Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 12

Dear all: we’ve been lazy again and for that we apologise! We are now reporting from Chengdu – the Panda’s hometown! Our last days in Hong Kong were nice, but – personally – I’d had enough of Asian cities tourism. I was looking forward to seeing another part of China. The highlight of the last couple of days we spent in the cosmopolite HK was Stanley; a village 30 minutes by bus from HK, sort of sunny (hurray!), with a nice market (not cheap though), cool views towards a bay with a beach and quite close to Aberdeen, the fishing village. We visited its Maritime Museum (interesting fact: Japan was the first ASIAN country to cross the Pacific in the 17th Century with a vessel whose design was inspired by the Dutch) and observed the many ... read more

Hi all, second entry. Sorry for the delay, I'm afraid we've had trouble with internet access and getting onto the blog. So this entry is a bit of a long one. I will forgive you for not reading it all the way to the end!! I should point out that Michael has actually put in a lot of work to this one! Obviously the funny and insightful parts are mine though!!!!! 16th sept continued: We went out for peking/beijing duck at restaurant next to our hostel. We were a little overwhelmed when a huge plate of duck was brought out to us. However determined not to offend we tucked on. however a 2nd plate of duck was brought to us and we left unable to walk and bursting at the seams. We decided to hit the ... read more

Today we visited the worlds Tallest Buddha in Leshan. The weather was perfect with blue skies and bright sunshine. From Chengdu it was a 2hr and 30 minute bus and coach ride just to get there but well worth the effort. We went with several travellers from the same hostel which made for a really enjoyable day. The Buddha was much bigger than expected, especially when stood at the bottom next to his giant feet. Other than just seeing the Buddha, we hiked several miles stopping at various temples and an old fishing village. The coach journey back to the hostel was mainly spent sleeping after an exhausting day. Our time in Chengdu has been very busy and tiring but probably the best city so far to have visited. Not just because of the sights but ... read more

Panda Time!! We were lucky enough to be able to volunteer at the Chengdu Panda Research centre. This was an amazing day and possibly the best of the trip so far. As volunteers we carried out the same duties as the keepers which included making food for the pandas, feeding them and also the delightful job of cleaning up after them. An excellent experience!! In addition to this we had plenty of time to interact with the pandas and watch them up close. Photos have already been uploaded onto Facebook!... read more

Arrived in Chengdu after a 16 hour sleeper train from Xi’an. The train arrived into Chengdu at 05:00 and what followed was a 4km hike in the rain to the hostel. When the rain stopped early afternoon we rented bikes and ventured around the busy streets of Chengdu- an excellent way to explore the city (if not slightly manic on bikes!). Our only miss-hap of the day was for walking our bikes through peoples park, only to be shown the exit by two angry women. Apparently we were not allowed to bring bikes into the park- we did not realise this, what with the signs at the park entrance being in Chinese!... read more

So Monday was the Mid-Autumn Festival where they pass out moon cakes to one another. (I explained what moon cakes were in my last blog) So Monday was a laid back day since most of the places were closed due to the holiday. However a few of us found a ma and pa restaurant for dumplings. (They were literally hand making them behind us as we ordered and our motto is “The more sketchy the restaurant, the better the food). We found out that they were 4 Yuan for 9 dumplings… So we ordered about 6 trays… (We spent six US dollars for 54 dumplings). After we were filled with dumplings, we ended up going back to the university to relax a little. I ended up taking a small power nap before my roommate and a ... read more

Algumas fotos engraçadas ou curiosas de Chengdu... read more

I fly to Chengdu on Saturday lunchtime from Xian which was easy and straightforward. Chengdu is another huge city in the Sichuan province and is a good base to see many of the surrounding attractions and also visit Tibet which I’d love to do on another trip after having heard stories from other travellers. It is also home of the famous Panda Research Breeding Base which I was really looking forward to visiting. I stayed in the Nova Travellers Lodge which was really good value, big with lots of facilities and spacious with a sociable common area. In the evening I got a taxi to the Shamrock pub and watched the Tri-Nations final and England play Ireland then went to the Kuan Xiengzi Alley area which was really nice and authentic. On the Sunday I walked ... read more