Chengdu, Capital Of Sichaun

Arriving In Chengdu

We knew we were going to be tired after spending 2 nights on the train coming from Lhasa. We decided it would be best to book accommodation ahead of time for our arrival in Chengdu. We wouldn’t want to be wandering the streets looking for a place to stay.

We exited the train station and went through to the outside. There was a large fenced off area with hundreds of people waiting for passengers to get off the train. There were many signs being held saying the names of hotels and hostels. Unfortunately ours was not one of them. I had emailed and prebooked a room, they emailed back and confirmed they would pick us up at the train station. It took a lot of work and crafty communication skills, but we finally got someone to use their cell phone and call the hotel for us. They had obviously forgotten about us, they said to take a cab and they would reimburse us when we got there.

We arrived at the Mix Hostel. Actually they did not have any double rooms left for us in the hostel so we stayed in the building across the street which they call the Mix Hotel. I think they actually just work out a deal with the hotel to use their rooms. It had a completely different hotel name on the front of it. Anyways, it was a very nice room, clean, quiet and with a modern private bathroom. It was 160 yuan a night, a bargain for $22 Canadian to have such a great room.

We were able to stay there but then come over to the hostel to take full advantage of everything they had to offer. It was a lively place with lots of travelers from all over the world, hence the name, the Mix. The hostel has a restaurant, coffee lounge, a large book exchange, DVD room and laundry facilities, internet, everything you could possibly want. Some places just really know how to do a great hostel.

Wow, Chengdu Is A Big City!

Chengdu is a big city with a population of about 10 million. This many people only has it ranking as the 4th largest after Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing. It has lots of traffic and a fair share of pollution. There are tons of bicycles here, each time the lights turn red at an intersection you will see dozens of bikes pile up at the front of the line. There are all the modern amenities, lots of shopping malls, McDonalds and even a Starbucks!

On a main road in Chengdu there is one of the largest statues we have ever seen. It is a great big Chairman Mao with his arm in the air. We wonder how many people in China still admire him and his beliefs?

Sweltering In The Heat Here, The Pollution Is Pretty Bad Too

It was really hot and humid here. One time we were walking back from the main hostel building to our hotel at midnight. We couldn’t believe how warm it was outside. This is well beyond anything you experience on one of those warm summer nights at home. We had a considerable amount of sweat on us just from walking across the street! People were out on the sidewalks sitting in chairs, I guess it was cooler than inside their residences.

The pollution is definitely noticeable here. We were both experiencing a sore throat within the first day. Our eyes were dry and sore as well. It’s hard to believe the worst is supposedly yet to come when we arrive in Beijing.

You’ve Come To The Right Place For Spicy Sichaun Food

Chengdu is in Sichuan province. Sichuan is most famous for SPICY food! You have to be very careful ordering anything here. They will spice up everything. Pizza, spaghetti, even McDonalds has Sichaun chili powder to shake onto all your food. People’s opinion of what is mildly spicy can vary greatly. Your tongue and throat might still very well be numb after ordering a mild dish! The Sichuan Hot Pot and Kung Pao Chicken are among the most popular dishes. The Sichaun hot pot is a bubbling cauldron of extremely hot oil and water. You dip skewers of all kinds of things into it. Meats, vegetables and tofu. Sometimes a whole bunch of food is just dumped into it and you fish it out with chopsticks. It’s a very social meal, everyone sits around to enjoy it and makes a long evening out of it. In many places the empty skewers are thrown onto the floor.

If you need to get some western style food into you we found a good place called Granma’s Kitchen. We found out the same owner has four other food establishments in Chengdu. The Red Brick Restaurant and Grandma’s Deli and Grandma’s Kitchen are located right next to each other. They also have the Del Mar Mediterranean Restaurant and the Sunflower Cafe. We only ate at Grandma’s Kitchen, but we heard all restaurants have good food. You can get soups, salads and pasta dishes.

The Red Brick Pizzeria and Restaurant. 77 Kehua North Road, Chengdu. Ph: 028-8521-4065.

Grandma’s Kitchen and Grandma’s Deli 73 Kehua North Road, Chengdu. Ph: (028) 8524-2835.

Del Mar Mediterranean Restaurant. 10 Tongzilin Donglu, Chengdu. Ph: (028) 8515-9325.

Sunflower Cafe. 22 Renmin South Road, 4th Section, Chengdu. Ph: (028) 8555-3856.

A cheap and delicious brunch is served at all locations except the Red Brick every Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 2pm.

We had a thought. We have been traveling in Hong Kong and China for over 3 months now and not even once have we seen or been given a fortune cookie with our food. Is this only a North America thing?

Panda Breeding Research Center Was Disappointing

One of the major attractions in Chengdu is the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center. Unfortunately it was quite disappointing when we went there. The climate of Chengdu is not like the natural area where the pandas live, at least not in the summer time. Their usual habitat is further north in China, high in the mountains where it would be cooler. It is too hot for them at this time of year so they keep them inside. There was only one big panda outside sleeping on a bamboo platform. He woke up and started to move, so we got excited to be able to see him. He did a big yawn and then climbed down from the bamboo platform. We saw him for about 30 seconds while he walked across the area and went inside a building.

We were told to go early in the morning to the breeding center so we could see the pandas being fed. They eat enormous amounts of food, up to 20kg a day. It was really crowded, you had to wait your turn to squeeze into a skinny hallway to view them. They are behind bars munching on the bamboo.There were so many people crammed in there it was really hard to see anything. There were many rooms marked nursery with closed curtains. We got to see a few younger pandas indoors, but they were quite large and far from being babies still. There was an enclosure with red pandas, but they were really hot too and sprawled out on the ground trying to keep cool. We wonder how accurate their breeding research can be if so many variables are affecting the Pandas, like the heat, and the pollution they are living in. Overall it was not worth going to unless you have never seen a panda before, or try going at a different time of year. We were told the Wolong Panda Center further up north is much better. You can see lots of pandas outside in a more natural type of an environment.

Sichaun Opera Was Well Worth The Money

The other attraction in Chendgu is the Sichaun Opera, especially to see the famous face changing. We were told to go on the weekend when there is the most variety of performances. We saw many different kinds of entertainment. There was a young girl with amazing juggling skills. She laid on her back and juggled a table with her feet as well as a large clay urn. There was a humorous Chinese Opera play where a wife punishes her husband. He keeps sneaking off to gamble. She makes him do stupid tricks with a lit oil lamp. He has to balance it on his head and do different tasks. There was an Opera performance with sword fighting and flame blowing. The best was the face changing. Dressed up Chinese dancers come out and perform while continuously changing their face masks. We really don’t know how they do it, it happens so fast. Each mask has a different colour, which represents different emotions. It is considered quite an art in China that takes a great deal of effort to learn and perfect. On the side of the stage was a reader board. Whenever someone was talking it would translate into English, or should we say Chinglish. We were getting almost as much entertainment out of trying to read the sign as the performances themselves.