Stuck in Chengdu

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It's been a quiet time of it since we arrived in Chengdu. On our first day here, we had intended to go to the Panda Breeding Centre but the lack of sleep on our long train journey took its toll and we ended up having a lie-in instead. When we did finally get our shit together, we consulted the free map given to us by the hostel and decided to head first for the huge computer district in the south of the city and continue north from there.

We had about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the bus stop where 2 Yuan (it was an air conditioned bus so you have to pay double) we each got to stand up for a very long time. The Chinese people don't seem particularly good at organising themselves and we got quite peeved that people couldn't stand in a sensible place or work out that you can't get past other people on the bus if there's no room to move anywhere - yet they tried anyway! It's the same on the roads here I've noticed. It's as if they have tunnel vision and simply drive in the direction they want to go, regardless of which side of the road they're on or whether there's anything obstructing them. As chaotic as this is here though, I appreciate it's going to be a hell of a lot worse in places like Bangkok!

Well, once we figured out where to get off the bus and then noted that the bus stop wasn't where the map said it should be, it took about 10 minutes to actually get our bearings. I have to hand it to Glynn for having such a great sense of direction because if I had been in charge of working out where we were, we would probably still be there without a clue! We made it to the computer district ok and spent a while walking around the many storeys of gadgets and gizmos in countless department store style buildings. We didn't actually buy anything but it was intersting to note that by and large the computer equipment for sale wasn't any cheaper here than back home in the UK.

We then jumped on another bus and tried to find the city centre and Renmin Park. Well, by this time we had worked out that the map given to us by the hostel was completely useless and we didn't have a clue where we were again. We walked around for ages trying to find street signs that would help us pinpoint our location but it didn't help that the map ony had about 15% of streets labelled and many of them seemed to be in the wrong place according to what we were actually finding. It was incredibly frustrating and Glynn ultimately ended up sticking the map in his pocket and directing us using his gut instincts. And thank God he did! Not too long later we found the park we were looking for :-)) On the way there we had passed some interesting looking food stalls and picked up some sesame pancakes and an assortment of small cakes. We found a bench and took a load of our tired legs for a while.

The park itself was quite small by Chinese standards but it was nonetheless fascinating. As we meandered through bamboo groves and pine tree lanes, we stumbled across the most bizarre sight - a recycled shell of an amusement park. It was like a long-forgotten fairground full of rusty rides for kids including a traditional carousel, a little train ride and the world's lamest rollercoaster. Incredibly, all these rides were still operating but they looked well past their health and safety certificate expiry dates! What was even more incredible was that people were still paying to go on the rides! We also passed some truly terrible karaoke style singing - it seems everyone like to sing in public over here - and I also got myself involved in a Chinese dance class, which was fun although I was really bad at it!

We read in our Rough Guide to China that there was supposed to be some kind of Chamber of Horrors in the amusement park area and we couldn't resist hunting it down. It took a while to find it mainly because it didn't really look obvious from the outside. By the entrance to the attraction there was an old dude sat with 2 young guys just watching the tv. The only clue that this was the right place was a couple of knackered dummies stuck above the doorway with really old and not very scray masks on! We paid our 5 Yuan and tentaively went inside. The entranceway led into a long serious of very dark, damp corridors and it really did look like something out of a horror movie - it reminded me of the film The Hostel. It certainly put me on edge though Glynn, who doesn't seem to be scared of anything, took it all in his stride. In the distance we could hear the sounds of feint screams and laughter and it set the tone for a good thrill. As we neared the first chamber we peered inside and saw somethign we just weren't expecting - the most un-scary looking mechanical monsters! As we approached more chambers, it seemed to get worse and worse with endless rooms filled with decaying old mannequins in robes or halloween style costumes wearing masks that was more comical than terrifying - it was great! The displays really were the crappest things ever but walking through those tunnels made it worth every penny.

We left the park still chuckling to ourselves at how odd the whole place had been and decided to try and find the giant satue of Chairman Mao. Chengdu isn't the easiet place to navigate but somehow we managed to find him - a huge white statue of the big man himself. We then attempted to find the bus stop to get back to the hostel but it was no use - the map was dreadful and we just seemed to get more and more confused. Eventually, Glynn got us on the main road that led back to the hostel and after walking for over an hour, we successfully got us back without the aid of a bus. We were exhausted and pretty pissed off and generally felt like Chengdu wasn't quite as nice a place as we had expected it to be.

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