High Rolling, but Laid Back: Chengdu
::::There’s so much to write, but be forewarned now, if you read it all, you may be amused:::
June 3: The particular hotel where we stayed included a bus service (at extra charge) that drove 4 hours into the Sheraton in Chengdu (where our other traveling friend, Nancy, was staying), so we took that route into the city in the morning in order to meet up with her in the afternoon. Once we would meet up with her, our travel group would be complete. So we hopped on the bus, which had the feel of a nice charter bus, and I opened up my phrase book to study Chinese numbers.
As I peered outside my window, I realized that leaving behind the cities of Beijing and Chongqing for Chengdu was going to be as soothing as it was welcomed. The bus route we took blessed us with views of large farming fields and tall bushy hills, which appeared even greener next to the pale gray sky (it had rained earlier that morning). We passed by a large billboard with a large panda on it and, as I would soon figure out, Chengdu is the houses China’s national treasurers: the Giant Pandas. We also passed by houses staggered on hillsides, with roofs reminiscent of the old China. I spotted many cute animals, including piglets eating by the roadside and a family of ducks peering in and out of tall lush grasses as they made their way to a pond. Life appeared a bit quieter, but scattered farmers, fishermen, and some roadside construction still added some busy life into the simplicity of the passing scenes. I could smell some of the fresh black tar from the roadside construction, and it reminded me of my childhood days in California when the city would repave our col-de-sac block every now and then---my sisters and I had to reluctantly wait until it dried before we could ride our bikes to the park.
I think it was during this route when I started to feel a sense of “getting lost” in another country. Back in the states, life got busy and many times, one can feel lost in our own goals, our chosen paths, etc. Ironically, it is almost comforting to suddenly “lose myself” in getting lost or feeling displaced (which is what traveling does) in China. I wanted to lose myself and my own perceptions in my new surroundings. To be away from our life back in the states (for at least for a while) and to exchange experiences for something new to challenge that life—that is what traveling began to mean to me.
Back on the bus, we stopped for a break. I have to make one mention of food, because it is so important! When our bus stopped once for a break, I was semi-hungry at that point, so I grabbed a bowl of spicy silver noodles for 5Y (about 40 cents in US dollars). Then, with half a cigarette in one hand, our driver beckoned us to return on the bus. It was onward to Chengdu, but not without some heavy traffic.
Peering out into the window, I realized that as we headed into more city life, the traffic halted for about 5 minutes. At that point, some Chinese got out of their fruit trucks and started to walk up and down in the lanes towards other cars. With some fruit in their hand, I realized that they were trying to take advantage of their gridlocked situation and make a couple of kwai or two in the meantime! (Kwai is the colloquial word for Yuen). Hey, it was more fun watching them try to sell their goods than watch the current bus movie which was called “Kung Fu Kids”.
Finally, after about a couple of hours, we were in Chengdu—but at the Sheraton, we couldn’t reach our friend because she was out for that afternoon, so we found a hostel in the city in the meantime. Remember my little rant about getting lost? Well, for a while as we tried to find this hostel, we went around in circles. Since it was a new hostel (and not the one listed in the travel guides), it was a bit of a challenge asking people where to go. At one point, we came across two elderly Chinese people, who wore bright orange tops (the kind that point you out as crosswalk guards for people) and we pointed to an address. The older woman motioned this really old frail man (also in orange) towards the street head. During their whole conversation, we stood a bit bewildered, so we just turned around and walked in the direction we thought the hostel may be. As we kept walking, so did the old man, slowly but surely, with his oversized bright orange top draping his dark brown clothes. At first, we thought he may be “watching us” or that the woman told him to “follow the suspicious foreigners”. We tried evading the old man, by walking through buildings, off the sidewalk, in between motorbikes---but to no avail. The old man would appear again, slowly but again surely, still walking parallel to us, although a bit distant. When we stopped, he stopped slightly ahead of us. When we walked, he would continue walking. Finally, at an intersection, we stopped to take a breather from our heavy backpacks. He then extended his hand and pointed out with his bony hand across the street-----there was our hostel.
Moral of the story: Never try to evade an elderly Chinese man who may be just trying to give you directions. You will not lose him.
I must go on about Chengdu, because if you ever visit, or find a fellow backpacker and suddenly find yourself enamored with that person, it has the perfect “date” place; sure we can talk about Ho-Hai Hutong near Beijing. But for some non-clubby, family friendly, lets-go-catch-some-tadpoles-kinda-fun, I would suggest the “People’s Park” in Chengdu. We walked there, which was about 15 minutes away from our hostel; during our walk we passed by some of the backstreet life, including a Chinese Muslim mosque. Also, I noticed a lot of Chinese playing cards, mah jong, or playing games involving dice. It was everwhere.
