Whenever I say to Western friends that I stayed in the Holiday Inn in Chongqing, people look at me strangely. In China and most of the East, it's a fairly upmarket brand. This one was certainly lovely — and not just for the king-sized beds and actual showers after four nights in a bunk on the Yangtze. The restaurant downstairs was also very good, with actual Chinese food instead of the boat's Chinese-food-for-Westerners food.
Chongqing itself was pretty cool too: very different to sedate Beijing or frenetic Shanghai, it was a real working city. (Rained a lot, too.)
