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"Red Heart Moon" a WEST MEETS EAST China Weblog -- by Kevin Hart
Cross-cultural musings about life straddling the Pacific.
last modified Jun 16, 2004 at 17:43
Chongqing has traditionally between Southwest China’s center of heavy industry, and still operates large factories. Poor ecological practices and understanding of environmental concerns over the years have led to a degradation of the living space in the city. However, improvements are being made, and blue skies are appearing more regularly now than years past. The smog content has diminished somewhat, as the local government has taken steps to improve air quality, and the locals will tell you proudly how there are much less acid rain due to sulphur emissions now than 10 years ago. It can still be very dusty, they concede, due mostly to the massive construction projects going on all over the city. A walk around the streets, especially in the suburbs, which are seeing huge apartment complexes being built on erstwhile farmland, confirm this.
Olfactory senses always get a workout in Chongqing. The wafting fumes of hot pot are unmistakable and can reach out to prospective clients noses many meters in advance of the restaurant doorsteps. Liberally applied cologne can leave a lasting impression of someone minutes after they have disappeared from sight. Garbage collection areas are often right on the street, and the stench can be dizzying. Viscous clouds of smoke soil the air in elevators, buses, and people’s living rooms. Fresh flowers from the countryside are sold at many vendors’ stalls and radiate their lovely perfume. B.O. from clammy pedestrians and bus commuters can make for dreadful noseful. Many carry pocket-handkerchiefs not only to mop up their sweaty foreheads, but also to dampen the intense smells of everyday life in Chongqing.
I first came to Chongqing on a work assignment in the spring of 1996. After having little experience in Mainland China but with a decent grasp of Mandarin from my days as a student in Taiwan, I really did not know what to expect from this inland city. Having flown in from Beijing, I thought they had overshot the mark and had sent me to Tibet with all the mountains around me and the strange language that came out of everyone’s mouths. It took me a few days to realize that those were more like hills than mountains, and that the dialect was a not too distant a cousin from “Putonghua”. OK, so this wasn’t the Himalayas after all, but it was still a lot different from what I was used to or expected from Chinese cities.
CITY OF CONTRASTS
Unofficially, Chongqing is the largest metropolis in the world, with an estimated 33 million people. In actuality, this is a bit misleading as the entire “city” covers an area of 840 sq. km, roughly the same size as Austria, and the population is concentrated in rather spread out clusters. It is more akin to a province that a city. Unlike Beijing and Chengdu with their relatively straightforward street planning and convenient ring roads, the downtown core of Chonging is unique to say the least. It reminds me of a wedge-shaped mound of spaghetti and meatballs sticking out of the water, with the noodle-like system of roads going up, down, under, and around, and clusters of rocks, trees, and buildings protruding from their midst. Sandwiched as it is between the Yangtze River and the Jialing River, it occurred to me rather quickly that the roads were this way out of necessity, not because of poor planning. There are only so many places you can lay asphalt on slopes these steep.
When you see a map of the downtown area, it looks remarkably like a slightly elongated version of Snoopy’s head. Maybe it is just me, after taking in the sights of Guilin, the Three Gorges, and the Stone Forest, my brain has now been programmed into seeing animal-like shapes in the landscape. Doesn’t the map of the entire Chongqing municipality look a bit like a strange beast glaring at the east in defiance? Look hard, and, as the tour guides are so fond of saying, “Use your imagination”.
CLIMATE
South China is naturally hot and humid, and in Chongqing, the surrounding hills trap the heat. There is precious little wind at any time of year, and the evaporation of the water from the two rivers contributes to the fog and haze that permeate the air almost all year round. It is only the blazing summer sun that succeeds to burn it off, but rarely for more than a few days at a time. As for Chongqing’s long-standing reputation as one of the “furnaces” of China, I am starting to wonder if times are changing. Nowadays, Beijing regularly records temperatures higher than those of Chongqing. Over the past few years, the rainy season in spring has gotten longer and longer, keeping both the dust and the temperatures down. Still, July and August are undeniably steamy, and I enjoy seeing how the locals cope. Men often pull their pant trousers way up when sitting, and women street vendors often sit with legs spread wide open, fanning themselves down there in a less than dignified manner to keep the body temperature down. I personally don’t mind 40-degree weather all that much, and actually enjoy the weight loss benefits and purging the toxins that come with a good sweat. Going to a real sauna is costly and seen as a luxury in China, but for a few weeks in summer, steam bath-like temperatures be enjoyed for free on the streets of Chongqing.
Winters are cold and damp, and although it never snows, the wet cold seems to penetrate your clothes and chill you right down to the bone. Many people don’t have heating in their apartments, and many of those who do never use it. I have finally gotten used to wearing my coat indoors like everyone else, but it sure took a while.
1. FLOOD CONTROL
Throughout China’s long history, flooding has been a constant threat along the country’s major waterways. In recent years, due in great part to unsound environmental practices which has caused tremendous erosion, flooding on China's rivers has become even more pronounced. While not as unpredictable as the Yellow River, sometimes referred to as “China’s Sorrow”, the Yangtze is prone to dangerous water levels which cause loss of life, untold hardship, and sometimes, devastating damage to public and private property. Most recently, the economic losses incurred by flooding in 1998 toppled $30 billion US dollars. Authorities argue that if another flood of such magnitude could be prevented, the Three Gorges Dam Project would be worth it for that one single reason. The total price tag of this unprecedented infrastructure program is roughly about that much, $30 billion US. Sensitive areas like Yichang and Wuhan, major cities in the central province of Hubei, will see definite flood control benefits that should provide long-term relief and protection.
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