Chongqing!

Chongqing:  The city from which our ride will begin.  Wow.   We’re here!

Check out this evening view of Chongqing’s central business district…

You’re seeing Chongqing’s hub at the point where the Yangtze and the Jia Ling rivers converge, and the water you see in the foreground is the Yangtze River.  That’s the river our CSC bikes sail on their way to Shanghai, and then from there on to the US across the Pacific.

It was noticeably cooler in Chongqing at a brisk 71 degrees F, but when Bella, Tracy, and Mr. Ma met us in the airport they assured us this was a temporary condition due to recent rainfalls and flooding in the city.    They said Chongqing would jump back up to Guangzhou’s sweltering heat and humidity in the next day or so, which is how I remembered it from my last visit.

Today is going to be busy.  The Zongshen folks have a media interview set up for me and the rest of the riders will be filtering into the city on this fine foggy and humid Chongqing day.  It looks like there will be seven of us on our cross-China ride, and we’ll all be riding the new Zongshen RX1 and the RX3.   The RX1 is Zongshen’s 200cc, air-cooled, fuel-injected model.   I’ll let you know more about that bike as I learn it.   I’m glad I’ll be on the RX3, too.   I love my RX3 and the bike is proven long-distance mile muncher.

That’s it for now folks.