We had another last minute trip to Laos in late June and we added on a few days in Chengdu before our flight back to NZ from Bangkok. Again I traveled up a couple of days before Andrew so he could finish his birthday celebrations (& surprise visit from Chloe) and go to a pre-committed meeting. this time with shiny new visa in passport he sailed into the country with no issues, unlike last time.
Work done, we flew out of Vientiane mid-morning to Kunming. There we entered China, and made our way to the domestic flight through to Chengdu. Embracing all things digital, I arranged a Didi to the hotel and so began another short trip in China where we did not spend a cent in cash, all payments were electronic.
Chengdu is so much more than Panda’s but our 1st day was spent seeing the Panda. Advised to arrive early we got a Didi there just after the gates opened at 7:30am and we were immediately knee deep in queues. We had not intended to see Hua-Hua, the superstar Panda, loved by the Chinese just for looking cute. I had read that the queue to see Hua Hua could slow your trip down by 1.5 hours and we had not planned to see her. I’m still not sure how we got into the queue or why we stayed in that queue for an hour. But once you start, you are sort of committed. When we got our time at her enclosure – she lay on her back and waved her legs. Then she rolled over and collapsed over a log.
After that anti-climatic showing, the rest of the pandas were an absolute highlight. So cute, so stupid – it is no wonder they are so endangered.
Actually the Red Panda were as interesting as the Panda. They were much smaller and very active.
Back in the city, everything has a Panda theme , including the famous panda climbing up the IFS mall. And so many people lining up to take a picture with that installation.
We spent a couple of hours in the reasonably recent Sichuan Museum. There was some very good English signage. The only downside was that it didnt give a year for exhibits, instead referred to them coming from the “Time between two armies” or “the kingdom of Rain” and we had to google to get a rough idea they were from 2000BC or whatever.
And who goes to Chengdu and doesn’t sample Sichuan Hotpot? Paula and Andrew apparently. We were booked on an evening foodtour. The night before I said lets save hotpot, we are sure to get some on the foodtour. We did not. But we had a great selection of local dishes including Dan-Dan noodles and Mapo Tofu. Andrew was one of two people on our tour who had the local delicacy – slow cooked rabbit head, and he said it was very good.
We both very much enjoy going to the park in the morning and seeing people enjoying themselves. There were local orchestras, choirs, dancing, tai chi etc all before 10:00am. There is energy and a real sense of community.
Chengdu People’s Park had a marriage mart. Biographies of men and women are posted – pink for women, blue for men. They talk about themsleves and what they want in a partner. A bit of machine translation helped us understand what was being written. The information was quite detailed with physical characteristics, temperaments, and the incomes all in the adverts or the requirements that that advertisers were looking for.
We went to a Chinese Opera and enjoyed a 1 hour highlights show with Acrobats, Opera, Comedy , Puppets and Mask Changing.
It was a very good 3 nights in Chengdu. A modern city, but with a real history. So modern that Andrew had to stand in the corner of the the lift after the hotel cleaning robot joined us in the lift to move between floors.
