We hung out in Chongqing for a while because we had free accommodation with a guy who was the manager of our school in Dalian and is now managing a school here. Plus his apartment had a sit-down toilet, which is quite a luxury after having squatters for the past 4 days.  I did some workshops for his teachers, so I even made some money. 

Also, since we were finally forced to use Chinese, we were improving rapidly.  In Chongqing, we marked an important milestone where we bought train tickets all by ourselves completely using Chinese.  I had no idea what the ticket lady was saying to me, so here is how I imagine the dialogue went.

Sera:  We want to go to Guiyang.
Lady: How many tickets?
Sera: On Wednesday.
Lady: What time?
Sera: 2 hard sleepers.
Lady: Do you want top bunk or bottom bunk?
Sera: In the evening.

Anyway, we got the tickets we wanted.

12 million people live in Chongqing

Chongqing is a hilly city so carrying things with shoulder sticks is common here