CHONGQING, CHINA This City Doesn't Feel Real!

What's going on everybody, this is IslandHopperTV, Travel Highlights, and today I'm going to show you around Times Square in Chongqing. So it's a Thursday night, it's about 10pm, this is a very crowded place, like a city center, called Times Square I guess you could say for a reason. I was just down there at Hongya Cave, I'll show you a couple shots real quick. This here is the Hongya Cave area, it's basically a shopping center with food streets and restaurants, nice views. As you can see it's very colorful. I also went out on the river cruise along the Yangtze River here, lots of boat traffic out here, they have that bridge that you can go up to also and get great views at sunset. The river cruise will take you all the way down to the confluence where the two rivers meet, and you can see right there is Raffles City. It is quite crowded down here, and you can hear it does get kind of loud, I will say that. Yeah, let's keep this tour moving. Picture pictures, it's a very picturesque place, everyone wants their pictures. I'm actually staying at Raffles, I better show you what that looks like in the daytime, let me show you what that looks like right now. Yeah, so right here is the confluence, also known as the city gate, but this is where the Jialing and the Yangtze River come together right here at Raffles City. You can see beautiful views of Chongqing from up here, they have the ancient site of the riverside, but most of it is pretty modern nowadays. And that there is the actual city gate, which is the gate to the city. Yeah, that's right there at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze River, ultimately it turns into the Yangtze, you can call it the Three Rivers. Chongqing is the Three Rivers City, with 32 million people. It's actually got a nickname of being called 8D, they say it's an 8D city. What the heck does that mean, Will? I mean, it's a city that's in a league of its own, there's not too many places like this one on Earth. And when I say that, it's because it's on stilts, basically it's like built on mountains. If you're American, the best way I could put it is, imagine Pittsburgh with 32 million people, I think Pittsburgh has 2 million, so you know how there's all those mountains and rolling hills around Pittsburgh, just add about 30 million people, okay? If you're European, I guess just imagine Florence with 32 million people instead of 1 million, and all the hills would be covered in city with 30 million more people, or 31 million people more. You get these situations where some of the buildings are built on the side of the mountain, where you're at ground level right here, and then you exit the building 32 floors down. You enter at the top from ground level at the top at 32, and then you exit down below at ground zero, 32 levels below. So you can see right here, we're at ground level, right? So I'm on the top of the building, ground level right over here, and let's see what happens if I walk across the building. We're just walking across the square here, which transitions from ground level to rooftop. So you can see, ground level behind me, it's like we're at the top of the skyscraper right there. Crazy, huh? Two different ground levels, and it all just kind of blends together, that's kind of why they call it AD. And you can see here, the trains actually go through the buildings even. Well, you can see here's the train going inside the building here, this is called Loziba Station. So I'm going to walk over here to the food streets. I think there's a food street, I need to check the map. Last time I was here I went to a food street, it's a really good food street. So I'm just going to walk in this direction and hope that I'm headed out on the right direction. One thing I will say about Chongqing compared to the other places that I've been, I am starting to see more western tourists here. So my theory is that western tourists, European people, don't go any further west of Xi'an. Me personally, I could care less where someone's from. I love to experience the culture of the place. I'm just giving you guys feedback because I know people are like, oh man, you must be the only American there, or you must be the only European guy, and I get that on a lot of my videos. Or they'll say like, not too many people go there or something, so that's why I point that out. Oh yeah, here's Jufan Bay, I think is what it's called, it's a food street. But yeah, I've definitely seen more western tourists, American, I don't think they're American necessarily, I don't know where they're from, here than I did in other places. Oh wow, see how that street goes all the way down there, but I'm going to go this way. She smiles, she's happy. She can be on camera! Photogenic, look at that kid. That's the spirit, enjoy your ice cream. Alright, on some of my videos I guess people can pick up on my mood, because in some cities I might be a little bit more irritable, and in other places I might be happier. A lot of variables go into what could create a happy mood versus a negative mood. But generally speaking, I'm pretty relaxed in China, pretty much everywhere. Oh yeah, this is that Sichuan peppers, it's like a cake, it's like a Sichuan cake, Sichuan Look at that little cute cat, I'll show you in a second, see look at this, it's like a cake, it's like a cake, look at this cat, on a leash. I've eaten so much food, and to be honest with you, the food that I've been eating is lamb barbeque. I probably, I think the guy gave me 30 skewers of lamb barbeque. People look at me with the camera and they're like, they don't know if they want to be on camera or just see me, the foreign vlogger, like what is this foreign vlogger filming? Mostly just inquisitiveness. Yeah, I've eaten lots of lamb. I think they put like curcumin, curcumin, yeah, so you can see like, the barbeque is delicious. I think it mostly comes from Xi'an, I think the barbeque is mostly a Xi'an thing, but it could also be Sichuan. Well, we'll see where we end up going right now, we're still walking. So right now I'm staying at Raffles, that's