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.

Lunchtime Adventures

Anyone who knows me as American Chelsea knows that I'm a vegetarian, have been for nearly two decades, and generally steer clear of food that has shared frying pans, utensils, cooking broth, etc. with meaty things. An exclamation I heard often in my household growing up was "I didn't use the same spoon for yours, don't worry!" I think I've gotten better / less neurotic about it over the years, but this is truly a test of my limits.

Our organization generously provides stored-value cards for a restaurant near our office so we don't have to pay for lunch. This restaurant is a fast-paced, loud, noodle-slinging cafeteria-style joint. The menu is entirely in Chinese, no English or even pinyin. We've had a colleague translate the menu for us but even this is only marginally helpful (though he has made an effort to identify vegetarian-friendly food!).

Week 1 in Chongqing

The city I'll call home for the next 8 weeks is quite a bit different from Shanghai.

For one, it's hotter. Topping out in the upper 90s each day, with major humidity, I'm reminded of the hottest weeks in Chicago, except this is never-ending. I got truly spoiled in one short year with the LA weather, and by the time I acclimate to this weather, it may be time head back to the States.

There are some fascinating articles out there about Chongqing, some of which I've already linked in previous posts. Here is another great one in the NY Times, brought to my attention by my roommate/classmate/co-intern/friend Lucia. This article, in particular, captures some of the vibe I've been feeling here as a Westerner in a city with very, very few Westerners.

T-minus 9 Days

I've finished finals (and my first year of graduate school!) and I'm now home free for the next 9 days, before departing for China until September.

I'm going to be living and working in Chongqing, an large (by American standards) city in the middle of the country - about 6.5 million residents in the city proper, and 28.5 in the municipality. The city features prominently in this New York Times article about the massive urbanization process underway in China right now. 

Here's another article chronicling the growth in Chongqing specifically. The stories of people living through this transition are endlessly fascinating and moving, and I'm very excited to be there to experience the development. 

Of course, learning about people is a challenge when you don't speak the language. I've been trying, slowly, to learn the Mandarin basics. I doubt I'll gain fluency by the summer's end, but hopefully some level of competence, or at least the ability to order a beer off a menu. 

The other exciting thing about Chongqing is the local cuisine. Situated near Sichuan, the food is known for being spicy. The city is known particularly for it's hotpot, and lucky me! An article from today, discussing the dish and recommending the best places in Chongqing to go. I'll have to watch out for "tummy upsets" -- perhaps the most adorable way of describing indigestion I've ever heard. (And also blood pudding. I will have to watch out for blood pudding.)

Until next time, 

CR.