China - Chengdu

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Dear Blog Readers,



The people have spoken and both readers have commented on the lack of toilet thus far. I was going to save it for the the stomach issues faced in Guilin (spoiler alert) but I'll comment on thoughts so far on the bog front. In general, very impressive facilities - numerously scattered about the towns, especially in Beijing, where the houses in the hutongs rarely have their own toilet so the public ones are used. Often clean and we must have experienced some shockers as sometimes it was the locals that were disgusted with the facilities rather than ourselves!



You must bring toilet paper - it's a luxury if there is some provided (often at the entrance rather than in the cubicle. Talking of cubicles, it wasn't uncommon for there not to be door, so throw your dignity in the bin (as well as the used bog roll). You might be lucky if they have a western style toilet - my advice would be to stick to the squatter. It'll be cleaner, less prone to plumbing issues and it's actually healthier to do it in that position. One of the public toilets had a timer above the door which lets everybody know outside how long you've been in there for! Trains often have a bar to hold onto to stop the sudden movements in the carriage cause unwanted accidents with your own movements.



The huge train stations in China often have boiling water stations next to the toilets. This is useful for filling up your cup noodles and flasks of tea which we often did to take onboard the long journeys. The 3 hour journey between Xi'an and Chengdu went very quickly but we had no idea where we were when arriving in Chengdu fairly late in the evening. Thankfully the taxi driver could understand what little information I had on the hotel we were staying at - the Pathfinder Drea Hotel. It's at the top of a shopping mall a little out of town but we got a good deal and the room had a nice view. There were also some fried chicken vendors out the front which was a nice snack before going to bed.



The following day, we had an early start but the hotel provided a decent breakfast and we got a taxi to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre. Chengdu is the home to China's most iconic animal which were rapidly disappearing until projects like this were set up in order to breed pandas and ultimately get them back into the wild. The base is home to 50 giant pandas and even some rare red pandas too. The soothing tones of David Attenborough on a big screen provides a wonderful overview of the facilities in the nearby museum, captivating kids and adults alike.



We'd arrived early specifically because it was the feeding time around 9-10am and this is the rare opportunity in the day that you see the pandas at their most active (in the loosest sense of the word). There were about 3 main areas which you could see the pandas. The queuing was, once again, insane, but it doesn't really feel like a zoo. The pandas are in huge, non-barrier enclosures, and the fundamental goal is that they are able to stay healthy and breed to increase their numbers. The red pandas were fascinating - much smaller than the giant pandas and have amazing colours especially in their tails. We were also fortunate enough to see a baby panda which can normally only be seen in August.



We left soon after lunch when the crowds were really getting big...just in time for the pandas to fall into a post-feed slumber for the rest of the day. We managed to get a taxi back to the hotel and went to a hotpot place nearby. Sichuan province is renowned across the world for its spice and it's legendary hotpot was something not to be missed. We asked for the mildest one they had, then you go and choose as many sticks as you want which are skewering all sorts - meat, vegetables, tofu and insects. You then put the sticks in the boiling broth in front of you and eat them once cooked and finish off with the broth as a soup with some noodles. It was sensational!



Well fed, we headed into the town centre and found Tianju Square - very odd, you have a huge statue of Chairman Mao overlooking a Starbuck's and a KFC, the consequences of two different ideologies staring each other in the face. We had a lovely walk in the evening heat though and ended up in the People's Park. Locals were gathering, the tea houses were closing for the day and random groups were singing and dancing in the squares. The build up of heat during the day caused the most torrential downpour out of nowhere so we ended up spending half an hour huddled under a pagoda with the locals. Parents pushing their kids forward to say "hello, nice to meet you" and some of the more adventurous adults doing the same. We decided to make a run for it as it seemed never-ending (the rain, not the "hello, nice to meet you") and got absolutely drenched trying to find the right bus to take us back to the hotel. Just as we stepped off the bus, of course, the rain stopped.



The following day was a bit more chilled and we had a lie in before breakfast. Laura went to get her nails done in the shopping mall whilst I went on the hunt for a laundrette. I wasn't expecting it to be so difficult...but ended up doing a 30 minute walk 'around the block' and found one small outlet which looked like the front room of a woman's house with a big washing machine in it. I came prepared...with Google Translate...to ask if they could wash our clothes and the woman enthusiastically said yes. She took the clothes then totted up the cost...the equivalent of £35. No chance. My protests were falling on deaf ears, suddenly she couldn't understand Google Translate and started writing stuff in Chinese on a piece of paper for me to 'interpret'. Sweating profusely due to the heat and awkwardness, I managed to haggle her down to just under a tenner.



After that ordeal, I needed the sanctuary of a temple so we headed to Wuhou which was a lovely Tang Dynasty complex with plenty of temples, historic tablets and enough feng shui to start a shop (or laundrette). The parks, fountains and pagodas surrounding it are lovely and Jinli Street next door is heaving with tourists, snack shops and tea houses where we stopped for a lovely jasmine/green tea, slightly put off by the people sat by us getting their ear wax removed by somebody with a huge needle (it's a thing here). We went over the road and had a wander around the Tibetan Quarter - pretty surreal area because it's one of the few places you will see Tibetan stuff in China and there are plenty of people walking around in traditional outfits. However, the poverty on display just around this area was pretty shocking, coupled with the fact that nearly ever shop is selling huge golden statues and silver jewellery.



Anyway, after this, we decided we needed a different scene and we were peckish so headed to the IFS shopping centre in town as Laura had heard that one of the KFCs here was panda-themed. We knew we were in the right area as a huge giant panda has been built climbing the side of the shopping centre. Once in the KFC, suitably adorned with the country's favourite animal, we ordered the chicken wrap which was filled with cucumber and hoisin sauce. What a superb combo! We made a move after our fill to get the metro to Wenshu Temple - this was even better than the Wuhou Temple! The streets outside are very rustic and the temple kind of comes out of nowhere. Not as many tourists and relatively quiet compared to what we had been used to so it was a welcome peace to walk around and take it all in.



We got a bit lost on the way back to the hotel so ended up walking around a bit which is always the best way to see a city in my opinion. We went past the heavily guarded communist headquarters - this seems to be a familiar site in most big cities. They're often found with numerous guards outside a huge gateway with a red star on the top with shiny black cars sidling up to the entrance before being let through. We also went past a shop which was selling a huge panda at a price of Y150 vs the Y420 we had seen in Jinla Street, and Y800 at the research centre! Laura named him Mona (after pandemonia) and took on the responsibility of carrying him around for the next week and a half around China!



I found the laundrette and, to my amazement, the washing had all been done! We got changed back at the hotel and headed out to Jinla Street which was even more impressive at night, buzzing with excitement and tourists. We had a bite to eat and were treated to a Tang hooligan dance which was presumably there to distract you from the average and overpriced food. Overall, Chengdu had served us well and it was time to continue our journey south the mountainous region of Guilin. We had a superb bowl of beef noodle soup at the station before boarding the train which we'd booked first class for as it was going to be six hours long. The price difference wasn't that much but felt like we were sitting in huge lounge chairs. The kids on board absolutely loved Mona and all of them got their own mini-pandas out to show us!



Tink & Laura

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Comments

[Tink’s mum]

Thanks for the hysterical information regarding the toilet facilities! A brilliant start to a Monday morning- I had tears laughter running down my face! Your maternal grandfather (who never wanted to venture very far away from his home in Beckenham, in case he needed to use a toilet) would have been astounded at your adventures!

["Number 1" Fan]

Turd-ally fantastic
Finally! You've upped your game with a solid 2 paragraphs of faecal matter. All good blogs contain pandas and poo.