Day 10 - Got a flight to Chengdu which is located next to Tibet in the Sichuan Province. Our hotel is located in the Tibetan area of the city and it's a great location - lots of monks, teahouses and leafy streets. The inhabitants look markedly different than those in the other provinces, with rosey cheeks and wider faces - more Tibetan. Charles told us that the Sichuan women are "spicey", like their food! This seems quite true as all the women do the work here and the men tend to relax, drink tea and play cards!
Faraz, John and I walked around the gardens of Wuhou Temple which is famous in this area for a Premier who brought great farming technology to the fertile area and made Chengdu a city of minorities. In the gardens we found an outdoor teahouse and decided to relax and have a glass of chrysanthemum(?) tea - well a whole thermos to be precise! It was a really nice afternoon and the relaxed way of life is one of the reasons I found Chengdu so charming. While we were enjoying the tea, two men kept approaching John and Faraz with the rustiest, dirtiest implements you have ever seen wanting to pierce their ears! The declined - emphatically!
