Chengdu

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After Hong Kong, which is very western, Chengdu it the first big Chinese city I visit. I spend four days in Chengdu. I arrived from Lijiang by plane. Lijiang doesn't have a train station and I didn't want to spend 24 hours in a bus and loose a day. I could share a taxi from the hostel to the airport. The flight itself was comfortable and on time. To reach the hostel in Chengdu, there are three ways of traveling. What I didn't check was the time difference it took between the options, so I took the cheapest one what took me almost two hours! But at least I saw some of the city!

When I arrived at the hostel in Chengdu, I again met someone I knew from Yangshuo, which I didn't expect at all due to his travel plans. First, I took care of all the arrangements I wanted to make (book some trips and especially a train ticket to Xi'an, which I got although it was the last choice out of six!). Then, I went off to get a Panda Cart (1 Yuan = 10 euro cents) with which I could visit some sights for free! In the end it did safe me a lot of money!

That night, I went to the Sichuan Opera which was very entertaining. It consisted of different parts, like changing masks, a hand shadow show, a puppet show and a funny play. The next morning, I went to the most important attraction of Chengdu, the Panda Breeding and Research Center. It was of course just a zoo with only pandas, but it was nice to see them anyway. We came early in the morning, around feeding time, so that we could see the pandas actually move (the rest of the day they just sleep).

The other three days in Chengdu, I spend walking around for many hours. I visited the WuHou Temple, People's Park, Jinli street, Tatched Cottage of Du Fu, HuanHuaXi Park, Green Ram Temple, WenShu Monastry, the tea market, the spices market, Mao Statue on TianFu Square, Sichuan Art Museum , and many other sights.

The atmosphere in Chengdu is very relaxed. Especially the many parks with the famous tea houses are good to relax and rest a bit from all the walking. It is obvious that not many tourists end up in the alleys, because there people sometimes stared at me. The rest of the city is pretty Western, I would say. At least all the big international shops can be found in the city center. I really enjoyed my stay here, but now up to some nature again!

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Photos

From the airplain
Far away some mountains with snow on top rise above the clouds

Pandas!! II
Seems they like to eat lying around

Arrival at Chengdu
It seems I cannot see that far....

Harbin beer
Sold as local beer...