Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 8

Geo: 30.67, 104.07After a never ending food hunt (Chengdu still wins no prizes for its food selection) we headed towards our old favourite 'jingli street.' This time we discovered a beautiful park next door that we hadn't found before. It was lovely to see some blossom trees. Jingli street was absolutely packed as it was the last day of the sweeping the tombs festival holiday. Trying to manoeuvre two buggies through the crowds was a challenge! I have to admire Isaac's stubbornness when moving through the crowds, hands over eyes shouting 'no photos!' Unfortunately for him, this makes him even more photo worthy to the many passerbys and his grumpy cross face is likely now adorning many a Chinese mantelpiece! In the evening, we went to watch a sichuan medley performance in a tea house featuring ... read more

Geo: 30.6632, 104.044Bill was banned from complicating the transfer from airport to hotel so we just got a metered taxi. A whole terrible 56rmb! I was amazed all the luggage and pushchairs fitted in. I had also made sure I'd prebooked the hotel to avoid the usual wandering around and this turned out to be a really good move. Great hotel ideally located with a beautiful courtyard. Just opposite is the culture park which we walked around in our quest to avoid jet lag. Lewis was the centre of a lot of attention. Strangely nobody has told us he's not wearing enough clothes yet! This may be because it seems to be a lot hotter this time but I like to think it's because we educated the city to our ways last time! It is however ... read more

It is dry and little grey this morning but no signs of rain. The weather has been good all week. Today will be a little more relaxed with no morning or early afternoon rushing around. I have a dinner to attend tonight but nothing too stressful. There have been so many dinners this week plus my birthday party held at the Sichuan Museum. it was a sumptuous affai with only my favourite foods - Sichuan cuisine. Mind you my friends were kind enough not to request fish, bugs, rabbit brains, frogs or snails. I also don't recall seeing any bones. The chef was specially arranged for and there were over thirty different dishes. Yes there was a cake at the end of the meal and it did have my name on it in both English and ... read more

Yesterday and today are wet and grey with a constant drizzle. Yes, it is just like Vancouver in late October and November. Also yesterday, I drove with friends for about two hours out of the city to visit a painting school/factory where they are creating 1000 compositions depicting the life story of Padmasambhava. The day was spent between the painting location where there were approximately twenty artists and a library where, again possibly as many as thirty, people were digitizing rare Tibetan literature. It was all very interesting. Dinner was late last night and consisted of potato soup and beef noodles. I did manage to get a cafe latte. It was very good. It is interesting that I only drink coffee on weekends in New York, one or two cups of regular, but I like to ... read more

Yesterday was just perfect. The most beautiful kind of day you can have in Chengdu. It was clear blue skies and sunny all day with beautiful light that is perfect for painting or taking photographs. It even started out clear. I was up at 4:00 and watched the sunrise. We left Anren village a little after 8:00 and as we were driving back to Chengdu we could see the mountains to our left side in the west. The mountains ARE Tibet, the beginnings of Tibet, the Tibetan border. After arriving back in Chengdu, two hours later, I jumped into a taxi and went to my favourite coffee shop near the Jinjiang Hotel. The Jinjiang Hotel was the first hotel opened exclusively for westerners back in the early 1980s. It was also the first hotel I ever ... read more