Travel Notes | Sichuan and Chongqing·New Year’s Eve Account

It’s been more than a month since New Year’s Eve. Over the past month or so, frustrating things, big and small, have happened, torturing everyone.

Although I am abroad, I am still inevitably affected by the epidemic. So much so that when I recall the three-day New Year’s Eve trip, it’s like a bucket of thick paste being stirred in my mind, and it’s so confusing. As time goes by, many of the feelings while traveling become difficult to pick up. I had no choice but to write down some running accounts that even I couldn’t stand and keep them. Format is sometimes a necessary foreshadowing.

 

I took a late-night flight from Tokyo to Shanghai at five o'clock in the morning, then flew to Hangzhou to meet my friends, and then set off to Chengdu the next day. I was already exhausted before the New Year's Eve started. What left the deepest impression in my mind was the gray weather during those days. This is true whether it is Shanghai, Hangzhou or Chengdu. It seems that he is in embarrassment and helplessness, frowning to survive the upcoming New Year.

I said, there seems to be a restaurant with a good reputation near where we live that sells beef offal hot pot, let’s go and have a try. So I put on my coat again, and because I was afraid of being smelled by the food, I only wore a single shirt underneath. I walked out of the hotel, shivering, and walked into the low-pressure streets at the end of the year.

It's a very small store, without complicated decoration, nor the attentiveness of Haidilao. The waitress is absentmindedly playing with her mobile phone, occasionally raising her eyes and showing an honest smile. After taking a seat, there was a table of college students next to them. It must be a year-end dinner of a certain club. They called each other brothers and sisters, and they were very familiar with each other. This store tastes good. For those of us who live abroad, after one drop of the soup with a faint medicinal flavor enters the stomach, two drops can penetrate the soul. We looked at each other in silence and ate two or three large bowls. After that, I decided to go for a walk in nearby Taikoo Li and Chunxi Road.

There is a saying that Chengdu is a city you don’t want to leave once you arrive. Because life is comfortable and leisurely, as soon as the sun comes out, people don’t want to do anything. They set up dragon gates in the streets and alleys and play mahjong. I am reminded of a documentary I watched on the plane in the morning, which recorded 72 hours in a city from different perspectives, including the chattering uncles and aunties sunbathing in the teahouse at noon, and the young people queuing up to eat in front of the hot pot restaurant when the lanterns first came on. A relaxing scene in this busy city.

Chunxi Road and Taikoo Li are filled with joy. Young people wearing trendy sneakers are walking around, with a sweet smell like a handful of colorful rainbow candies sprinkled on the streets. This kind of happiness is even more intense because it is New Year’s Eve, which makes me temporarily forget the fatigue of traveling and traveling. I feel that I am actually a person who is not suitable for traveling, because I have maintained a regular schedule for a long time, and I am more dependent on a stable sleeping environment. Once my schedule is broken, physical conditions will follow one after another. At this time, a gust of wind suddenly blew. I couldn't help but shiver again and said: "Let's go back to the hotel, it's a bit cold. "

After returning to the hotel, I ordered takeout on my mobile phone and wanted to eat some fresh fruit. While waiting for the takeout, I used the hotel’s projector to watch the New Year’s Eve concerts of several TV stations, while doing some simple exercises in the small aisle at the bathroom door. The shy guy at the front desk brought me milk, and I said good night and Happy New Year to him. After closing the door, a little excitement spread out in the room like overflowing beer foam, filling this moment of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. I saw the information about an unknown virus appearing in the Wuhan Seafood Market on Weibo and brushed it by without paying any attention to it.

The next day, when I got up, I felt dizzy and my voice was hoarse and uncomfortable. After eating the takeaway from the porridge shop, I quickly swallowed a few pills I brought with me. I have no choice but to spend the first day of the new year in a state of physical illness. For lunch, I had a spicy hot pot bullfrog in the restaurant downstairs, then went to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, and then went to Kuanzhai Alley and Jinli after coming back. The latter two attractions have been fully transformed into business districts. Being in them makes people feel at a loss. After thinking about it, I feel that this kind of excitement is indeed rare in foreign countries.

 

On the third day, I took the high-speed train to Chongqing. I fell asleep in a daze on the high-speed train. When I woke up, I felt exhausted, as if I was in a fog, and I didn't know where I was. When I was in a taxi, I caught a glimpse of the car next to me. There was a Jiang Xiaobai billboard on the roof. It was like seeing the spinning top in "Inception". It seemed like an exploding Trap sounded in my mind. I also gradually became excited, it was the foggy city!

Our hotel is on the 57th floor, and the elevator was changed once on the 49th floor. From the room, you can see the dense cluster of high-rise buildings on the other side of the Jialing River, and the faint white mist between the buildings. The Jialing River and the Yangtze River pass through the city at a leisurely pace, humidifying the city 24 hours a day like two huge humidifiers.

After dark, the foggy concrete forest suddenly reveals its original appearance in the dim twilight. Neon lights and LEDs occupy the exterior walls of every high-rise building along the terrain and slope like glowing vines. The city is like phosphorus fire gathering in the wilderness, burning eerily and silently. Cyberpunk City.

A vendor carrying a load on the street was selling a kind of dyed plum. The hotel receptionist told us not to buy it, saying that adding flavor and coloring would make it unpalatable. I contacted my friends who live in Chongqing on WeChat, and they also told me not to buy it, saying it was a "cheating fruit." But I think its bright red fluorescent color fits the weirdness of this city. At this time, two small cards suddenly fell out of the pocket of the pedestrian walking in front of us. I stepped forward to take a look and immediately understood what was going on. I suddenly felt cute. Chongqing is really a place full of energy at night.

 

After leaving Chengdu and Chongqing, almost a month passed. After the bleak New Year’s Eve, the gears of time officially turned to 2020—a year that carries a lot of meaning and hope. My life abroad is about to enter its third year. The number of times I have returned to my country halfway is very small, and I don’t know if it will become more or less in the future.

Empress Li of the Southern Tang Dynasty wrote: "Everything in the world goes with the flow, and it is like a dream. The road to Zuixiang is stable and should be frequented, but it is impossible to travel otherwise. "

Things in the world are past, just like the passing water, they will never return. The ups and downs of life are like a dream. I drink frequently and return to my hometown in my drunken dreams. Other than that, where else can we go?