my hotel, I probably should show you guys that hotel inside. On my other channel, Island Hopper TV Hotels, I'm reviewing it. Raffles City, it's right there at the Jialing and the Yangtze River confluence. Alright, here we are in the room, so you've got the walk-in closet, with a comfortable bed here and a great view of where the two rivers have the confluence right there at the city gate, the Jialing River meeting the Yangtze. And then when you're actually up here, this is the view from the lobby, and then they have restaurants up here with these kind of views of the river. Man, going back to that conversation about where I'd want to live in China, another one that I didn't even mention was Shenzhen, and I've always thought that that was probably my favorite city, just because it's quite international, they've got a spa on the fifth floor there. You know, the thing about these buildings, you've got to go inside there, because on the outside you would have no idea what's in there. See, this is the night market, that area we just came through, and we didn't even do all the night markets. But the thing about each one of these buildings, you have to actually go inside, ride the escalators up, up, up. People always say, oh, you know, go to the alleyways, you know, like if you're going to a small town in China, you just start wandering outside your hotel, you know, you might end up at a $5 hotel, and you just kind of walk around, and you'll see some pretty cool stuff right outside your hotel, in just a regular area of any given city. I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I'm trying to get across the road. Anyway, I saw some action over here, so we'll explore. They've got a club down here, Echo Cube. What is this, is that KTV? But yeah, I mean, that's the old school way to do it, right? Just walk through the alleyways, around your hotel, see what's around. The new China is like, you got to go inside the buildings, and see what's on each level, and walk around. Chongqing Hot Pot. That's what Chongqing's famous for, is hot pot, guys. If you didn't know, now you know. Okay, see, you just keep walking, and you just find more and more stuff. Just walk right in front of me, on accident, I guess. Sometimes women walk right out in front of me. And I wonder if they're, like, doing it on purpose or not. Because, like, I'm walking over here. How did you just, like, out of nowhere, in a non-crowded area, just bump into me? That's the second time today that's happened. Maybe they, well, no, the first time I wasn't filming. Maybe they just want to see me up close or something, like, I don't know. It happened in a hotel at Holiday Inn, or not the Holiday Inn, near Continental. I was just talking to the guy. It wasn't even a crowded place. This lady just, like, plows into me, out of nowhere. She was young. Pretty, pretty nice. And she's like, oh, so sorry, so sorry. I was like, what's going on here? I was thinking about it. I was like, how did she just come out of nowhere to bump into me? What's going on here? All right, what do we got? So this is, like, one of those places you just walk down there and see what's going on. I think last time I was here, I walked this street and ended up catching a taxi that took me over to, that took me over to the High Street, where the train goes inside the building. Let me show you that clip right now. Anyway, this is on the Peninsula. I could go across the river. Either direction, there's stuff going on. Oh, six, five, four, three, two, one. They also have a big cable car here. I wonder if it's still going. You can stay at, like, really nice five-star hotels here for, like, $150 a night. And these are, like, legit five-star hotels. What do we got here? Viewing platform. Also, did you know they have a subway system here? So I found that to be so interesting because this is a place of rolling mountains and hills, and they built a subway. I think this is maybe one of them. Like this. What is this? All right, let's see where we're going. Let's just take the escalator. That's what you do in Chongqing, is you take escalators and elevators up and down. Okay, great. We're in a little bit of a more laid-back environment, which will ultimately, I think, take us over towards Raffles, which is where my hotel is. So we're just kind of cruising around. I mean, there's so many nooks and crannies around here to explore. I could go that way, but I'll go this way because it's down. Essentially, my hotel is on the river. There we go. Wow, that's a cool little neighborhood here. It's a lot less modern, more rustic, more down-to-earth. Yeah, another city. Oh, look at this. Another city that I would live is Guangzhou. I'm actually going down towards Guangzhou here soon. I'd say a city that I liked in the north. Guangzhou. Suzhou. Those were fun. They were a little bit more old school. So Guangzhou and Suzhou were along the canal. I guess Guangzhou is actually along a lake and a canal. Shanghai. It's cool. Should I live there? I'd have to understand more about Shanghai because I've only really hung out around like the Bund and the Bund is just totally a tourist area. It's not even really too livable around the Bund. But Shanghai is, I mean, I think it's the biggest city in the world. So, I mean, have I explored around the nooks and crannies of Shanghai now? So that would still have to be done. Where are the rockets? Well, it looks like they were just doing a night market. It's almost midnight. My goodness, on a Thursday. I think I'm quite far away from Raffle City. I would like to show you guys across the river, but it's too late. And I'm going to Guilin tomorrow. So we'll just say I give you a nice little tour of Times Square. Basically the CBD area of Chongqing and some offshoots around there. Food street. But you get a good idea. So those buildings are all built on a mountain here. It's just like, how high up the mountain do you go? And how tall is the buildings from there? So I've got to get to a road where I can actually get a taxi. See you guys on the next one from China. Yeah, click this video of a China city right here.