Travelling To 'The World's Most Futuristic City"..... Chongqing, China 🇨🇳 

That "smoking" thing of your video is actually a carrying pole. The two men told you that they are looking for a job helping people to carry the heavy objects. That pole called 扁担 “bian dan”, it’s a typical work tooling in south west China, not weapons!😂😂😂 so much fun to seeing you guys travel in China!✌️😊

The elderly people sitting by the roadside are engaged in a very ancient and traditional occupation in Chongqing called "Bang Bang." Since Chongqing is a mountainous city with many stairs, it can be very inconvenient for people to carry heavy items while traveling. Therefore, this profession emerged to help people transport goods. The elderly people refer to themselves as "Kang Bao," meaning they carry packages, move things.

That long stick is not a weapon! It's a tool! It's for people called "Bang Bang", and it's used to carry things up Chongqing's terrain! Yeah Chongqing Line 2's Liziba station is such a neat station! It's transit-oriented development to the max! People may think living in those apartments is constantly noisy because of the monorail, but the station uses specialized noise reduction equipment to isolate station noise from the surrounding residences! Having elevated rail like the Line 2 monorail works effectively in Chongqing because Chongqing is as you saw, a huge densely populated but mountainous city with multiple river valleys, so using monorails leverages the ability to negotiate steep grades and tight curves with rapid transit capacity! Another example of a monorail that goes through a building with a station inside is at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Florida! While Liziba station opened in June 2005, the Contemporary Resort opened with Magic Kingdom on October 1st, 1971! If the monorail station inside the hotel building isn't interesting enough, the monorail station is part of the Grand Canyon Concourse which features a huge Grand Canyon-themed mosaic (that has a five-legged goat; this was done on purpose to reflect human error) by Mary Blair, who also created character designs for It's a Small World and also worked on Alice in Wonderland! The resort is also the location of the infamous Nixon "I am not a crook" speech in November 1973.

It's not a weapon, it's a tool for manually transporting goods. Because Chongqing's terrain is steep, there are many workers transporting light goods, such as luggage. This profession existed a long time ago. They sat on the streets just to pick up goods when needed. Customers shipping goods can easily find them😁

Chongqing is much older than you think! What you quoted as its birthday was the year Chongqing separated from Sichuan. They wanted to help develop the central and western parts of China, thus the decision to separate Chongqing from Sichuan. But Chongqing has an extensive history and a rich culture! Chongqing's location is historically associated with the State of Ba, which was conquered by Qin in 316 BC. In 1362 during the Yuan dynasty, Ming Yuzhen, a peasant rebel leader, established the Daxia Kingdom at Chongqing for a short time. During the ROC era, Chongqing served as its wartime capital between 1938 and 1946 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The "fruits" you tried are called Chinese water chestnuts or Eleocharis dulcis, and I say fruit in quotations because they aren't actually fruit nor nuts, but rather aquatic vegetables that grow in marshes, under water, or in mud. Chinese water chestnuts are native to Asia, tropical parts of Africa, and Oceania.

You guys are so curious and respectful of the local people 😘 BTW, the white apple-like things you were eating were water chestnuts. They are meant to be cooked in soup or be wrapped in dumplings, that's how they get more flavour and the water chestnut itself adds mores texture.

The little white fruit is water chestnut, very healthy.

In the air, in Chongqing, it's fog, not smog. Chongqing is called the fog capital. Fog is free of pollutants. Smog has a lot of pollutants

Alan，when I saw you helping that aunt carry the box, I could tell from her smile that her heart melted. If you were single, that lady would definitely want to introduce her daughter to you.

Such a great vlog, I really enjoyed it. Life in China is peaceful, how I wish more people visit China end enjoy the Chinese hospitality, the friendliness of people, the variety of food and the high technology/luxury everywhere around.

