October 2 to 8, 2019
Population : 14.5 million
The city is located at 1800 km south west of Beijing, in the Sichuan province.
Less known than other cities, Chengdu is quite a big city, one of the largest in Western China and the 5th more populated in China. Located in the Sichuan, in the center west of China, it is mostly know for its panda reserve but there are many marvels to see such as Leshan’s giant Buddha, the Four Sisters mountains, Emei Shan. The province is close to Tibet province.
It is a 4 hours trip and everything went well. As usual now, we take advantage of this time to homeschool the girls. This time, no bad surprises at the hotel, we found it quite easily. We have a family room with bunked beds and the girls are quite happy to experience that. The hotel is OK, not super clean but still enjoyable. We were able to try a typical Chinese breakfast, which is composed of rice porridge, fried rice and eggs, vegetables and steamed buns.
We were located in a residential neighborhood, which is something we like. There were a lot of small shops and restaurants around.
On the first night, we actually tried a local restaurant. As expected, all menus are in mandarin exclusively, without any photos so it was quite difficult to order some food. The region is known for its spicy food so we needed to be mindful, especially for the girls. We had a mitigated result, we managed to order a chicken dish but it was still a bit spicy (we were able to eat, Lana a little less).
First days in the city
We stayed 5 days in Chengdu, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the city and plan our visits.
As always, on the first day, we get familiar with the city. We realized our hotel was quite well located, close to Wenshu temple, the biggest and oldest Buddhist monastery of the city, built during the Tang dynasty (618 to 920 AD). We were also close to a nunnery. The neighborhood is very lively, there are lots of markets and restaurants. A lot of tourists too.
The monastery is a nice place to visit with temples, incenses, garden, tea house and vegetarian restaurant.
Wenshu Temple
Leshan failure
The initial plan was of course to go and see the pandas, but also to go to Leshan and see the giant Buddha statue, located 2 hours from Chengdu. This Buddha has been carved out of the hill 1,200 years ago. It is 233 feet high, its shoulders are 92 feet span-wise and its ears are 23 feet high. This site looks promising!
However, we faced an issue that we had anticipated but apparently not quite to its reality. We were there during the golden week, the vacation following October 1st, the People Rebublic of China's anniversary. Chengdu, being one of the most touristic places in China, let’s say that, during vacation time, it is packed!
As a result, there was no train ticket available to Leshan. We went to the bus station and managed to get bus tickets. But we realized too late that they were one-way tickets. Return tickets could only be bought over there! We tried to reach a local agency but we did not get any reply on time. The Giant Buddha site is very touristic and all hotels were booked. We would not have been able to get a room if we were unable to return. We finally decided to abandon the idea and focus on the other highlights.
The Giant panda breeding research base
The next morning, we went to the research center. It is quite easy to get there as a subway station has recently opened close by. From there, a shuttle got us to the base. Buying tickets was not that easy as it could only be done online (exclusively in Chinese) and is reserved for Chinese citizens. The other alternative was to go through some agencies before going there, which we didn’t do. In the end, we managed to get our tickets over there by talking to some people and by showing (again) our passports. Big brother is everywhere there.
The base is quite well done even if there are a lot of people, especially close to the giant pandas’ enclosures. There is about 120 giant pandas and 70 red pandas on the base.
An awoken panda
A sleepy one
Playful brotherhood
Biology bubble: As you may know, pandas were almost extinct and the objective of the base is to protect them, help with their reproduction and teach them how to survive in the wild.
Their diet is essentially bamboo-based, and they consume up to 20% of their body weight in bamboo everyday. As this is low energy food, they spend most of their day sleeping. Another fun fact, the reproduction period is only 72 hours per year, so the employees closely monitor the females.
Baby pandas
Some things can be a little shocking in this center. From our point of view, it looks more like a zoo and the visitors are not very respectful of these noise-sensitive animals. But, worse than that, the employees themselves are shouting out of megaphones to quiet people down or have them move along.
People !
Overall, we had a very nice day. The girls had a blast. To be fair, they deserved it, after all these visits of temples, historical sites and long walks. And the site is quite nice. Apart from the giant pandas, we saw red pandas, a lake with swans and ducks. There was also a rose garden with a nice teahouse where we relaxed at the end of the day, sipping tea and reading books about China (in English!).
Red panda, swans and ducks, in a quieter area
Sichuan Opera
Chengdu is the birthplace of the Sichuan opera. There are a lot of places to see shows. We went to the Shǔfēng Yǎyùn Teahouse.
Sichuan opera is actually a series of multiple shows. While drinking tea, we saw 2 plays (of course we didn’t understand much), musicians, a puppet show, a shadow-puppetry show and the highlight: a fire spitting and a mask-changing show (bianlian). This was amazing and we had a really great time. And the girls had the chance to see the actors getting prepared backstage
Some theatre plays
Shadow-puppetry
Puppet show
Fire spitting
Bianlian: mask-changing show
The foodies corner
As I said earlier, the region is mostly known for its spicy food. The local specialty is the hotpot. Restaurants have tables setup with a heater that can accommodate a pot of broth. The customer then chooses the ingredients and self-cooks dinner. We saw that the pot could be divided in 2, one for a regular tomato broth, the other for a spicier one (we didn't even try). We were in a local restaurant, not for tourists, so obviously no English menu. We chose our ingredients with the waiter, who very patiently showed us everything on his smartphone. The girls, especially Lana, enjoyed cooking their own meal.
Sichuan Hotpot
We noticed, maybe more than anywhere else we’ve been to, a real taste for pig head, chicken claws, tripes, heart, kidneys of any kind. To be fair, I like trying new stuff but this was too much.
We also realized there was a lot of food waste in restaurants. We had read and heard it was something usual in China these last years, some way of showing wealth but never really witnessed it. It became obvious in Chengdu: people would order too much food and leave ¾ of the meal. The Wenshu temple vegetarian restaurant had actually set up a no-waste policy to avoid that (a fine for those leaving food on the table).
We enjoyed our time in Chengdu and our neighborhood. We found here some comfort food, which was welcome after a few weeks of rice/noodles/tea diet. We went to a Belgian beer pub, and an Irish pub (where TVs were playing the Ireland-Russia rugby world cup game). That night, we had burgers, french fries and beers 😉
We even found a Carrefour (French grocery store) where we could buy some imported foods and found what we needed for a French picnic at the Giant Pandas research base 😃.
Salah
Comfort food night
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