Fuling: Escaping the Matrix

While devoid of ticketed scenic areas, Chongqing still had its share of tourists, mainly domestic, some international. On my second day I decided I wanted to go farther off the beaten path, so ChatGPT suggested Fuling, a city of around 500,000 known for their Fuling pickled mustard tuber and nothing else. Perfect. 

I took an hour train to the Fuling station and then hopped in a taxi destined for a random building I chose in what seemed like the downtown area. I passed some classic towering concrete infrastructure on my way into the city.

The lack of any structure felt liberating. While I already have been traveling with minimal structure, normally there's at least some semblance of an end goal, be it a restaurant or specific sight. Not in Fuling. I was dropped off in a random part of the city with nothing on my itinerary. I decided not to use any maps. My plan was to walk wherever I wanted until I was tired and then taxi back to the train station.

Soon after my drop-off I stumbled upon this park. People ranging from small children to elderly men were flying an assortment of kites. I couldn't really capture it on camera but some of the kites were soaring at extraordinary heights, hundreds of feet in the air. Also, almost every person I passed stared directly at me. I think I may have been Fuling's first international tourist in quite some time.

The park went right up to the waterfront. 

Fuling sits at the visible confluence of the Wujiang and the Yangtze rivers.

I wandered along the waterfront, admiring the various statues. The waterfront walk reminded me of all those corniches Jake, Logan, and I explored back in North Africa and the Middle East. That feels like a long time ago now.

I wandered inland, past countless shops selling all sorts of goods. Many displayed their cuts of meat out in the open, slightly reminiscent of the meat sellers in Lahore.

Next up I walked through this street market.

As I walked along the streets I could hear the clatter of mahjong tiles echoing from the open windows of the playing halls one story above street level. I also passed some more groups of men huddled around various card and checker games.

I found myself in this square with some plaza dancing aunties.

The square also had this ominous shop that sold both puppies and fur goods.

And this pop up denture shop?

I wandered deeper into this public square and realized it was full of food tents, an outdoor climbing wall, and roughly middle school aged girls dancing to American music. That was not on my Fuling bingo card. 

At one point I walked into a noodle shop and like a movie scene, the entire restaurant fell silent and everyone stared at me. One girl took out her phone and started filming me. I tried to use Google Translate to order, but I was sufficiently confused by "The old concubine" for 12 yuan (only $1.50!) to abandon that strategy. Instead I pointed at some pepper noodles a man next to me was eating. I was served the blandest noodle soup imaginable. I'll take the chef's lack of faith in my spice tolerance as a sign of thoughtful mercy.

Fuling was surprisingly full of cool public art, like this breaching metallic whale.

Eventually I rested on a bench in a public park full of ponds and greenery. I watched a toddler pull a turtle out of the water and terrorize it for a little while before returning it.

Pleased with my Fuling wandering I headed back to the train station.

Just as a side note: one of China's many funny quirks is that in order to scale their rail system effectively almost every train station is structurally identical, which I grew to quite like.

I hopped in my high speed train and sped off back to Chongqing. Fuling was a wonderfully calm day of urban exploration like I'd never done before. A successful exit from the Matrix that is Chinese domestic tourist hotspots.