Changer's Du

I arrived I Chengdu intent on spending a couple days here eating some spicy Sichuan cuisine and seeing some cute pandas and a big Buddha. To make a long story short, a few days quickly turned into a week. Chengdu is just a relaxing place. They're many day trips to take outside of the city and life in the city is pretty laid back. I met a number of travelers who have been "waiting for their Visas" for quite some time, and a number of foreign residents that just came to visit and never left. All things considered, I'm lucky to have escaped in a week.

Joe of the Tombs

Chengdu is all about the pandas - it's Panda Town. They are pandas on the buses, taxis, and street lights. It's every tourist's primary objective and a real source of Chengdu pride. They have over 40 great pandas at a state-of-the-art research and breeding (and tourism) facility. Sometimes I think that's why it's so laid back here, 'cause everyone wants to do emulate the national treasures and just laze about and eat (occasionally going to the bathroom). A common theme at the hostel is when you ask what people did that day and they say "I was a panda today", meaning they didn't do anything of note.

National treasures, and don't you forget it

I'm not going to bore you with too many details (for once), so here's the quick highlight list of my time in Chengdu:

1. Chengdu Hotpot - Spicy and tasty, but my heart still remains with Chongqing hotpot. Somethings you just can't compete with. It was also a little disturbing when they stuck a gutted fish which was still alive into the boiling broth, and for all the fanfare it wasn't even that tasty.

2. The imaginatively named "Big Buddha" of Leshan - Carved into a mountain side at over 70 meters tall, this was certainly an impressive sight.

3. The Dujiangyan irrigation system - bad-ass irrigation system built in 256 BC to regulate the flow of the Min river and help feed the fertile Sichaun basin. Also includes a legend of the engineer Li Bin fighting a dragon to tame the river and inspiring millions of nerds for thousands of years to come.

4. Oh, how could I forget, the pandas - they were insanely cute and totally worth getting up at 6am to see. DC's got nothing on Chengdu. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. (Though we weren't allowed to take pictures of the babies, which were, naturally, so adorable they had to supply vomit bags.)

5. Dorky science museum which, despite a complete lack of English, was still awesome because math and science are the universal languages.

6. Climbing Qingchengshan - another day, another beautiful mountain.

7. Dave's Oasis - Run by "Chinese Dave" and "White Dave," this place serves up fine food, dangerous bi jiu and cokes, cheap beer, and spot-on travel advice. Also a good place to meet crazy expat Irishmen and shoot a game of pool.

8. The Tibetan quarter with beautiful clothes, people, great food, and nasty "Yak Butter Tea" (I drank half the pot to be polite, then nearly vomited).

Leshan Bridge

When in Rome: Picking the Big Buddha's earwax - now that's what I call a vacation.

So that was Chengdu. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the rest of it, and take some time to expound on some other general observations on China.

When I first arrived in China, I felt like I had arrived on another world. I couldn't communicate with anyone and everything was totally different - not just the food and the people, but also just the way everything is done. Buying an orange from a market is different, going to the bathroom's an experience, and trying to order at a restaurant is nearly impossible. At the beginning, it took many days to realize that the Chinese people really aren't that different. Sure, they dress different, they talk funny, and they have absolutely no concept of personal space, but fundamentally they have the same emotions and desires as (presumably) the rest of this vast world. There are bad people, that want to take advantage of naive foreigners like myself, but there are also wonderful people that go out of their way to help you, then pay for your bus fare. There are poor people, dealt a bum deal in life, and there are college educated young people working their asses off to help their entire family elevate into the emerging middle class. I've also heard there are rich ones, though I have only seen them shoot by in their brand new Audis and Mercedes. It took a full week to fully realize that China's just another country filled with people fundamentally identical to me - the rules are different and the board is strange, but we're essentially all playing the same game.

Hao Kan

Once this sunk in, China became an easier place to understand and to operate in. All of a sudden, buying a bus ticket didn't seem like a challenge levied by the gods, and walking into a tiny packed restaurant to order some noodles became fun and not intimidating. I guess this means I've hit my stride a bit and am slowly adjusting and adapting to this whole travel bit. Though the day to day can still be difficult, everything seems achievable, which is a nice feeling. This has definitely helped me enjoy my time in China more, and I continue to look forward to the time to come.

That's it for now. Off to Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Arthur C. Clark, eat your heart out:
Some trick photography and a crazy science exhibit make AJ go crazy.