Remnin “People’s” Park is great. I can’t fully compare it to Central Park in New York, but a lot of Chinese families gravitate to this large park. It’s free, and there is a lot to do. So date suggestion number 1, stop by the Gold Fish Tea House in the afternoon: grab yourself some tea and people watch. There are a few musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments. They do not ask for money--they simply play for the love of music. Or date suggestion number 2, granted your date isn’t hydrophobic---take a soothing boat ride and witness the laughter and love of Chinese families around you. Or date suggestion number 3: Walk around and get lost in the park (or in whomever’s eyes) and just enjoy the nature, the music, and the people of Chengdu as they play cards or roll dice. Trust me, the park was one of the highlights of my trip.
After the nice walk through the park, we stopped to take photos by Mao’s statute, which ironically, is facing with his hand toward some burgeoning capitalist construction ahead: new buildings, shopping areas, possible financial offices, and resident space. One of the signs describing a new residential community had a translation in English: “Live here. More bushy.”
Finally, at the end of a long afternoon, we decided to take a rickshaw bike back for 15Y in total for the three of us. We negotiated with the driver (as you should always do). Now, one of my friends made a good point about the “vehicle” we were in. First, there was more than 300 pounds of us (three lean girls). Second, to get to our hostel, we had a couple of up hill slants. For about 15 minutes, this guy biked through traffic, pedaled up some slanted roads, and even made sudden breaks to avoid any collision with people. I started to feel tired for him. Now the third point (always make a third point if you previously have two) we looked at the bike he had. The bike had no gears. No gears!!!!!! Props to our driver for hauling our butts back. Move over L’Armstrong.
Okay, I know this post is long. The day is almost done, I promise. That evening, we booked tickets, via our awesome hostel for a culture night at the Sichuan Opera. After a fast but delicious meal hotpot meal ( From the phrasebook: mai dun! –“Check!”) it was off to see Chinese singing, acrobatic food skill (a young girl on her back throwing and balancing tables and pots and chairs with her feet) and changing faces. To this day, we keep wondering how they change those faces! In any event, it was good to treat ourselves to a show after a full day of traveling and walking around.
So, with the flickering white light above my bed, I finish writing Day 1 in Chengdu. Tomorrow, everyone’s favorite animal (or it should be at least on their top 10 list): the giant panda. Forgive me now if I get cute in the next post.
Note: Thanks to friends who helped me edit this post.
June 3: The particular hotel where we stayed included a bus service (at extra charge) that drove 4 hours into the Sheraton in Chengdu (where our other traveling friend, Nancy, was staying), so we took that route into the city in the morning in order to meet up with her in the afternoon. Once we would meet up with her, our travel group would be complete. So we hopped on the bus, which had the feel of a nice charter bus, and I opened up my phrase book to study Chinese numbers.
As I peered outside my window, I realized that leaving behind the cities of Beijing and Chongqing for Chengdu was going to be as soothing as it was welcomed. The bus route we took blessed us with views of large farming fields and tall bushy hills, which appeared even greener next to the pale gray sky (it had rained earlier that morning). We passed by a large billboard with a large panda on it and, as I would soon figure out, Chengdu is the houses China’s national treasurers: the Giant Pandas. We also passed by houses staggered on hillsides, with roofs reminiscent of the old China. I spotted many cute animals, including piglets eating by the roadside and a family of ducks peering in and out of tall lush grasses as they made their way to a pond. Life appeared a bit quieter, but scattered farmers, fishermen, and some roadside construction still added some busy life into the simplicity of the passing scenes. I could smell some of the fresh black tar from the roadside construction, and it reminded me of my childhood days in California when the city would repave our col-de-sac block every now and then---my sisters and I had to reluctantly wait until it dried before we could ride our bikes to the park.
I think it was during this route when I started to feel a sense of “getting lost” in another country. Back in the states, life got busy and many times, one can feel lost in our own goals, our chosen paths, etc. Ironically, it is almost comforting to suddenly “lose myself” in getting lost or feeling displaced (which is what traveling does) in China. I wanted to lose myself and my own perceptions in my new surroundings. To be away from our life back in the states (for at least for a while) and to exchange experiences for something new to challenge that life—that is what traveling began to mean to me.
Back on the bus, we stopped for a break. I have to make one mention of food, because it is so important! When our bus stopped once for a break, I was semi-hungry at that point, so I grabbed a bowl of spicy silver noodles for 5Y (about 40 cents in US dollars). Then, with half a cigarette in one hand, our driver beckoned us to return on the bus. It was onward to Chengdu, but not without some heavy traffic.
