China Trip - Chongqing

On Tuesday, August 21, we drove to Shanghai and flew to Chongqing.  It was exciting to visit Chongqing again!  We had visited twice before:  first in 2007 when Matt was in the Peace Corps and he and Weina were first going together; then again in 2008 for their marriage.  By this trip, we had seen enough other Chinese cities to know that Chongqing is actually quite beautiful, with its distinctive hills and trees.

We enjoyed the opportunity to stay at the Chongqing Intercontinental Hotel again.  This was the site of Matt and Weina's wedding celebration.  The hotel is luxurious, but inexpensive by western standards - about $125 per night!

We devoted the first part of Wednesday, August 22, to business - a trip to the housing office for Weina to obtain the distribution of her unused housing allowance.  None of us knew, for sure, how long it would take for Weina to obtain the money once she appeared in person as required.  We worried that it might take days or weeks - which could have dramatically altered our itinerary.  But - amazingly enough - she received the money in about 10 minutes in the form of a voucher, which Weina took around the corner to a bank to cash.  Once cashed, the money was a substantial number of bills that, for safety, Weina split among herself, Kathy and me to carry.  Weina was going to have to carry all of it around China until it reached the various uses to which it would be put.

That afternoon, Weina's friend, Chen Bo, the head of the English Department at Chongqing Jiaotong University where Weina and Matt taught English, met us at the hotel and drove us to Ci Qi Kou, an historic district with quaint streets lined with ancient buildings and shops.  We headed straight to our favorite tea house, nestled in a bamboo grove overlooking the Yangtze River, where we sipped tea and chatted with Chen Bo.  Hao Hao and Chen Bo hit it off right away, and we quickly decided he should be known as "Uncle Bo."  We laughed when Weina informed us that "uncle" in Chinese is "Bo Bo," so we replied that then he must be Bo Bo Bo. Here's a photo of Chen holding Hao Hao:

That evening, Chen Bo and some of the other faculty and friends of Weina took us out to dinner at a very nice restaurant near the hotel.  We really enjoyed seeing them again, having originally met them in 2007 and then having seen them again at the wedding in 2008.  We really wished the visit wouldn't end, and were sad to take our leave of these wonderful people.