Life On The Banks of the Yangtse River

I live on the banks of the Yangtse River (known locally as the ChangJiang). This is not as romantic as it sounds. It's very humid here due to the rivers, and it often rains for days on end. I can't see the river from my apartment, but it is within walking distance. Here's a picture of the peninsula on which I live (on an exceptionally rare clear sky day):

Chongqing City is divided up into districts, similar to the boroughs of Manhattan. The population in the city is estimated to be around 13 million people, but Chongqing is mainly known as a factory city, not a city of business or finance or entertainment. I read in the local paper that an estimated 2,000 people a day come from the countryside into Chongqing looking for unskilled labor work. Based on what I have read about NYC history, Chongqing must be a bit what it was like living in NYC around the time of the Industrial Revolution; the lack of services, sanitation issues, factory pollution, construction and fire safety issues, Tammany Hall style politics, run down apartments and constant construction do not make this an easy place to live. But there is an energy to the city, as if it knows it is a city on the cusp of becoming something wonderful in China. I can only imagine what it might be like to come back and visit in 20 years or so, to see what has become of the the possibilities here. I look forward to that.

Sometimes I am still shocked that I live here, that living on the banks of the Yangtse is my everyday life. I wonder how anything else is going to compete with this experience. It's stressful and chaotic, but it's also vibrant and energizing. I'll never be the same person again for living here.