Chengdu be du be du

We arrived in Chengdu on Tuesday 1st November without too many incidents on the overnight train from Xian and were picked up at the station by a rep from the Dragon Town Hostel which we had booked over the net. When we arrived at the Hostel we didn't know whether to laugh or cry as the street where the hostel sat was no longer there. In it's place was a deep channel the complete width of the street with the occasional wooden plank for you to cross from one side to the other. I felt like a contestant from It's a Knockout sheepishly navigating along these planks in the pitch black with my rucksack replacing the usual silly foam costume. All I was waiting for was a cackling commentary from Stuart Hall as the locals throw buckets of water from the windows.

The hostel was a charming four storey Qing Dynasty building with a central courtyard for people to sit about and had quite basic rooms but it was clean and handy for most things in Chengdu. The city has a population of 4 million and the place abounds with China's new wealth with opulent department stores and modern looking apartment blocks rising at almost every corner. We have mentioned a few times already about the scale of the rebuilding and expansion in China but it never fails to amaze with the endless vista of cranes looming over every place we've been. A city the size of Manchester is built every month to keep up with the economic growth.

Here are some other facts about the modern powerhouse that is China:

China is the world's third largest trading power behind the US and Germany.
In 2004, China accounted for 6% of the world's exports and 10% of global economic growth.

There are 377 million mobile phones in China making it the world's largest market.

In 2004, five million cars were sold in China, making it the third largest market in the world after the US and Japan.

China's road network is now the third longest in the world and 44% of it was built in the past 15 years.

There are 100 million internet users.

Sources: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. World Trade Organisation. China's National Bureau of Statistics. World Bank.

Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province famous for it's dishes laden with hot spicy pepper which is not for the faint hearted as it leaves your lips tingling and tongue numb. We had tried some hot pepper dishes in Xian and Joanne ruled out ever ordering it again as it took hours for her mouth to cool down. The city is also a good base for many of the sights in the surrounding areas and one of the few places in China where flights to the Lhasa the capital of Tibet are available. We looked into doing a 2 or 3 day trip to Lhasa but it was working out to be quite expensive equivalent to the cost of 30 days elsewhere in China. There is also a large fee for a Tibet Tourism Bureau permit that you never actually see and seems to be a bit rip off by the Beijing government. There are also lots of restrictions on tourists movement throughout Tibet as the place is run like a Police state with permits required to gain entry to most parts and most land crossing are banned to Westerners.

After deciding to skip the trip to Lhasa for the moment we booked a trip to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base for the following morning. After dinner we headed back to our hostel where we bumped into Dave & Ruth and we decided to have a few drinks in the Che Guevara bar next to our hostel. We soon found out that Dave & Ruth had also booked to Panda trip the following morning, it was quite funny how similar our route and choice of hostels and tours had been in China so far. We also discussed the possibility of doing a three day trip up the Yangtze to the three gorges together to keep the cost down.


It was a 6:30 rise for the trip to the pandas but we had indulged ourselves by booking an English Breakfast (our first since Sydney) before getting on the bus. The Panda Breeding Research Base is 10km north of Chengdu and has currently about 40 giant pandas. We arrived just as the Pandas were having their breakfast of bamboo shoots followed by more bamboo shoots and some even had a desert of even more bamboo shoots. Seems like quite a good life being a Panda in the reserve, lying back while someone throws you food every now and again. There was plenty of space for the pandas to roam about and the place seemed so much better than any zoo I had been in previously. An occasional panda would take a break from eating or lounging to stretch a leg, or even roll over a bit. We even saw two adventurous souls have a game of dummy fighting before deciding it was all to much effort and slumped back into their natural position of waiting for their next bamboo fix.


We then wandered up to the nursery where we saw hundreds of Chinese crowding round a window looking into one of the enclosures, once we fought our way to the front we saw a large panda holding it's tiny six week old cub. We then went to the enclosure that had the red pandas which were quite disappointing and more reminiscent of racoons than their giant namesakes. It wasn't long before we were back in the minibus and on the road back to the hostel. It's not the longest tour you will ever go on but both Joanne and myself really enjoyed it and was well worth the money and the reserve seems to have the right balance between research and tourist attraction without being detrimental to it's star turns.


That afternoon we trouped round some hostels and tour operators trying to find the best deal for our trip on the Yangtze. After that we headed back to the hostel to catch up on internet and an hours nap before going to dinner with Dave & Ruth. The four us tried to get a taxi but the first driver's eyesight was so bad he couldn't read our map so we decided it maybe wasn't the best idea to have him drive us about the busy streets, the next taxi we stopped wouldn't take us but eventually the third one took us but he made sure he took the longest route he could find to get us to the Mix Hostel to book our tickets for the Yangtze trip.

We then had dinner in a Hot Pot Restaurant but this wasn't the Betty variety favoured by the residents of Coronation Street but the same type we had on our first night in Beijing. The quality of the food was a lot better than the poor fare on offer in Beijing restaurant but afterwards the four of us were slightly disappointed and still a little bit hungry. We decided to avoid the taxi's and head back to our area of Chengdu and maybe hopefully find a bar to stop off in on the way back. The bar never really materialised until we were almost all the way home and to be honest we wished we had given it a miss as it cost a 100 Yuan (just over 7 pound) for four small Carlsberg beers when the night before we paid 20 Yuan for four large local beers which were better than any crappy imported Danish beer.

Next day we had planned to travel out to Leshan to see the world's tallest sitting Buddha carved into a cliff overlooking the confluence of the Dadu & Min rivers but by the time I woke I was feeling quite groggy and the 2 hour bus trip and various connections didn't really appeal. We later saw some great photos taken by Dave of the 71m high Buddha but he also mentioned quite a few hassles about getting there which made me feel slightly better about missing out. After a longer than planned sleep we wandered into central Chengdu and picked up some provisions for the trip the following day and had a wander round the shops. One interesting place we came across was the Manchester United Restaurant which I could only guess at some of the items on the menu as my Mandarin isn't as good as I would like at present. Here's some of the things I worked out by the use of the some pics on the menu.

Eric Cantonese style Noodles,
Roy's Salad with a Keane as Mustard dressing,
Cheese and Beckham Sandwiches,
Brian “Chocolate” MecLaire's

We were quite hungry but we didn't fancy any of the NeVille cuisine on offer and headed to a local bakery for some lovely bread with chives and garlic. After wandering past the massive statue of Mao that dominates the centre of Chengdu we went into the People's Garden to have a nosey at the locals relaxing. The park had a few lovely lakes and gardens where loads of locals were having their wedding photographs taken.


At one point Joanne and myself were stopped by two local girls holding a camera and a small round container with two gerbils inside, at first we thought they wanted us to take their photo. But that wasn't the case they wanted to have their photographs taken with us, so we tried to keep a straight face as they both got their photos taken in turn with us. The park was also full of people playing cards and MaJhongg in the numerous tea houses dotted around.


That night we were running a bit late and decided to go to a small place along the street for dinner, this turned out to be a great little noodle place where we each had a great big bowl of noodles with beef for the grand sum of 8 Yuan (60p back home), this was by far the cheapest meal we had eaten yet in China and as far as we can remember ever. We once again met Dave & Ruth for some drinks and talked over our plans for trip the next day to Chongquing where we would board for our three day trip up the Yangtze.