- Chengdu is a mellow big city, full of mah jong players, badminton birdie swatters, and a community of people who love to dance in large groups together in public parks. China's non-beach version of Venice, CA, if you may.
- Sichuan peppercorns will burn the hell out of your mouth, but will become an addictive part of your meals before you can ask for another glass of water.
- Yes, pandas are fat and lazy, but they are the damn cutest and most entrancing animals on the planet.
The "Looong December, When It's Easy to Believe" Version
Chengdu is the anti-Shanghai. Even though it’s a large metropolitan city (app. 7 million people), it hasn’t been as influenced by the west as Shanghai. The streets are bustling, high rises stand for as far as the eye can see, and one can shop ‘till they drop all day long (if that’s your kind of thing). The big differences between the two cities is that the people on the bustling streets aren’t sharply dressed like models in Cosmo and GQ, high rises aren’t attempting to define what the future of architecture is, and shopping is done at Chinese brand stores, not the same Burberry, Gucci, and Prada stores that engulf Shanghai. Therefore, it more obviously felt like a Chinese city, which we were waiting to feel.
The primary reason people come to Chengdu is to see the pandas, which we did, but we found other aspects of the city to be just as enthralling.
Our first meal introduced us to the city’s famous food. Spicy is the name of the game here, which is a game we’re happy to play any time. Pork, beef, rabbit, chicken, veggies…all of it with a special Sichuan pepper that explodes with tremendous flavor, and sometimes a mouth numbing tang that takes a while to start enjoying.
Another enjoyable aspect of the city is its mellow vibe and attitude. Horns are honked less. People walk with a little less desperation in each step. We enjoyed this relaxed atmosphere as we walked through quaint streets, stopping to peek into houses and shops, only to see the same thing inside every door…mah jong. People playing lots and lots and lots of mah jong. This wasn’t a surprise since what better way for such a stoner-like group of people living in a country that thrives on being a community to enjoy their time together by playing none other than the country’s most famous game? Yes, some folks were playing cards, but the majority of these doorways revealed little old ladies and smoking old men shoving domino-like pieces around green felt laden fold-up tables. This may not seem like a big deal, which it really isn’t, but we want to emphasize just how much of the population we saw were doing the same thing. Even when we went into the city park, anyone who wasn’t dancing to a live band or smacking a badminton birdie around was sitting around playing mah jong. So cool to see firsthand.
Any way, we did indeed spend an afternoon in the park watching huge groups of people playing badminton, singing karaoke, and dancing in synchrony to all types of music, ranging from electronic music blaring out of speakers to a five piece jazz band playing ragtown oldies that would make my great grandparents proud. We sat along the lake and drank tea while Tania taught me how to play Frank’s card game called Dig the Hole. We were really starting to get onto the same wavelength as the city. After a nice dinner with Frank and Tim, we headed back to the hotel to crash, but only after Tania watched Brother Bear 2 for the second time that day. In her defense, she was pretty sick and needed to get some R&R, so since that was the only English speaking program on TV, she had no other option, even though I don’t think she would have watched anything else had there been the normal 200 DirecTV (only spelled the way DirecTV wants it spelled because it’s still engrained in my head after 4 years at Deutsch. Why can’t I spell it like a normal person?) channels to browse.
Now onto the primary activity to partake in in Chengdu…the pandas. After spending a few hours watching them eating bamboo and, well, eat more bamboo, we can happily confirm that they are just as adorable in person as they are on video and in pictures. Their fur coats look impossibly soft and their mannerisms scream of 1000 babies and bunnies. Yes, they’re lazy as can be and don’t really do much, but they’re captivating to watch, especially considering that there are only 5000 left on the planet. Because they used to be carnivores and still have the digestive tract of one, they pass the bamboo quickly after eating. Therefore, they need to ingest a massive amount of bamboo just to give themselves enough energy to eat more bamboo, and so on and so forth. No matter, it’s so interesting to watch them take their menial tasks at such minimal speeds. After watching a video about their mating habits and birthing rituals (we could have done without the graphic birthing scenes in which the tiny rat, I mean panda is shot out and flops around the cold, gray cement Chinese lab floor as the first-time panda mother swats at the newborn because she has no idea what the hell just popped out of her), and after browsing yet another heap of every type of panda souvenir one could fathom, we headed for yet another train station, luckily for a day trip, not another over-nighter.
When we got to the train station on Thursday afternoon, Frank recommended that we spend 10 yuan (app. $1.50) to sit in the VIP area of the station so that we could actually have seats to wait on, and so we could get on the train first and get our bags situated before the masses stormed into the car, which we luckily did. If you’re ever traveling by train in this country, we recommend you do the same.
We snacked on ramen and played Dig the Hole during the 5.5 hour ride to Chongqing (pronounced Chong Ching). The only exposure we got of Chongqing was the view from during kamikaze cab ride, but that’s all we needed to know that this megatropolis is filled with more high rises than we can describe. For miles and miles in both directions, the skyline resembled a mountainous range, even though there are no mountains in the area. It makes NYC look like Topeka. Crazy.
We then boarded the Victoria 1 boat and got situated for our three day cruise through the Yangtze River and to get a first hand view of how the Three Gorges Dam has dramatically altered life along the shorelines.
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