Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 103

Our arrival into Chengdu, a city in South Western China (pop 4.1 million!) was one of the easiest so far. After a relaxing one hour flight from Xi'an, we boarded a shuttle bus to the city centre. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, famed for its spicy cuisine and also..... the home of the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, hoooorah! The first thing we noticed about Chengdu was its relaxed pace. After the frantic activity of Beijing and our whirlwind tour of Xi'an it looked as if Chengdu would be a really chilled place to spend a few nights. The Lonely Planet described the rooms at Sam's Guesthouse as "tired" but I don't know what kind of room the reviewer saw but it certainly wasn't what we got! For 120 Yuan a night for ... read more

hi all, this weekend we visited a beautiful nature reserve in northern Sichuan (10hr drive each way) but most of our time we spend resting in Changdu and eating well. after our last blog entry we also have some pictures of us eating so our parents don't come with pots of food :) Hagit's thesis was about "feast or famine" in bacteria. we are living in the same way :) the weather also improved it was sunny in the low 20s so we are very relaxed games Chinese are VERY fond of pool. there are pool tables anyplace you go. on the high passes of the "backdoor" there were poll tables hundreds of kms from the nearest person except for the 2-3 people playing at the table at the time. The next popular sport is basketball. ... read more

Our last full day in Chengdu was pretty lazy. Lots of ping pong and reading which felt great. The cooking class was also a fun way to pass a few hours and get a great meal! There were three of us who signed up for the class - which was good since the kitchen couldn't hold too many more people. Unfortunately I never caught the chef's name so we'll just call him Chef; Chef did not speak english so he taught by demonstration and Maki, one of the owner's of the guesthouse, helped with translating. The plan was to make three of Sichuan's most famous dishes: Gongbao ji ding (Kungpao chicken), Mapo Dofu (Mother Chen's bean curd - basically tofu in a spicy sauce, a dish that Chengdu is known for), and Hui Guo Rou (twice-cooked ... read more

Paul - First of all, I had no idea about any of the football results for the past week so Grimsby are in the final and Arsenal lost. Well that's pretty good news. Very good news in fact. So, we left Xi'an on the 16th on a sleeper to Chengdu. Much nicer than the one we got to Xi'an which stank of piss. Suffice to say Laura was pleased. Met a nice English couple who had sold their HOUSE to go travelling round the world on their honeymoon. That's the sort of dedication that I like! Played cards with some chinese girl and generally passed the time rather nicely. Got off the train at half 5, not before we woken up at half 4 by the ticket inspector (jesus, does this guy not sleep!!?!), and surprisingly ... read more

it's 3 in the morning here and i'm wide awake. It's my own fault...i haven't been able to stay up past 7 since we got here. we leave for the airport in about 4 hours.....off to lhasa woo hoo. Chengdu isn't exactly the most beautiful city in the whole world, but it's not the worst i've seen either. it's kind of stuck in mediocrity. There are lots of people, lots of tall buildings.....so original for a city. For some reason the really young kids here have slits in their pants. we saw a little boy being carried around on a chair of some sort and his pants had a hole cut out for his unit. i guess it's more eco friendly than diapers? People here don't believe in planting things. From the road medians to the ... read more