Chengdu

Chengdu is the largest and wealthiest interior Chinese city inhabiting 11 million, and it is a place I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. The guidebook describes Chengdu as “the relaxed provincial capital… A cheerful place; seasonal floral displays and ubiquitous ginkgo trees lend colour to its many excellent parks.” However our impression of Chengdu was somewhat different - smog is clearly visible in front of your face and the pollution leaves you with an uncontrollable cough the moment you step of the train platform – this impression formed upon arrival but solidified over the many day spent in Chengdu, which unfortunately was our longest stay in one particular city in all of China. We arrived in Chengdu from Xi’an after a 17-hour over night train, which Jimmy and I were thankfully together. We occupied a cabin with a mother and her middle-aged daughter who seemed very nice but they did not speak English so there was just a lot of smiling. Once we arrived in Chengdu we needed to find a ride to our hostel, this time we prepared a little before hand, by reading the guide book inside the train station, where non-passengers were not allowed, and formulated a plan to get to the bus that would take us where we needed to go. However, right when we existed the building there was a women who wanted us to stay at her hostel and she would give us a ride, just as we were both about to say no, I looked at her sign and realized she was legitimate and from our hostel. She helped us get a taxi and the whole thing was quite painless and quick. We arrive at the Loft Hostel and were presently surprised with it, it was located on a nice neighborhood street, lined with some trees and we later learned that it was a converted old 1980’s warehouse, with big windows and tall ceilings leading to it name – The Loft Hostel. On our first night out we ventured to the city center, armed with our guide book and a map the hostel provided for us, it was around 4 in the afternoon and I badly wanted/needed a coffee so I was quite happy when I saw a Starbucks just off the main square. Unfortunately it was the worst coffee I had had up to that point in China and I was thoroughly disappointed, I wished I was more like Martha at that moment and returned the coffee and politely yet sternly asked for a new one. But with the language barrier and my own cowardness I did not. We then walked around the city center for a while until dinner time, when I pulled out my guide book and found a place for dinner, after one was selected Jimmy and I started walking in that direction and after two hours the restaurant was nowhere to be found – both maps were totally different and the EngloChinese on the maps never matched what was on the street signs. Finally we were to hungry to wait any longer and then we did something horrible, we went to Pizza Hut – no joke. I can’t remember the last time I ate at a Pizza Hut in the United States and now I was being a total tourist and eating at one in China – it was almost as bad as eating at McDonalds. And guess what – we weren’t alone all the other 5 Americans in Chengdu were there too, it was our most expensive meal in China and we ordered a small pizza and two sodas! After dinner we walked home deciding to be more adventurous tomorrow. The next day we had breakfast at the hostel and again bad coffee worse than Starbucks, the kid who made it knew nothing about espresso. After breakfast we went to the main square and took pictures, Chengdu is home to a large statue of Moa located in Tianfu Square, also off the square is a large mosque were we checked out and found a great restaurant around the corned where we had dinner. The next several days were spent relaxing and waiting for my mom to arrive and go to Tibet. On the day mom arrive I was so excited, she was suppose to get in a 9 pm but didn’t arrive until 11. We waited up in the lobby of the hostel and when mom and John arrive we stayed up until 1 am talking. The next day we ventured out early for coffee and then some authentic Sichuan food. If you like spicy food than you should move to the Sichuan region of China where Chengdu is located – I have never had spicier food in my life. Sichuanese cooking is noted for its heavy use of chilies. The most common dish is Hot Pot, which is what it sounds like a hot pot of water with mostly chilies and others spiced, mixed in; you then boil any kind of meat or vegetable you like. When you eat hot pot everything smells like it, you hair, clothes, breath, its like being around coffee beans when they roast, and after you leave you can’t taste anything else for days. We were brave and mostly to John and Jimmy’s credit – I think if it had been mom and I we would have found some Sichuan French infusion place that probably would not be the most authentic, instead we ate where the locals ate = Grandpa you would have gone crazy, the meat was out on the counter and we just went and picked it up and put it in the pot. But thank god, nock on wood, we did not get sick. Amid the many food adventures in Chengdu we planned our trip to Tibet, we found out that we had to wait several days for our permits and so we decided to go on a short trip north of Chengdu to the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Reserve.

