Xian to Chengdu

The chronicling of our trip continues and for those reading along, thanks for bearing with me. The days are full and I know a lot of this is just a journal of what we did, which is much more interesting for us than you. I will comment on one observation today, though, before getting in to documenting the activities.

So much has changed in China in the last 10 years, and one of those things is the number of cars on the road. However, even though the streets are wider and better, traffic is still an adventure and stimulating mind game to watch. As our guide said, lane lines are merely suggestions, and drivers often straddle the line or wander back and forth between lanes, for no apparent reason. Frequently, cars coming in the opposite direction pop out in our lane to pass, heading right for us. At the last moment, they complete their pass and dart back into their lane; our bus driver doesn’t even flinch. Intersections are even more entertaining, and I think traffic signals are a suggestion, also. Now that the roads are wide, the intersections are big, cars just wander through them at will, some turning, some not. There are walk signals, but green does not mean it is safe to cross; nor does red mean it isn’t safe to cross. I tell Amanda that in order to cross, you must continuously move, judging your trajectory with the other traffic so that you pass in between vehicles perfectly; and, you can never show fear or hesitation. Chinese do not jump, hesitate, or rush to accommodate other pedestrians or traffic in the road. In order to navigate this successfully, you must, in your mind, be Chinese.

On to the activities. We wrapped up our visit to Xian by doing a 10 mile bike ride on top of the city wall. In addition to the other 2 families, another family from Sun Travel joined us for the day while they were in Xian. They were from Texas but had lived in Alaska for 16 years and we spent some time talking about fishing on our bus ride and during lunch. After the bike ride we visited the Muslim district, a street market full of kabab vendors (anything you want, on a stick). We watched as people made noodles, candies, and stir-fried noodle bowls over blast furnaces. There are approximately 80,000 Chinese Muslims in Xian, mostly located in this district. At one point during the walk our olfactory bulb was overwhelmed with an incredibly obnoxious odor. It was a combination of rotten garbage, putrid mop water with a musty cloth mop, and sewage. I tried to tell myself not to react and appreciate other cultures, but I needed away from that stench! Turns out, it was emanating from a street food called stinky tofu. Our guide claims it is very good, as long as you can get past the smell. I’m not sure I could. Overall though, I found a lot of appetizing-looking street food that’d I’d like to try someday.

We had lunch at a large dumpling restaurant where they brought out course after course of dumplings. Meat dumplings, veggie dumplings, taro dumplings, dumplings in the shape of a chicken or a pig, dumplings in soup, dumplings in a bowl and in a steamer. We ate until we felt like a stuffed dumpling ourselves. Then, off to the airport to fly to Chengdu.

We arrived in Chengdu, a city of about 12 million, around 7:30 pm. It is very modern and fairly green. As we departed the airport in our bus and started taking in the new city, Connor exclaimed that he had left his iPad on the plane. Michael, our guide, started placing calls and as of today someone at the airline has it and he is going to go pick it up for us. Connor is lucky! Michael took us to dinner at a small local restaurant. Our hotel is a very nice Tibetan themed hotel with very good service. We asked for an extra set of sheets for the kids and when they were delivered, 4 women came to the room and made up 2 extra sleeping areas for the girls (it is their turn to sleep on the floor).

Today we went to the Chengdu Panda Research Center. It was a pleasant place and cool to learn about the pandas, a national treasure for the Chinese. Pandas don’t like the heat, so most of them were in their air-conditioned enclosures, resting. Although the cages are pretty basic, the pandas have a large natural habitat to enjoy, so it is a nice facility. We saw pandas that were about 3-4 months and one that was about a week old. They also have an area for red pandas. These are adorable critters that aren’t related to the panda at all, but have a similar diet and habitat. These guys were much more active and appear to be a cross between a panda, a raccoon, and a fox.

We ended the day in the middle of the afternoon. The kids all went to various rooms to play together while the adults headed out for a walk along the man-made moat. Along the way we saw some more kite flyers. One of the kites was up about 1500’… yes, that high. It was amazing. Tonight we will head out for dinner at another local restaurant and have some more spicy food, which is the local style.

Tomorrow we will go visit an elementary school, which should be fun. It will be Sunday, but the kids will still be in school that day, though that isn’t typical. The Chinese are just wrapping up a three day Dragon Boat festival that went Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Because they took an extra day off for holiday, the kids (and all workers) have to work/go to school on Sunday to make up that day. Holidays here are kind of like snow-days at home: you get the day off, but you have to make it up. Another example we were given is Chinese New Year. They take off a whole week so they can have 9 days off (2 weekends and 5 weekdays). They then go back and work through the next weekend, 12 days straight!

That’ll wrap up this post. Thanks again for reading!

The red panda

Riding on the wall

A giant panda