Chongqing Day 38 26/10/2014

We arrived in Chongqing in the early hours.  After an early breakfast we said our goodbyes and watched the various tour groups disembark to the sounds of the brass band.  We were the only people not being met on arrival and wandered off unescorted (although we did get the band!).  Whilst the boat trip wasn't the type of thing we would normally do it was a great way to see the Three Gorges and a nice break from the ongoing planning and preparation with everything taken care of.  Our hostel for the night, the Yantze River Hostel, was only 10 minutes walk along the quayside and easy to find.  The docks here are much more commercialised and it would have certainly been easier to find the boat here than it was in Yichang.  We checked in and enjoyed a western coffee and caught up on admin after being without wifi for a few days.  Later we headed into Chongqing climbing the many steps up through the alleyways that lead from the quayside to the city centre.  Chongqing is the third largest city in China with 7 million people living there and apparently the fastest growing city in the world.  After Beijing and Shanghai it's deemed to be the most important and is managed directly by the central government.  We visited the Arsht temple and stilt houses and couldn't resist a trip to Pizza Hut which we'd spotted on route.  There's only so much Chinese food you can eat and neither of us were feeling 100%.  We headed back to the hostel and spent the evening catching up with friends on Skype and preparing for the next leg of our journey.