Chongqing was and I believe still is called “Mountain City”. Its landscape is quite unique even in China. I was on a trip there many years ago. When I checked in the hotel, I was told to take the elevator to go DOWN to the 4th floor, I thought he just made a laughable mistake. When I pushed the 4 button it started to go down, I was really confused. Later I found the hotel front door and reception desk that taxi dropped me off was actually the 10th floor of it. I still remember it as it made such a strong impression. Another thing I remember my best friend in college was from Chongqing. At the time everybody could ride bicycle as it was the basic transportation way. But my friend could not and said most people in Chongqing could not as bicycle was completely not practical by the steep slopes there. The first “fruit” you tried is called 荸荠 or 马蹄 (horse’ hoof). By googling it’s apparently called “Chinese water chestnut”. It’s kind in the middle of fruit and vegetables. It’s quite popular in some southern China areas, some people appreciate its very light and fresh flavor. The “worm” 😅 in your potato snack I believe is 鱼腥草 or 折耳根. It’s a plant root with very strong flavor. It’s only available and appreciated in southwestern areas. A lot of Chinese cannot stand it, but some like it very much. It’s believed to cool down the heat/flame inside your body and keep you healthy. The bamboo stick is not for smoking or as a weapon. It’s for carrying heavy package or load on the shoulder. The people with it do it as charged service. It was very popular and actually important for Chongqing’s unique mountain slopes. I thought it had died down with modern transportation, but guess I was wrong. Enjoy your travel in China!

- Finally you two visited Chong Qing . - it’s kind from Alan to help ladies with bags . -your Alipay Shanon not working well because you do not have chinese sim card may be . It’s usually update cities Automatic if you have chinese number . - try walk in sky walk bridge in horizontal building ( horizontal skyscraper) . - waiting your new vlogs for china . - good luck have a great time.

Please note that the fog in Chongqing is water vapor in the mountains rather than industrial haze.

What a amazing city with beautiful night scenery.

wow, looks such an amazing city, very clean too!

As a guy from Chongqing. Sitting in my room in Glasgow watching two Glaswegian exploring my city is feeling magic. It is also my first time seeing Scottish travelling in China. Wish you a pleasant journey!

Those white things are water chestnuts. They might be a bit bland to people who generally consumes a lot of sugar (taste is a threshold, and like alcohol and drug tolerance if you taste too strong a flavour over time eventually your sense of taste gets dull), but they are great cooking ingredients. Very faint aroma that gets amplified in things such as soup and sugary beverages.

Great contents! I noticed that with your past videos about your trip in China, your channel has gained more and more views. I just want to say that giving honest opinions about your expereince in China is very courageous, and is also bound to attract a lot of trolls. And with more positives things you said about China, there will also be meaner and meaner comments. I hope you two will be able to ignore them and keep yourselves positive and cheerful for your upcoming trips.

You two really need to get a local friend who speaks English ASAP. It's super easy to make friends in such a country full of warm and hospitable people everywhere. This will solve any problem with Alipay, translation and generally making sense of everything you see. I can't even count the number of me facepalming myself everytime you completely misinterpret the local culture due to subpar Google translation when it comes to Chinese. PS: No, that "bong" is NOT a weapon. It's a carrying stick he puts on his shoulder to haul heavy stuff up and down Chongqing terrain for people who pays.

I saw lots of people already explained the carrying pole thingy those gentlemen used. Also you couldn't possible communicate with them via translation app, simpley because they spoke with such strong chongqing accents that the app couldn't pick it up as proper mandarin. And those five minutes had to be the most interesting most hiarious part throughout the entire trip!

Best city in the world indeed.

Awesome

Thanks for sharing.

❤nice video love it

A weapon? LOL That’s the funniest part of the video😂 That is a stick to carry heavy stuffs,not for smoking, not a weapon 😂😂

Those white fruits are called "water chestnuts" which aren't the nuts but rather a kind of aquatic vegetable. They are so popular being used as an ingredient of making a famous chinese dessert "water chestnut rice recipe". ❤😋

Welcome to Chongqing guys

Let me correct some information: Chongqing, with a history of over 3,000 years, was previously part of Sichuan Province. In 1997, it was reclassified by the central government as a central direct-managed municipality, becoming the fourth such city after Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. A central direct-managed municipality is a city at the same level as a province.