Peering out into the window, I realized that as we headed into more city life, the traffic halted for about 5 minutes. At that point, some Chinese got out of their fruit trucks and started to walk up and down in the lanes towards other cars. With some fruit in their hand, I realized that they were trying to take advantage of their gridlocked situation and make a couple of kwai or two in the meantime! (Kwai is the colloquial word for Yuen). Hey, it was more fun watching them try to sell their goods than watch the current bus movie which was called “Kung Fu Kids”.
Finally, after about a couple of hours, we were in Chengdu—but at the Sheraton, we couldn’t reach our friend because she was out for that afternoon, so we found a hostel in the city in the meantime. Remember my little rant about getting lost? Well, for a while as we tried to find this hostel, we went around in circles. Since it was a new hostel (and not the one listed in the travel guides), it was a bit of a challenge asking people where to go. At one point, we came across two elderly Chinese people, who wore bright orange tops (the kind that point you out as crosswalk guards for people) and we pointed to an address. The older woman motioned this really old frail man (also in orange) towards the street head. During their whole conversation, we stood a bit bewildered, so we just turned around and walked in the direction we thought the hostel may be. As we kept walking, so did the old man, slowly but surely, with his oversized bright orange top draping his dark brown clothes. At first, we thought he may be “watching us” or that the woman told him to “follow the suspicious foreigners”. We tried evading the old man, by walking through buildings, off the sidewalk, in between motorbikes---but to no avail. The old man would appear again, slowly but again surely, still walking parallel to us, although a bit distant. When we stopped, he stopped slightly ahead of us. When we walked, he would continue walking. Finally, at an intersection, we stopped to take a breather from our heavy backpacks. He then extended his hand and pointed out with his bony hand across the street-----there was our hostel.
Moral of the story: Never try to evade an elderly Chinese man who may be just trying to give you directions. You will not lose him.
I must go on about Chengdu, because if you ever visit, or find a fellow backpacker and suddenly find yourself enamored with that person, it has the perfect “date” place; sure we can talk about Ho-Hai Hutong near Beijing. But for some non-clubby, family friendly, lets-go-catch-some-tadpoles-kinda-fun, I would suggest the “People’s Park” in Chengdu. We walked there, which was about 15 minutes away from our hostel; during our walk we passed by some of the backstreet life, including a Chinese Muslim mosque. Also, I noticed a lot of Chinese playing cards, mah jong, or playing games involving dice. It was everwhere.
Remnin “People’s” Park is great. I can’t fully compare it to Central Park in New York, but a lot of Chinese families gravitate to this large park. It’s free, and there is a lot to do. So date suggestion number 1, stop by the Gold Fish Tea House in the afternoon: grab yourself some tea and people watch. There are a few musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments. They do not ask for money--they simply play for the love of music. Or date suggestion number 2, granted your date isn’t hydrophobic---take a soothing boat ride and witness the laughter and love of Chinese families around you. Or date suggestion number 3: Walk around and get lost in the park (or in whomever’s eyes) and just enjoy the nature, the music, and the people of Chengdu as they play cards or roll dice. Trust me, the park was one of the highlights of my trip.
After the nice walk through the park, we stopped to take photos by Mao’s statute, which ironically, is facing with his hand toward some burgeoning capitalist construction ahead: new buildings, shopping areas, possible financial offices, and resident space. One of the signs describing a new residential community had a translation in English: “Live here. More bushy.”
Finally, at the end of a long afternoon, we decided to take a rickshaw bike back for 15Y in total for the three of us. We negotiated with the driver (as you should always do). Now, one of my friends made a good point about the “vehicle” we were in. First, there was more than 300 pounds of us (three lean girls). Second, to get to our hostel, we had a couple of up hill slants. For about 15 minutes, this guy biked through traffic, pedaled up some slanted roads, and even made sudden breaks to avoid any collision with people. I started to feel tired for him. Now the third point (always make a third point if you previously have two) we looked at the bike he had. The bike had no gears. No gears!!!!!! Props to our driver for hauling our butts back. Move over L’Armstrong.
Okay, I know this post is long. The day is almost done, I promise. That evening, we booked tickets, via our awesome hostel for a culture night at the Sichuan Opera. After a fast but delicious meal hotpot meal ( From the phrasebook: mai dun! –“Check!”) it was off to see Chinese singing, acrobatic food skill (a young girl on her back throwing and balancing tables and pots and chairs with her feet) and changing faces. To this day, we keep wondering how they change those faces! In any event, it was good to treat ourselves to a show after a full day of traveling and walking around.
So, with the flickering white light above my bed, I finish writing Day 1 in Chengdu. Tomorrow, everyone’s favorite animal (or it should be at least on their top 10 list): the giant panda. Forgive me now if I get cute in the next post.
Note: Thanks to friends who helped me edit this post.
posted by RENEWED at
11:59 PM
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