Forest Chongqing, Livable Chongqing

We arrived at the Chongqing airport last night to the excited waves of students of the Chongqing Technical and Business University.  We were previously each paired up with a "buddy" who will show us around in exchange for practicing their English skills.  One of the students from our program, Tim, is really tall.  Come to find out, his buddy, Elva, is short - even for a Chinese girl.  Upon seeing him, her reaction was priceless.  She immediately cried out sadly, "Oh, Tim.... You're so tall!!!!!!"  It was a perfect way to start the trip.
The students are all so welcoming and excited to see us.  They put us up in the international dorms in which we are 2 to a room, but have a separate bedroom with a common dining and showering room.  Everything is brand new - the desk, the computer chair, the internet cords, the bedding, the microwave, and the fridge!  We get our own private balcony complete with iron bars on top to hang out wet laundry that's closed off with sliding glass doors and a green blackout curtain.  It's incredibly nice!  Elva's already given me a Chinese name as well:  Fan Bingbing.  She claims it's the name of a famous Chinese actress...  I had to look it up just to be sure.
The only thing is the bathroom...  It's an all-in-one type of room.  Let's just say if you're in the middle of a shower and decide you have to use the toilet, it's less than a foot away!  Actually, it might be easier to take a shower if you were on the toilet, honestly.  But it's really okay.  I was wondering for the longest time why there was no place to put toilet paper in the bathroom and just recently found out that it's because you're not allowed to flush the paper or you'll clog up the system.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Luckily our bathroom is okay... so far.
The city of Chongqing is made up of 31.4 million people - a population to rival that of the entire nation of Canada.  Four years ago, it was already bigger than that of Peru and Iraq.  31.4 MILLION people.  And they live on a mountain.  They seem to be constantly renovating and upgrading the city.  Immediately upon driving around the outskirts from the airport, it's noticeable just how much better the style of living is here.  They have a motto - Healthy Chongqing, Smooth Chongqing, Safe Chongqing, Green Chongqing, Forest Chongqing, Livable Chongqing.  In response to the water and air situation in China, this Yangtze River city has decided to go green.  As in... plant TONS of trees.  They weren't kidding when they said, "Forest Chongqing."  Beijing has the issue of having too many cars for the current air quality, so they implemented the solution of not being able to drive your car during a certain day of the week (depending on the last number of your license plate).  Chongqing has instead decided to raise the air quality by planting trees.  They already live on a mountain.... they raised the number of trees from a lot to INTENSE.  And it works!
The campus of CTBU is located in a jungle!  The air quality is the best we've experienced yet and the greenery is superb.  It doesn't feel like a campus, but more like a retreat.  They have bridges over vast lakes and small stone pathways through tall trees to get to class.  How cool is that?!  But it's quite a trek... everything seems to be uphill and nothing is located close to anything else.
The students are very fashionable - much more than that of anyone not in the fashion industry in the States.  But then again, with no tax I would be too!  Did I mention that?  Yeah, there's no tax in China.  Anywhere.
Today was a campus tour and city tour.  Unfortunately I had to miss the city tour due to the difficulty my body is having at handling the different foods, but tomorrow should be a better day.  Oh, and we have dumpling-making this week!!