You are both inspirational. You possess a respectful manner with an open, positive perspective that is a joy to watch. Thank you both 🙏🏽

I am in this city right now, cant get enough of it. Its amazing. I guess I love it cos it has a different vibe from the rest of the Chinese cities I have visited.

I love Chongqing. Right now I’m so jealous of these two, having the adventure of their young lives!

welcome❤❤

The white fruit taste like nothing because it's technically not 'fruit', but more like a vegetable🤣we normally use it in soup. It is the stem of a water plant called Biqi or 荸荠 But I do like its unique flavor, very mild but refreshing...

1.That long stick is called a pole and is used to carry things. do you notice that there are many steps in Chongqing? In the past, people used to use this stick to lift goods up from the cargo ship manually. 😀 2. The crispy potatoes you eat are very delicious. I lived in Chongqing for four years and they are one of my favorite snacks. That white, tasteless food is called water chestnuts. In Guangdong, we use them to make soup, which makes them more flavorful. I recommend you try Chongqing hot pot and Chongqing noodles, which are very famous. However, it's a bit spicy. If you can't eat spicy food, please tell the waiter that it's slightly spicy. "way way la" is pronounced like this 3.Those underground stores usually close very early. Everyone moved their stores to the ground. What is different from other places is that this kind of place is a favorite of homeless people in other countries, but you will find that in China, there are no homeless people. have a good trip .

Ahh what a view 🌫️ 🌫️ 🌫️

Last part of the video showing the underground tunnel is a very typical ChongQing scene. The underground tunnels are your basic underground road crossing with some shopfronts.

Wow lucky 😁🤞 you guys

Such an awesome couple 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Hangzhou (not far from Shanghai) is a very beautiful tourist destination in China

beautify city

As a traveler to more than 80 countries, I applaud you guys for just heading headlong into adventure. So cool. Definitely don’t be afraid to find local guides. Not scammers but people who are keen to show you around and translate a bit. Other RU-vidrs. Or IG folks. Street touts aren’t the deal. Rock on you two!

The shuttered shops at the end may be art galleries. They'll come alive in the weekends and festivals, etc. That's my guess. And the old man you talked to was a porter. The bamboo pole was for carrying stuffs, not a weapon.

Fabulous video! Shannons face at cash not taking 😂😂 plus proud of you my kind wonderful son helping that lady xx

❤❤❤❤❤❤

So much fun to see you guys traveling around China❤😊

chongqin amazing city

OMG it was so fun to see you guys communicate with the guy who does carrying work. That’s a special work in Chongqing since it has lots of difficult mountain works and ports. They do the heavy work for the passengers.

I love your videos and your accent!!

Nice

The last place is probably a place selling mahjong machines! A regular shop area 😊 love your video!!

I so want to go to Chongqing. Lucky you!

welcome to my hometown!

the annoying transportation issue you mentioned is not just for foreigners, chinese people also have to live with it. what caused the problem is chines is a big and hugely populated country, it's very hard to implement a single unified transportation policy across the whole country so every province develop their own. good news is, some of the major cities in the east and south part of china, like Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, even Hong Kong are developing compatible transportation protocols, and more and more cities will join.

The fruit looked like the water chestnut. It has some flavor with a slight sweetness.

Chongqing is called both mountain city and fog city as it is foggy most of times.

每个城市都不同哈哈哈

20:32 The old men said that the bamboo pole is used to pick goods and make money for living, so he will make an eating gesture, which means making money to buy food.

10:50 I'm born in 14th january 1997. Just wow!😂

I was taken aback by your accent and I remembers the lucky charms cereal I had hid away in my cabinet. So I paused the video and made myself a bowl of lucky charms and then I continued watching.

i like the way you speak "incredible" so cute.

Chongqing is amazing, wow!

You should really file a complaint to the Alipay's customer service, the issue you encountered is clearly some sort of software bug, I traveled across China and never needed to re-input my information, the app will ask me to change the city though...

重庆看起来好适合探险

Enjoy your trip !

