TO CHENGDU

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The guidebook to China states that China has delicious food and Sichuan province is the taste of China.

After a long delay at Jiuzhaigou airport we finally got airborne and on our way to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. This is another big city (China's 5th biggest apparently). After a craziy line up for a taxi then an even craazier driver we arrived at our hotel checked in and relaxed for a while before dinner

Jacks father has a friend in Chengdu and we met Mr Huang and his nephew Huang Yun, who took us to dinner. The restaurant is a national restaurant. This means that it is owned by the state, apparently all restaurants and all other businesses were all owned by the state but now there are many businesses including restaurants owned by Chinese people and foriegners. i asked jack how you can tell if a restaurant is a national one or a private one and he said, if they make you pay up front then it's a national, if they let you pay after you have eaten, then private - hmm.

Anyway I am a big fan of spicy food especially Sichuan cuisine and I was not dissapointed. We had so much food i thought I was going to Die !
Jia Chand Tofu - (family normal tofu)
Gong bao jiding (spicy chicken with peanuts)
Gan bian sijidou - (dry fried green beans)
Shuay jui you - (hot fish soup)
Hui gou rou (boiled rice with stir fried pork)
and there was a couple of other dishes that i can't remember

After dinneer we went to a traditional area full of cool old style buildings and tea houses, where we settled down for the next few hours drinking hot tea from the glass and talking about traditional chinese architecture.

Oh one of the dangers of being an Australian and travelling is that apparently we have a reputation for being big drinkers. And people being hospitable keep buying you beer. To make matters worse the beer here is really good and costs about $0.85 au for a schooner - Oh boy !

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Photos

GASP
This is the only photo we took today of us mucking around with an oxygen can in the taxi on the way to the airport