Our only time at Jinan was at the airport and then we flew to Chongqing, a trip of about three hours. Chongqing is described as being the largest population center on earth with about 30 million people, depending on how much of the outlying area is counted. Any way you look at it, it is a huge city spread over rolling, hilly terrain. We arrived at our hotel and checked in at 1:00 a.m. It was the best hotel of the trip. This Phoenix hotel was new and ultra modern, including a lobby ceiling resembling the Sistine Chapel. We had great service, more Western style meals and a comfortable stay. I had some laundry done and the cost was 130 RMB or a little more than $20. That even included a 50 percent "hurry up" fee. Probably high priced, but most of us will pay more for some clean underwear and socks! The day's trip was up the nearby mountain to the next Mike Lemmon facility construction site. It was a remarkable trip up the mountain - a paved, very narrow two-lane road, curving and winding up to the top of the mountain. This structure is being built on top of a mountain for biosecurity reasons (to reduce the risk of transmitting infectious disease). It's a large project that includes a sow herd and buildings overlooking the landscape. The view and the air are terrific, but transporting feed in and pigs out will be a challenge to this business due to the terrain. One interesting fact is that the utilities and the improved roads are provided by the local government. It appears that the locals are so hungry for investment and improvement that they are willing to provide the infrastructure to make it happen. This project is truly amazing - a mountaintop location to provide for a low risk of transmitting disease, and partnerships with farmers down the mountain who want the manure for their crop production. Mike's plan is to pipe the manure down the mountain to various farmers. This fertilizer will increase the corn production needed to feed the hogs. While making the trip up the mountain, we stopped in a small village and it just happened to be market day. The two main streets were crowded with people and their wares. Almost everything was available: clothing, baskets, trinkets and food items were all available. Just be ready to barter and bargain. These were "real" Chinese villagers. Not well dressed or well-off, these were hardworking folks who lived mostly off the land. They looked at us as if we were aliens (I guess we were). A group of older, fat, gray-haired Americans did not show up in their village very often, if ever. Lots of pictures were taken with children and villagers. They appreciated that we left a little money with their village. It is truly eye-opening to visit and view how people exist on the other side of the world. Back in the city of Chongqing, we had an official meeting with the local government officials. They were the local Communist leaders and treated us very well with a face-to-face meeting in another fine government building. Just a note: every Communist government building was very new and well-done. The impression they wish to make is one of affluence and wealth. We exchanged gifts and returned to the Phoenix hotel for lunch with the locals. Following that, we went to a local market and looked for souvenirs and some small suitcases. We were all beginning to suffer from the law of expanding luggage as we traveled. We had another dinner with some local officials. It was a very similar scene with the same food (fish, vegetables, snails, pork, dumplings, etc.) We had to move to a Holiday Inn near the airport because we had a 7:40 a.m. flight to Hangzhou. The next portion of our trip, to be described in my next installment, was memorable because of the wide range of society and economic levels that we were able to observe. Hangzhou is a very upscale city with some wealthy people. I will provide more details next week. Thanks for reading. More later, Bill Friend -30- State Rep. Bill Friend |
