We were exhausted but excited to meet our new guide Kid who would be looking after us during our time in Chengdu. He was a very cool character, young hipster Chinese guy and it was good to see the modern side of Chinese culture. From the train station we all boarded a bus through he city to our hostel (Mrs. Panda Hostel) and checked in. Here we had twin rooms, which meant me and Dave got a bit of privacy for a couple of nights and it was easier to leave valuables out charging too. Kid gave us a quick briefing before letting us know we had free time the rest of the day. By this point we were starving so we went and found some food from a place next door, which was delicious. After this we met up with a few of the girls to have a hot chocolate at a nearby coffee shop/restaurant. For the rest of the day we mooched around this city a bit, it was huge and very modern. In the evening about half of us got together in one of the communal areas and had a movie night with snacks and beers before an early night to make up for the lack of sleep from the train.
We were all brimming with excitement the next morning, as for most of us we would be going to the highlight of the tour. After grabbing takeaway breakfast from the restaurant next door we were off to see the pandas! Chengdu is home to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It has been one of the most successful places on earth breed pandas in the hope that they do not go extinct. We went early as it gets very busy so we arrived at 7am as it was just open. It is set up like a zoo is with different enclosures, where pandas are lolling on scaffolds, climbing ramps, playing and tumbling down hills and just generally looking incredibly cute. We also got the chance to walk through and see some recent babies, which were adorable. As well they had some red pandas in a forested enclosure, which we walked through trying to spot them in the trees. We were lucky enough to have one come to the ground near us so we could get a proper look. After cuteness overload we headed back into Chengdu and to the hostel. Around the corner from the hotel we found several dumplings and steam bun shops/restaurants so had some delicious traditional Chinese pork and vegetable dumplings for lunch (10 for 12 Y). We met up back at the hostel to have our first mandarin lesson, which was very interesting and entertaining.
Following this Kid took us on the metro to explore some more of the city. We walked around Wenshu monastery which was very beautiful with ornate wood sculptings and carvings and traditional chinese pagodas. Kid taught us a bit about Buddhism and what some of the temple artefacts meant in terms of bringing wealth, prosperity etc to those that touch or pray to them. There were lots of people lighting incense sticks and praying with these too where some of the girls bought some to participate in this ritual. Following this we walked around the monks library. This was another wooden and red chinese padoda but inside it was filled with bright murals and cushions that the monks would sit on to pray and read. There were also walls filled with golden buddhas of all sorts of varieties. Once everyone had spent enough time here we got the metro to the People’s Park and we all went our own ways exploring various areas of the park. Parks in asia are vibrant places. Here we found lots of community- older people dancing and singing, playing games and cards in teahouses by the lake, food sellers and even a dating market where single people put out their written profiles in front of them or placed on bags with telephone numbers whilst other perused them for suitors. The park itself was a gorgeous place with grand trees offering shade from the sun, a beautiful lake with couples boating and even a teahouse. In the evening several of us joined Kid to go for a traditional scezhuan hot pot. Szechuan chilli is known for being very hot. We had a big round table and in the middle there was cooked up hot pot and then an area where vegetables and meats were cooked up inside of this. We filled this up with what we fancied and then dished it out between us. It was delicious but everyones mouth and lips were on fire, very much needing the beer and watermelon to cool off. After dinner we all headed back to the hostel where we ended up all having quite a lot of drinks and playing drinking games. There had been no plans to go out but that changed and I headed out with a group of us to a hotel bar, that some of the girls had been to the previous night. This ended up with us having a private karaoke room to ourselves singing, drinking lots of the included Bacardi and having a lot of fun but not feeling very well on getting in!
After the unexpected night out I was feeling quite tender in the morning so we had a quiet one, chilling before having a subway and drink in the coffee place. In the afternoon when I was a bit more alive we all met Kid then went on the metro to explore the Tibetan area of Chengdu. This was full of Tibetan shops selling orange monk clothes, gongs, and lots of gold statues. From here we went on to explore Jinli area which is a large market area full of food, gifts, architecture and a lake. Like a chinese Camden. It was pretty and we were able to get some good food but it was very busy. In the late afternoon, we grabbed snacks from a bakery and dinner from the local corner restaurant before getting ready to go on our next night's train. With our luggage Kid walked us to the local bus station where we boarded the local bus to the train station. When we boarded the train this time we were all in the same carriage again and it was much cleaner and smoke free compared to our previous experience. Due to us boarding much later this time we had about 30 minutes of light where we played the “Who am I?” game before heading to bed to try and sleep. Thankfully being hungover helped the night train and I slept much better despite it being very squeaky. I woke about 9ish and used the time in the morning on the train to sort through photos, notes ad read. At 12.40 we arrived into Xi’an ready for another couple of days in a new place.
One of the optional activities in Chengdu was to go for a blind massage. This was not something me and Dave opted for but it was something a few of the girls did and they only had one word which was bizarre. I think the whole set up was odd. There were also optional activities outlined in our red books of going to the Leshan Buddha (worlds largest stone Buddha) and the Sichuan Opera but I don’t think anyone from our group opted for these.
Alex
Kommentarer