Chengdu

by brianwalch · Published June 13, 2016 · Updated November 12, 2017

Our last full day in Chengdu was a mix of cultural touring and human interaction, which is really the more enjoyable cultural experience, in my opinion. The touring component was an afternoon visit to a Buddhist temple that was approximately ½ mile from our hotel. Our guide did a nice job of talking about the temple, the beliefs of the Buddhist religion, and the intersection of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucius.

In the morning we visited a local elementary school and spent about 90 minutes with a class of 5^th and 6^th graders. The school is affiliated with the university that our guide went to, which is how he is able to arrange a visit like this. Most of the students have parents that teach or work at the university. The kids welcomed us at the gate and showed us in to their classroom. They were chattering and buzzing like any other typical elementary classroom. The room was arranged with 4 stations, and we distributed ourselves amongst the kids, introducing ourselves and telling where we were from.

The program started off with some introductions. Then, several of the kids were dressed in traditional Chinese costumes and they performed a dance for us, which was very well done. Next was arts and crafts time. There were 4 activity stations set up around the room with activities representing 4 inventions from the ancient Chinese: paper making, block printing, porcelain painting, and tie die fabric.

We had a blast as for the next 45 minutes we spent doing the different activities with the kids. As is typical with boys, their interest level waned and they ended up doing other things. A couple of the boys brought out Rubik Cubes and playing with those. One of the boys was really good, so I challenged him to solve it while I timed him. I scrambled it up the best I could, gave it to him, and started my watch. He solved it in just over 50 seconds! One of the stations that got out of control was the paper making station. The process involved putting some paper fiber into a blender with water, blend until dissolved, pour in to tubs, and use a screen to build up the paper. The kids decided they wanted to play “will it blend” and started collecting leaves and berries from the trees to color the paper. Kids with an electric blender is bad enough, but add in large amounts of water being poured back and forth over the blender and spilled on the smooth tile floor, and there’s a recipe for disaster. I saw one kid go down, knocking their head on the stool, but luckily no one was electrocuted. Regardless of the safety hazards, it was a very festive and playful environment and everyone was having a good time.

After the crafts, the class asked the kids if there were any skills or talents that our children wanted to show off. Our boys took on 5 of the boys in a game of basketball, which everyone watched. Ana, one of the other girls, did her ballet dance. Jenna did some gymnastics moves, which got a good crowd reaction; and, Carli taught them all how to fold paper cranes, which especially the girls in the class loved.

We had to wrap up our class visit and say goodbye. Before doing so, we exchanged gifts. They gave us souvenirs from the crafts we did; we gave them pencils, notebooks, bouncy balls, and stickers. Overall, it was one of the highlights of the trip I think simply because it was real, human interaction and we just enjoyed one another’s company. From there, we went out to lunch and to a local market. It was a bit more of an upscale market; not luxury, but just a bit nicer with restaurants and nice shops. It was the kind of place that would be easy to spend a few hours at eating and doing some shopping, which we did.

After a bit of rest at the hotel, we went out for dinner. One family stayed behind and the other one, plus Amanda, had decided it was time for western food. Our first attempt was to locate the nearest Walmart, which was about 1 km away. On our last visit the Walmart in Harbin had a food court with decent selections, and we thought that would please a wide variety of people. However, this one did not have a good food court. Regardless, it was a blast walking though and checking products out. They had a massive bulk snack section – literally several aisles – and so we went through and picked out a bunch of stuff from there to try. Our favorite was these individual flavored jello shots with fruit pieces. Next option folks wanted to try was Pizza Hut. Though in the states Pizza Hut is considered more of a fast food, here it is an upper class restaurant with a diverse menu and very nice setting. I wasn’t quite ready for pizza, so I had planned to sit out. Our guide, Michael, wanted local noodles with the local spice (from the Nun pepper) and so Jenna, Carli, Michael, and I left the pizza group in search of local noodles. We ended up at a small street restaurant with a total of 3 tables. It was run by a couple and the menu on the wall had maybe 7 choices, all in small, medium, or large (6, 8, and 10 RMB respectively). This is a typical noodle shop and these places are all over. We all got a bowl of noodles and spent 28 RMB (about 4 U.S. dollars) for dinner for the four of us. The broth was excellent, as were the noodles, and I was content at the end of the meal. Michael commented that in China it is very easy to frugal as long as you don’t want to eat in nice restaurants where you pay for the atmosphere.

That concluded our evening. We got up in the morning and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Guilin (pronounced gway-lin). This is a smaller city of about 700,000. It was a pretty mellow day as we got checked in to the hotel and the kids spent the afternoon in the pool. Amanda and I took a walk down by the lake, which is beautiful. 2 of the families we were with in Beijing rejoin us here, as we as another family we haven’t met yet. Tonight at dinner we’ll be 6 families, so it should be a big party. From here we will take a boat a bit to Yangshuo, which is a mountain retreat type place, spend two nights there, and then head to Guangzhou. This is where everyone will start departing for their orphanages or to head home, so the tour part of our trip is quickly coming to a close. I think I’m looking forward to a little time with just us as a family, though, as I’m not ready for our adventure to be over.