Chengdu and Chongqing
Teacher appreciation day was this week and holy shit does BASIS bring the appreciation! We got boxes of fruit, grapes and pears enough to feed a small family, along with two boxes of mooncakes, a specialty Rhys and I had been anxious to try. Now we have boxes of them to delight in! We got Starbucks gift cards, cards from students, flowers, it was almost too much to carry home. And indeed I did struggle carrying the boxes of fruit and mooncakes up to our 19th floor apartment. This week is also Mid autumn festival and the school is putting on a buffet dinner with an art class to teach woodblock painting and to tell the story of the rabbit and the moon. I unfortunately have to miss this as Rhys and I are traveling to Chengdu and Chongqing this weekend to take advantage of the four day weekend we get to celebrate.
The grapes we got were huge. They put costco grapes to shame. They come carefully packaged and protected by what I'm calling soft protective fruit wrappers. The only other time I’d seen that kind of protective wrapping on fruit is in those fancy af fruit baskets you get at Christmas. The kind that have Asian pears. My dad used to get them and the wrapping always made the fruits seem so much fancier and special. It does the same thing for the grapes and pears now. Weird how packaging can make a difference in how something feels as you experience it. The mooncakes packaging is out of this world. Special boxes that are so fancy, one box even came with special tiny silverware to eat it with. A little knife and fork to enjoy your custard filled mooncake with.
I went to yoga for the first time this week. During the entire class I understood one word, the last word of class, namaste. Guess that’s the universal ending to yoga class. The rest of the class was in Chinese and while I’m sure I heard the words left and right pretty frequently I have no idea which ones they were. I watched the instructor with a careful eye so I could get the poses right and stay with the class. I found while the language was foreign the poses were familiar and it felt good to be getting back into yoga class.
The week seemed longer than most, probably because it was a week leading up to a four day weekend. It’s Mid autumn festival this time of year and that means mooncakes, lanterns, and two days off from school! Rhys and I took advantage of the time off and had booked a two hour flight to Chengdu and Chongqing for a weekend full of pandas, buddhas and spicy food.
I was out as soon as school was out on Friday. We had a 5pm flight to catch and it would take at least 40 mins to get to the airport. We managed the transport and arrival with plenty of time especially since once we arrived at our gate it was announced our flight was delayed two hours. So we sat in the airport and waited. I organized photos while Rhys did his Mandarin homework. His class has been going so well. He returns each Wednesday with new knowledge and information of not only the Chinese language but Chinese culture and customs as well. I watch in awe as he studies and practices this language that seems so very challenging. He does his best to try to help me understand but I find it so difficult to hear the right pronunciation and get the sounds right. Rhys picks things up like he was born to be a polyglot.
The weekend was a complete riot! Chengdu and Chongqing were a whirlwind of adventure and a delight for the senses. We landed in Chengdu later than planned as our plane took off two hours later than scheduled. But once we arrived we hit the ground running. We checked into our hotel and then hit the streets to start exploring. One of the most noticeable things about Chengdu is the amount of panda merchandise that is sold everywhere. Chengdu is home to the pandas and boy do they take the pandas seriously. On every street corner there is panda merchandise. Panda keychains, panda stuffed animals, panda shirts, you name it you can probably find it with a panda on it. There are also street vendors everywhere. They are selling fruits, food, tokens and souvenirs in all shapes and forms. It’s almost a maze getting through the streets as you weave in and out of all the vendors. There is also hot pot everywhere. Chengdu is home to spicy Sichuan food and hot pot seems to be king. Everywhere we looked there was either a hot pot restaurant or a shop selling hot pot base.
In the morning we woke up early to pouring rain. We were scheduled to go to the panda breeding center to see the pandas and then go to visit the lashaun Buddha. It was a scheduled to be a full day that promised a lot of touring around the area and it was starting with bone soaking rain. Because of the rain our driver was late and we waited over an hour in our hotel lobby for him to arrive. But once he did we, and 3 other tourists, were off to see the pandas. We knew we needed to get to the pandas early as we had heard that once the pandas are fed they tend to go to sleep, and one thing I knew I wanted to see was pandas doing cute panda antics. And while sleeping pandas are cute, they are not as cute as pandas play fighting or pandas rolling around trying to eat bamboo.
We got to the pandas in plenty of time to see them doing cute panda shit. We walked around the panda breeding center for about two hours looking at first red pandas, then the giant pandas. The giant rolled around, play fought and generally were some of the cutest animals I’ve ever seen. When we got there they were at the tail end of being fed and they were very active for a while. We saw mostly saw them gorging themselves on bamboo and feasting on their morning breakfast. Watching them mow through the bamboo was entertaining and fulfilled all my panda wishes. After a while, when breakfast was over, the pandas all went to sleep, and the transition was fast. It seemed like one minute they were active and eating and the next they were fast asleep. Oh to live that panda life.
