We unintentionally, but certainly not disappointed-ly, spent the last 8 days in Chengdu, China. For backpackers, it is the main entrance point from China to Tibet. Since that's not really happening right now, for us, it was several days spent exploring and sampling the famously spicy hot pot food, tea house lifestyle, and checking out the pandas.
The city itself is very spread out and there aren't many sights to see as far as temples, etc. We did find the Wenshu Temple to be pretty cool mainly though because of the tea garden on the inside. In Chengdu it is completely normal apparently to spend all day (or a good part of the day) at a tea house hanging out with your friends and family. That seemed to be especially true on the weekend when all the tea places were very, very crowded with locals. As it happened, the best and friendliest tea house that Emilie and I found was almost next door to our hostel. In fact, our hostel turned out to be in our favorite part of the city.
As for the food... I wouldn't really call it spicy as much as mouth numbing. Especially in the hot pots, there is a special spice that supposedly is used by dentists to numb patients before operating in old times or remote regions. The first few bites were deceptively mild maybe as a result from that spice, I'm not sure. Soon enough, my mouth was fully on fire and it really was more power than flavor spice. I think I blew my nose about 25 times the first night we tried it. Another local specialty was the old staple from the Pacific Avenue apartment: Ma-po Tofu.
Definitely the most fun activity in Chengdu is visiting the giant panda research center where they study panda breeding with some success. We were lucky enough to be there around feeding time (early in the morning) and it was simply hilarious. I never realized how human the pandas can appear. Also, you can hold a baby giant panda for 1000 RMB which is about US $140. This consists of a baby panda sitting on your lap for about 30 seconds while photos are taken. The fee is a little much we thought, but the guy we watched do it was truly awestruck when he came out. So maybe it's worth it after all...
I have to agree for once with the Chinese media that Chengdu is a pretty livable place in China. Personally, I couldn't take the thick smog and layer of dust covering everything, but as for lifestyle, food, and location, it was a great place to visit. We didn't get into the country side too much, but it also looks beautiful.
More from Kathmandu later.
Pictures from Chengdu.
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