The Jiuzhaigou Scenic Reserve, which we nicknamed Juju B because we could never pronounce it, was the closest thing China has to true preserved natural space however it was still very controlled and in a way like Disney Land, with buses running every couple of minutes to take people up or down the valley. You could walk but very few people did, except us. We took a bus from Chengdu early in the morning, before the coffee shops opened, and arrived at the park 7 hours later. The bus stopped along the way for toilet breaks and lunch. Our very first toilet break was very interesting, first of all for those who do not know, Chinese toilets are squat toilets which is pretty self explanatory however some are more advanced than others that are more primitive. The advanced ones have real flushes and are usually quite clean and the primitive kind are usually a long troth or worse simply a hole. The primitive kind, usually have a slight barrier but only up to around my hip or lower. Our first rest stop was a troth and after drinking two bottles of water and having to pee for about and hour and a half the troth didn’t look half bad and I quickly became quite a bit less shy. Over the next three weeks I became quite used to the squatter, but even though the guide book describes the hygienic and cleanly benefits of using a squat toilet a good old fashion western thrown is always appreciated and highly welcome. After two days of hiking around in the clean air we decided we better move on. Mom and John also contacted the travel agent who was handling our Tibetan permits and asked if they could be e mailed to us so we did not have to travel back to Chengdu to pick them up and could keep traveling north to Lanzhou, where we would then take a 30 hour train ride to Tibet. After Jujube mom found us a dream hotel in the mountains on the road to Songpan, the major bus station hub in the area that would lead us further north. We took a short taxi ride to the Intercontinental Jiuzhaigou Palace around 5 pm, the sun was setting and we drove through the wooded forest in what seemed like the middle of no where and then suddenly it appeared, a mammoth hotel with over 1,000 rooms, seven restaurants, a grocery store, shopping center, and a natural hot springs. The jewel was also very very popular, it was definitely where the rich of rich in China came on holiday. But alas after a night soaking in the hot springs and eating a fabulous dinner and drinking some of Chinas best Great Wall wine, year 1994, and sleeping in our spacious two-bedroom suit with two balconies we had to leave. The next day we arranged another taxi from the hotel to drive us, the 3-hour drive, to Songpan, which sounds easy enough, but oh what an experience. It started our great the driver, a hotel employee drove slow and offered to stop at many points along the way, even at a local candy shop where mom and John bought what they thought was chocolate. However after the candy was purchased the driver became much less sweet, similar to that of the candy – which looked and tasted like yak dung, the driver wanted more money than the agreed upon price and when John repeatedly said no and then got angry the driver announced we had arrived in Songpan. He dropped us off at the bus station so we could buy tickets for our next leg of the trip. At the bus station we tried to buy tickets to Lanzhou but the lady behind the counter said that there were no buses going to Lanzhou, even though our guidebook clearly stated that we had to catch the bus from Songpan. With our driver long gone and only guidebook Chinese to go off of, we were able to ask after about an hour – where are we? The response was not Songpan but a town about an hour south. When our driver did not get more money he simply announced we are here – and we believed him. All was well at the end of the day we were able to arrange another taxi for a good price, thanks to Jimmy and we were in Songpan by 6 pm. We had a nice late afternoon tea at a pleasantly surprising café run by a young women and her brother who spoke “better English than you and me” as one of the comments on the wall reported. We also found a nice hotel with a western toilet as well as a great hot pot restaurant. We had to turn in early in Songpan though because at 8 pm the power was shut off and it did not come back on in the morning before we left. The next morning we left early and took a bus over a 14,000ft pass where it was snowing and the bus had no heat. It was freezing we wore practically every piece of warm clothing we had. Half way through the journey there was a large overturned truck and all I could think about for the rest of the trip was I hope that doesn’t happen to us. We stopped in the town of Zoige where we then arranged to take a taxi to the town of Langmusi. Langmusi was a very cool town with a large monastery as well as a large holy area with caves, prayer flags and burning candles, where the villagers come to prayer. It was set in a cannon with a small stream running through it and we spent the late afternoon hiking up the valley. That night in Langmusi we ate at yet another great traveler café and met an amazing couple with had biked from Austria through the “Stan” countries and now into northwestern China. I was totally jealous that they got to go to Iran, they were there right after the election, which reelected president Ahmadinejad, and they said people were protesting in the streets. This couple also said that they met Iranians who wished the United States or Israel would take out president Ahmadinejad and just get it over with so the country could move forward. Also at this restaurant I asked where the toilet was and the women who owned the place said there was no toilet but then her husband came and showed me out the back into the yard – toilet he said and pointed to the dirt I was about to just go with it when I saw a dog leap forward and start barking a pulling on its chain, “dog no problem” the man said, I said I was fine and just hurried back to the hotel after dinner. The next morning it was on the move again this time to the town of Hezuo and then on to Lanzhou. Again the bus to Hezuo had no heat, once we arrived we told the bus to Lanzhou left from another bus station and then our informant just pointed. We had no idea were to go or what the bus station was called while we were standing around wondering what to do and wondering where Jimmy had gone, I saw he returning with our informant and a taxi. We quickly jumped in the car and sped over to the other bus station. We didn’t have much time according to the schedule in our guidebook and when we got to the station an attendant told us the bus was fully, or at least that’s what we thought. But then a man came around the corner with three other passengers and hurried us on to the bus, so fast so that as the bus started moving Jimmy was unsure if his bag mad it on, in the underneath compartment. There was a very nice young man seated behind me who spoke some English and also had a palm pilot translator who asked the bus driver to pull over so we could ensure Jimmy’s bag was safe. After that our young friend did not leave our side until after we had purchased our train tickets in Lanzhou for Tibet and given us his e-mail address and told us to e mail him that we were safe and having fun. We made it to Lanzhou after a 5-hour bus ride where unfortunately many people were sick. Once there we raced to the train station with only 2 hours to spare before the train would depart for our 30-hour journey to Tibet. We were able to get tickets, with the help of our friend and then we purchased some supplies and were off. After 30 hours and the aw of the Tibetan train station and a ride to our hotel with both our Tibetan tour guide and Chinese driver, both necessities for foreigners traveling in Tibet, we sat and had a cup of tea before bed not really believing what a whirl wind experience we just had and it was only really the beginning of our journey.