to poor information by the agent.

Some other companies were still boarding their boats despite the city lights now off.  The atmosphere of the cruise wouldn’t be the same.

We grabbed a simple dinner together before returning to our penthouse accommodation.