After the pandas we went for a traditional Sichuan lunch on the way to the leshaun Buddha. It was about a two hour drive to where we were going and a stop for lunch was necessary. We dined in a private cabana like space and feasted on some delicious stir fry, bamboo shoots, and soup. Because we were with a group and had some members who were sensitive to overly spicy foods we had to keep the spice at a minimum, but the food was incredible, fresh and simply delicious.
The leshaun Buddha is a world cultural sight. It was carved into limestone cliffs looking over the place where two rivers meet and the current is particularly dangerous. The thought when building it was that it would look over the ships and lead them to safety. As it happened the carving of the Buddha dropped enough limestone into the river that it did indeed change how to river flowed and made it safer for ships.
To get to the Buddha you have to climb stairs, some 500 of them or more to get to the head of the Buddha. To see the Buddha from river level you decend some 800 stairs to the bottom. These are not just any stairs, they are narrow, they are steep. So narrow and steep that Rhys turned around and stayed at the top. I persisted and made my way down the stairs in the heat to the bottom of the Buddha. To see it from the base was quite impressive, it’s a massive statue that gets even more impressive when looked at from the base.
After spending the day touring pandas and the Buddha, Rhys took me to these fountains that flowed downward. The fountain structure stands in tall cylinders and the water flows down around them to create the most unique fountains I’ve ever seen. We saw them at night so they were all lit up to create a breathtaking display. We spent the rest of the evening walking around Chengdu taking in all the unique sights.
The next day we traveled by train to Chongqing. It was a one hour train ride that sped through the countryside faster than you can imagine. The distance by car is over three hours, by train, a simple hour that was an easy travel.
When we arrived in Chongqing we were met with vendors galore. So many vendors of fruits and food at the train station and on the streets. We had left the world of the pandas and arrived in the world of street food and street vendors. Chongqing smelled of the most delicious food and the streets bustled with people. The first thing we did is walk down a street of food. We tried so many different things, the best for me was probably the Dan Dan noodles. A delicious combination of spicy, sour and savory wonderfulness. Rhys dined on BBQ meat skewers that were dripping in spices, fresh made as you waited. We tried milk teas from bamboo cups, and the most delicious pork rind I’ve ever had- it was this crispy, meaty, fatty piece of pork belly that is served fresh with roasted potato’s. We had several of those throughout our time in Chongqing.
Chongqing was fully of delightful sights and sounds. We spent a day touring the city, seeing a building that looked the same as a famous one in Singapore and then going to the pier where the Yangzi and the Jialing rivers meet. At the point where they meet the rivers to not merge together, instead they look like they flow side-by-side until further down river. The sight is pretty striking and unlike anything we had ever seen before. You could very clearly see where one river flowed along the right side and where the other came in on the left. They were two different colors!
We then worked our way around Chongqing seeing all kinds of fun sights along the way. We saw line dancers dancing in the streets and the whole city lit up at night. We eventually made it to the Stilted Building, which is an old style building that is currently a shopping and food plaza. We got there after dark and were greeted with sparkling lights, and lit lanterns. We also immediately saw what looked to be like hundreds of dressed up traditional Chinese brides and grooms. Rhys and I were so confused, they were everywhere outside the building taking professional photos. As we went inside the building we quickly realized why. There were dozens of shops dedicated to making people up into traditional Chinese brides and grooms- complete with hair, makeup and clothing- and then taking them to scenic places around the building to take photos. People of all ages did this, we saw children dressed up as well as adults. It made for quite the sight.
As we ventured through the night we ended up at a local cocktail bar called Flavor Lounge. On our way there we were trying to find it and as luck would have it, a stranger walking by asked us if we were looking for Flavor lounge and said he was heading there as well. We tagged along and had the best night sipping some delicious cocktails. The man we had met that showed us where the bar was located, was friends with the owner who’s name is Jimmy. And while we were there Jimmy came out to say hi and mingle with us. We were invited to his other bar Flavor Tiki the next night for the anniversary of the bar’s opening. Rhys and I gladly accepted the invitation and made plans to go the next night.
The next night was incredible. We spent the evening at Flavor tiki celebrating its anniversary and it was quite the celebration! The place was packed and after being there for a while Jimmy did a bottle throwing performance that included fire! The whole evening was spectacular and filled with delightful drinks, sights and company.
The next day we caught our flight back to Guangzhou filled with wonderful memories of our time in Chengdu and Chongqing.