Pretty sure that pole isn’t his weapon but the thing he uses to carry things

in chongqin you really need a 3D navigator :=), it is a 3D city 😇

Chongqing is much older than Alan, by a few thousand years. The "birthday" of Chongqing that Alan quoted was actually the day Chongqing became a city directly under the administration of the central government in Beijing, instead of under Sichuan province where the city is actually located. Think of Washington DC. Although it's in Virginia, it's not part of the state of Virginia; instead DC is its own special district.

Guys I love your scottish accent so much!!

Hahaha the big wooden stick is called 棒棒, it’s not a weapon nor a smoke pipe. It’s used for hanging goods on the side, they make a living from moving goods for people, because Chongqin is a mountain city, people may need to carry many stuff up and down and it’s exhausting. So here they come to carrying stuff for you.

Following you, I hope you can visit more Chinese cities.

Well done, you both are very adventurous. 6:26 I think it's water chestnut that you are eating. It should be really really nice to eat. 20:00 I think the pole is for carrying stuff on the shoulder.

Lovely to see you roaming around my childhood neighbourhood 😊

I stumbled on your channel and have since binged so many of your vlogs, lol. You guys somehow always manage to put a smile on my face. Ps: how did you solve the metro ticket issue? Did you just use a newer crispier note, or something else?

While in Chongqing, don't take a shortcut by hopping over a wall.

It’s not a weapon, it’s a tool to carry heavy bags using the idea of lever principle.

You two make a lovely couple.

I think for me, a Chinese, I like your positive attitude towards life more than your videos. I wish you a happy journey😃

Love your Glaswegian accent. Missing my time there❤

thanks

From Glasgow here and me and my partner went to China last year. It’s so validating to see other people have the same struggles, it’s an amazing country but omg it’s stressful at times 😂

Duck 🙂Try being 6'5" lol. Superb video as ever.

It has been a dream to go to Chongqing and Shanghai, hope to make it one day!

你们很有探索精神😂什么食物都尝一下😂

白色的水果叫：荸荠，一般按斤来买，买之前可以试吃一个，甜的话再买。

You guys are so cute! The tasteless white things are water chestnuts and they need to be cooked! People usually put lots of seasoning and sauce in the dish :)

You two are so cute. Thumbs up for being so open-minded and adventurous!

at 20:20, the stick is not weapon, is for loading luggages on its 2 ends and place it over the shoulder. the man is actually a porter.

Alipay，you just need change the GPS location to chongqing, and apply chongqing transport card

the only bad thing about chongqing is the weather, 100 fog days a year and only around 30 days of sunshine, but this is to do with the geography which is also the reason why chongqing is so cool(the mountainess terain) so i guess its a con for a pro

Happy couple everyday happy

Mountain City

重庆的火锅很出名 你们应该尝试下😊

鱼腥草云贵川那些西南城市喜欢吃，我是吃不惯。

Chongqing is a very exciting and adventurous city. It is famous for being a city built on mountains. Whether it is urban construction, scenery and food, it is absolutely unforgettable. It is completely different from other places. It is worth visiting many times. Chengdu near it is also a charming city, which is another kind of experience

I lived in the same hotel on the 22nd floor.

Well the metros are of different municipalities 😂. It's like the a card for the Chicago transit authority and using it in New York city. It's not like the high speed rail. The apple like thing are water chestnuts. Supposed to cool the body and counter the all the hot pots.

To go to Chongqing and not try hot pot is like going to Naples and not trying Pizza, was there last week and cant wait to go back yet again.

the plain taste vegi is the water chestnut usually used in Chinese cuisine or beverage

19:44 the stick is called "bangbang" and is not for smoking. It is a kind of job of service only in Chongqin because there are too many levels and steirs in Chongqing. The man was waiting for customer who need to carrying heavier googs home. the bangbang will on their shoulder with goods on eigther one or both end of the "bangbang". it's a kind of tough job

Greetings from S. Dakota! My husband and I have been watching your channel.Great content and you both have awesome personalities. By the way Shannon I caught that beautiful 💍. Congratulations! 😊