Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 17

The weather in Chengdu has been good. There is often fog in the morning. One day has been overcast with a hint of rain. There is also a noticeable amount of pollution in the air, but nothing like Beijing. Yesterday was supposed to be a gentle and relaxed day with less food consumption. It didn't work out that way. Sangshen Chao was the program for yesterday afternoon, the antique market of Chengdu. My Tibetan hosts insisted on plying me with copious amounts of yak meat, soup and meat stuffed bread, all to be washed down with Tibetan salted black tea without the milk and butter. After lunch we walked a short distance to a nearby gallery and spent several hours discussing art, painting styles and fake sculpture while enjoying a green tea that was distinctly yellow ... read more

Geo: 30.67, 104.07Wow, I've learnt a lot in these past few days! Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day - 5 of us were somehow on 4 different buses back to Chengdu which meant that the journey was likely to be pretty dull. The scenery went someway towards keeping me entertained though. At one point in our 8.5 hour journey we totally stopped and got stuck in a giant traffic jam- I had no idea this was possible, there were barely any cars on the road! Anyway, whilst we crawled along at a pace which would not frighten any snail, I noticed some destroyed houses at the side of the road. It looked like the people had literally just upped and left. There was washing hanging outside, cars in rubble driveways, doors hanging off partially there hinges, ... read more

Today is panda day! We need to get an early start because pandas are most active in the morning. We have a buffet breakfast at the hotel, but there's little Western fare and the selections are underwhelming. On the way at 8:30. It's a grey, hazy day, even though the forecast promised sun. Pollution is probably a factor. Most people are sniffling and coughing by this time from exposure to the bad air, and there seems to be a cold making the rounds. We drive through Chengdu. It's a "small" city of only 4 million, the capital of Sichuan province. There's noticeably less English signage than in previous cities, but like the other cities we've visited it is busy and crowded, with bad traffic and lots of construction. In a way, it is a microcosm of ... read more

I am now in Chengdu. It is quite a bit warmer here than the last places. It is also the most polluted of the Chinese cities I have yet been to..... I was going to stay around Chengdu for a few days to take in the zoo etc, but I decided it would be more sensible to just stay one day (today) for birding and then tomorrow head north into the wilderness and see how far I get. I would not like to presume there will be any internet in the towns anywhere up there, but at the same time I would not like to presume that there will not be any internet up there.....suffice to say there ... read more

This morning it’s a flight out from Jiuzhaigou to Chengdu. That means a 5:00am wakeup and 1.5 hour drive to the airport. Its still cold and wet, and we join a huge crowd of people all booking in for their flights to Xian, Chongqing, Chengdu and elsewhere. The departure gates frequently change, and at one stage we find ourselves with a large group of people rushing to a different gate, reminiscent of a scene from “Airplane” (where the plane crash lands and everyone is rushing to get to the right gate). Finally the plane takes off and a short flight later it’s in Chengdu, warm and overcast with moderate air pollution. The new guide, Tony, and the driver meet us there and take drive us through the 17 million population city of Chengdu to the Chengdu ... read more