Chillin' in Chengdu

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A 4 hour bus ride, followed immediately by a 12 hour bus ride (in a sleeper bus), spending a night is a very sketchy train station "slum" hotel and finally a 13 hour train ride the following day landed us in Chengdu.

Feels great to be back in a large city after being in the mountains. I met up with two great English couples (Hugh & Helen and Billy and Sarah, the later are on a round-the-world in 18 month program...NICE!) and a french canadian gal (Genny) at the hostel we are staying at (Sim's Cozy Guest House....highly recommended).

One morning, the six of us went to the Chengdu Panda research facility and got a great viewing of the timid animals eating and playing around in the wild. Genny and I then jetted down to Leshan to see the Grand Buddha (largest Buddha in the world at over 71 meters high).

Rest of my time in Chengdu has been relaxing and enjoying the large city (good food, nice people).

Tomorrow, my previous traveling partners and I head north to Jiuzhaigou for some more trekking in the Nature Reserve. I will head back to Chengdu in 5 days and then fly to Lhasa (capital of Tibet) later in the month.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Miss you all!

Larry

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Photos

Sleeper Bus not for tall people
as you can see, the Chinese did not have 6 foot+ people in mind when designing these moving sardine cans!

a look down the aisle
We were in the way back which was great for a claustrophobe like myself! Love the hanging plastic!

great views
the 8 hour sleeper bus ride did provide some great views...but some times it seemed as if we would drive off the cliffs

12 hour train ride follows 12 hour buses
After a day of two buses rides totaling 12 hours, we caught a 9am train for another 12 hour journey. Here I sit in the narrow hall of the train eating my instant noodles.

meeting the locals
once again, I make friends with the locals on the train...hey with 12 hours to kill, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.

Meet Mr. Mao (again)
Arrived in Chengdu at 10pm to an explosion at the train station just as we exited the building. The next day, I find another huge statue of the "maoster" in the center of town....right across from a McDonalds which of course I endulged in.

Opera Goers
The two English couples, Genny and I attend a Sichuan Opera in Chengdu. Notice the nice cups of tea and peanuts on the table.

Opening Scene
The opera featured many acts including this opening extravengaza as well as the famous Mask Switching, a wild hand shadow show (truly outstanding) and some comedy which was lost on us non-Chinese speaking crowd.l

Fire Breathing
Another act of the opera was this fire breather

black & white
Like the pandas I am on the bus to see, Billy snapped this B&W image of me

Panda Research Facility
Here we see one of the inhabitants enjoying his/her morning of eating bamboo

Two cuddly creatures
Another panda goes about his/her eating even as I pose for the shot

Tour Member
This group of Chinese tourists on a tram in the Panda park all clapped when I briefly joined their group.

Animal Antics
This panda gave us a bit of a show as in climbed across the logs and then did some tumbling around a platform before deciding to sit and eat like the rest of the pandas

Red Panda
The facility also housed some red pandas which looked like raccoons...so much so that both Hugh and Billy (the two English blokes) exclaimed: "look at their tails. they are definately raccoons." Oooppsss, no jobs for either of them at the facility.

Grand Buddha of Leshan
Genny and I traveled 2 hours south of Chengdu after the panda trip to see the largest Buddha in the world. It is big. The shot is taken from a boat about 150 feet from the onlookers at the foot of the gigantic statue.

Comments

[microchen]

Sichuan is a great place!
I am just back from Sichuan. visited Chengdu and Danba. amazing!!! I wish I could live in Sichuan for some time. finally understand why our ancestors said "don't go to Sichuan when you are young!", because one will inevitablly fall in love with the place and never want to leave there.