We asked our cab to bring us to the Caiyuanba Bus Station 菜园坝 in Chongqing. Just like last time, the taxi took a circuitous road through the city. The Caiyuanba Bus Station has a lot of buses going to various destinations especially in the neighboring Sichuan province. This is the my first time to use a bus station in China so I didn’t really know what to expect.
To enter the bus station all bags are place inside a machine that looks like an x-ray machine. But I’m not sure what it actually was. I didn’t even see anyone looking at a monitor. After it passed through the machine, they stuck an “inspected” sticker on it. Now comes the hard part, try to get to our destination. All the destinations are written in Chinese and will thus be incipherable to anyone who doesn’t know how to read. It is also quite unlikely that they know how to speak English here. I didn’t even try anymore.
The ticket buying counter at the Caiyuanba station wasn’t really that big and there were a lot of people at that time too. It was quite stressful to buy a ticket there since I didn’t know what to ask for. I just told the lady at the counter that we wish to go to Dazu County 大足.
At first I thought they didn’t understand me, but they showed me this list of Chinese characters and asked me which one it was. I was thinking to myself whether this was some kind of test. I pointed out the correct one. At the same time, I realized that the name beside the characters 大足, was Dazhu 大竹. When pronounced properly they sound similar. When pronounced with a Sichuan or whatever accent, they can be indistinguishable from each other. This was their way of making sure that they got the correct destination. So it appears that aside from needed to know how to speak Chinese, it would be best to know how to read too.
We finally got to our bus, but there was still time before the bus leaves. Remember that we have not had lunch yet and it was already past one in the afternoon. Fortunately, there was a small stall selling some food. It was more like a point at whatever you like and they’ll scoop some of the the stuff for you. It was basically a mix of Sichuan style food. So unfortunate that my first taste of Sichuan food will be like this. We were contently eating near the bus when were realized that the bus was waiting for us. We quickly finished our food and rode the bus. How embarassing.
Finally the bus departed and head off to Dazu County. This is location of one UNESCO World Heritage Site – the Dazu Rock Carvings. However, the journey will take more than two hours. As we moved farther and farther away from the city of Chongqing. The city turned into mountains and fields. It was definitely rural in this area. It was also at this point that some of the passengers started to smoke inside the bus. This terrible habit of theirs is already getting to me and it was just my first day here!
Our bus uses some kind of natural airconditioning, since the weather was cold outside, the air from the outside would regularly flow inside the bus cooling us. Sometimes too much. At least it better than inhaling all that cigarette smoke.
After an hour or so of travelling we stopped by a small bus station somewhere along the way for toilet break. The area was a town but it isn’t as modern as a Chongqing, it was more of a provincial town. The roads weren’t that good and the place wasn’t that clean either. This time we realized how remote we are from anything. Where are we? Actually, I never found out, we just stuck close to our bus and made sure we got on it when it was time to leave.
Another boring hour has passed and we arrived at Dazu County. Now, this is still not the place where we want to go to. Apparently, Dazu County is quite big. By this time, the highway has turned into a dirt road now. As I look at the houses beside the road, I noticed that they all seem to be selling knives of all things. It seems like it is a specialty here in this area. It took us almost an hour to get to the bus terminal in Dazu City to our relief. I was already having doubts on whethere we will get there or not.
At the bus terminal, I desperately needed a toilet break, imagine my shock when I saw someone taking a dump in the toilet. A lot of toilets in rural China do not have cubicles, so if you need to take a dump, you’ll have everyone else watching. There won’t any McDonald’s to save you here. It quickly did my business and got out of there. This is something we would have to get used to as we travel in China.
I also found out that that last bus from that terminal leaves for Chongqing at 6 in the evening. It was already 4 in the afternoon and it would be very unlikely that we can make it back by 6. But we have little choice, we just have to rush through the rock carvings once we get there. Another problem arose, there was no more bus going to the rock carvings. However, the counter suggested that we take public transport outside the bus terminal to go to the rock carvings.
True enough, there was someone waiting for us right outside. It was basically a motorcycle with a tiny cab enclosing the whole thing. This would be their version of a tuk-tuk or a tricycle. I asked the driver to bring us to Baodingshan 宝顶山 or Treasure Summit Hill, where the rock carvings are. I also asked him to wait for us outside so that we can be sure that there will be transportation for us back to the bus terminal.
The cab was a little cramped but this was our only choice. Since it was a motorcycle, it doesn’t really move very fast either. But after 25 minutes we finally got to Baodingshan. We asked the driver to wait for us outside since we will be done in 1 hour. He tried asking for the fare so that he can go back an take more passengers but I refused to give it to him until we come back. I just needed to make sure that we will be able to get back. Anyway, where can we run off to, right?
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