Chengdu

Trip Start Oct 05, 2007
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Trip End Oct 04, 2008


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Thursday, October 18, 2007

We arrived in Chengdu (the home of spicy women and short men) far to early (5.30) in the rain!!  We went to see the pandas first wich were the cutest black and white balls you have ever seen......I think they may be somehow related to the sloth family as they seemed to be speding a considerable amount of time lounging around with tummies hanging out eating bamboo! 
Lunch was at a vege restuarant at a buddist temple - yum!  We then had a wonder round there and then a march back to the hotel!  We then set out for the tibbetan quarter - very dissapointing and then Jin li street which was nice enough but not much to write home about!!  We then found spicy vegetable pancakes for supper and then collapsed in a crumpled heap!!

The morning of our second day in Chengdu we went to Renmin park which was far busier than the other parks we visited in China - and therefore much less popular with Kathryn and I!  We then tried to find the pedestrian shoppingy bit but lost intrest and went back to the hotel!  (you may have noticed by this point that I am not entirely inspired by Chengdu!!)  That afternoon I joined some other members of our tour group to do a cooking course which was great fun - although very filling as we had to eat every course we made after we had cooked it!!  We made sweet and sour tofu, kung pow tofu, chinese salad and egg plant with some sauce or other - and yes bad luck i have completely forgoton everything so no kung pow tofu for you dad!!  In the evening we made it to a fountain display that actually worked which was a bonus!

On our final day in Chengdu we decided we really ought to go and sit in one of the tea houses being vaguely sophisticated so we set off for Renmin Park again and sipped Jasmine tea and nibbled on sunflower seeds languidly ..... for exactly 27.5 minutes when we had to race back to the hotel to meet up with our tour group to experience Chengdu's native dish - hot pot!  This is basically a massive bowl of soup in the middle of the table with a less spicy section round the outside and a more spicy one on the inside!  To this soup (which is on the boil) you add the vegetables you have ordered!  Its a really cool DIY way to eat though not my favourite meal so far!!....That said i did discover during this meal that I actually do like pumpkin!!

After our lunch headed off to the train station to catch an overnight sleeper to Kunming - our final stop with our tour group!!
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