A Weekend in Chengdu

As you may remember, a few weeks back, our friend Carlos came to visit from Chengdu. This past weekend, Lucia and I repaid the favor, heading west after work on Friday.

While we weren't there for very long, we managed to see a lot of the city and get a taste for the differences between Chongqing and Chengdu. For one, Chengdu has a significantly larger population of foreigners, which results in more bars and fewer stares. It also caters to tourists more than Chongqing, perhaps because of the famous Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Here's a blog post someone else wrote that sums up the differences in character pretty well: Chongqing is chaos, Chengdu is chill. (In a google search for "Chongqing versus Chengdu" I turned up this article as well, in case you're interested in starting a company and basing it in either Chengdu or Chongqing.)

The Chengdu train at Chongqing station. 

The crowd exiting at Chengdu. 

When we arrived, we met up with Carlos and hit a few popular foreigner nightlife spots with some people from our hostel - The Shamrock, Helen's, and Jellyfish. My camera takes terrible nighttime pictures so I didn't capture much.

Some hostel friends and Carlos at Helen's. 

The next day, some of the hostel volunteers make lunch and anyone who's staying there can buy in. We jumped at the chance to sample some Chinese home cooking, and we even got to help! ("Help.")

This will become "Full Platter Chicken" - and yes, that is a chicken foot you see. 

The master chef with the cleaver.  

Lucia takes a turn.

My turn next!

The full meal, all set out. 

 Following lunch, we headed down to the exotic animal market, where we saw tons of fish, reptiles, and even puppies crowding store after store of pets, aquarium, and pet supplies. This experience was mostly weird, a little sad, and very smelly.

Salamanders at the market.

Puppies! 

The Most Tormented Cat.

Odd patterns dyed onto fish.

Planning nerd sidebar: Separated bike lanes!

After the pet market we walked down the river path until we arrived at Jin Li Street, a redeveloped part of town that now caters to tourists with tons of snack shops, bubble tea, and plenty of panda souvenirs.

Candy artisan - this guy made hard candy animals, on a stick! 

The crowd at Jin Li Street

Another candy artisan.

Tons of ribbons and small sacks tossed all over this tree, and kids and adults alike would pose in front.

The clash of modern and ancient: some workers climb the pitched roof to install an air conditioning unit. 

After spending some time at Jin Li Street, we headed to the main square to check out the giant Mao Tze Dong statue, where we'd also pick up the train to meet up with some co-workers who happened to be on a business trip in Chengdu that same weekend.

Mao watches over. 

The restaurant we went to seemed to cater more to domestic patrons, despite offering an array of western food and "American-sized" beers. Later in the evening, there were some live bands and some games played on stage by volunteers from the crowd, with prizes ranging from a t-shirt that said "YES NO" to a life-sized teddy bear.

My favorite band - this lady totally rocked.

Some game which results in these awesome t-shirts as the prize.

An eating/chugging contest resulted in this life-size bear prize. 

The next day, we headed off to see the real reason we came to Chengdu (no offense to Carlos) -- pandas. After a cab ride, two buses and a tuk-tuk ride, we finally make it to the hallowed ground of the Great Panda Research Base. 

Carlos and Will enjoying the cramped tuk tuk.

The entrance to the Panda Research Base. 

Lucia's very excited that we're on our way!

Some panda friends, at feeding time. 

Plumb tuckered.

Will gazes in on some giant pandas.

Red Pandas, which we saw outside (instead of inside, feeding). They are actually closer related to the raccoon than the giant panda! 

Baby panda incubator! Unfortunately, no baby pandas.

Panda with an identity crisis. 

After the Amazing Panda Research Base, we headed to a bookstore/cafe/restaurant called the Bookworm, which specializes in western food. The amount of western food we ate this weekend was definitely not representative of our normal existence in China...but it was, indeed, very comforting.

Veggie burger and fries. 

 And then, back to the train station to catch our evening ride back to Chongqing.

Another planning nerd sidebar: This reads "Chengdu Metro is under construction. Today's inconvenience will bring us a convenient future." How do we bring that kind of zen to the public meetings in LA?

Goodbye, Chengdu!