Simpson's World

8 May 2010 - I just watched a great episode of John Simpson's World on BBC World. This time John Simpson is in Chongqing in China's Sichuan province. Chongqing is the world's biggest metropolis, but - as Simpson also points out - nobody seems to have heard of it. Simpson walks down the steps into one of the cities oldest neighborhoods, and gets very excited about all the life and buzz around him. He wonders about the "intellectual and personal beauty" of the place, and comments that this is how life has been in China for hundreds of years. He visibly falls in love with the place.He quotes writer Gertrude Stein who went to one of California's cities and said "There is nothing there, there". Simpson argues there is still a lot of something in old Chongqing, which is about to be knocked down for new high rise development.