ChongQing and the passport paperwork: December 2021

From my hotel room. 

With all the travel chaos being caused in the wake of COVID with things like the borders still being closed, it was time to work out how to get a new passport while still in China. From Kunming, the closest consulate used to be ChongQing (but closed now) which is luckily a very easy hour long flight  and a pretty cheap journey. 

Flying into ChingQing

The form is truly intimidating and took me (and a few other people) several attempts before we got it close to right, plus you have to have a full color copy of every single page of your passport as you can't send the original back to the UK to get a new one. 

From my hotel room. Opposite view of Picture 2

I finally figured it, with a few other bits of paper for backup and jumped on a plane. Now this is where I really show how stupid I am. I was not aware, or rather had not considered, that there is a difference between a consulate and an embassy. Naturally I picked the wrong one and decided to stay in the main shopping street on the central island. My hotel room was an eye watering 89 floors up but gave some truly amazing views of the river and city. 

ChongQing is a mountain city, which means that it

Pic 2. My hotel is the tallest building to the left of the clock tower

is mess of elevated roads, complicated one way systems, dead ends and just so many stairs. Many times I could see where I wanted to be but just not how to get there. Maps are basically useless as they work in a 2D world but ChongQing defies this at every turn. Frustration often made me walk down the side of a very not pedestrian road just to get to the stairs that I could see, but not how to get to them. 

After I got over the shock of the scale of the city, it was time to sort out the passport. Paperwork really is my least favourite thing to deal with, its always so confusing and time consuming. Once I had found the right place, and then the right office, it took about 90 minutes of which almost all way me just sitting there as the poor girl stamped, signed and photocopied the million pages of the form and passport. 

Once that was sorted though I was free to explore the mega city for a long weekend. ChingQing is huge, and even that doesn't really do it justice. Reports vary on Google, but a population north of 25 million people. 

Everywhere you look there are masses of skyscrapers, crazy architecture and lights. It really feels like the 'city of the future' with an insane cyberpunk vibe. I actually enjoyed it, but only as a break from the comparatively small town of Kunming. 

This is a google image, but I love it. 

LuGu Lake: May Day 2021

As I have now decided to leave Kunming and try somewhere else in China, it is time to tick off the travel bucket list for Yunnan.  

LuGu Lake is on the border between Yunnan and SiChuan. The whole area is a protected national park and so has been closed for ages because of COVID. I flew to the new airport and got a sightseeing bus to the lake. The bus took about an hour and a half as the airport is miles away on the other side of some mountains. At one point we all had to get off the bus, buy tickets and then walk through a ticket gate back to the bus. 

I got dropped off at the first and closest of the towns around the lake and walked to my hotel. I had this place recommended to me by someone from work and wow were they right. My room had a balcony that looked right onto the lake. 

It was the most luxurious and comfortable place, so swanky. I had a giant circular bath that was just lovely, the only problem being that it was so huge it took ages to fill, but it was very worth it. 

The lake has pathways for miles although I don't think they all connect up completely, so I wandered off just keeping the lake on my right and enjoyed the scenery. For the most part everywhere I went was nice and quiet with only a handful of people, but as I went towards the ferry terminal things got busier, especially around sunrise and sunset. 

There's very little to do other than wander about and look at the lake so a few days is more than enough. I spent quite a lot of time either on the balcony or in the bath with my book, a real chill out time. 

I had decided to get the bus back to Lijiang which should have taken about 3 hours. Mine was closer to 4 but with views over the crazy blue/green river like these, I wasn't so fussed. 

Ben explained why the water is this colour but to be honest I can't remember and can't find out, its something to do with the chalk in the water (or something similar), sorry, never was much good at science. 

Even though I was only there for a very short time, I can completely understand how this place has become a bit of an unknown gem. Yes people know about it, but hardly anyone makes the trek through the mountains to go and see it. Hopefully the new airport won't ruin it too quickly.