Ciao to Chengdu

My final day in Chengdu starts in my favourite way, with a lie-in. I was hoping to get an even longer one but Simon still has some places to take us and doesn’t want us to be in a rush for the train this afternoon. Having said that, once we are up Simon says we aren’t in a rush, so we end up playing Mahjong for an hour again except this time the other Tom doesn’t join us, he isn’t Simon’s biggest fan at the moment. He is rather annoyed as he could of had an extra hour in bed or exploring. So while Erika and I play Mahjong again, he goes on a recce of the city for an hour. Erika and I both end up winning 3 out of the 7 games we play which puts us at a draw for today, but overall I am still one game up after yesterday’s victories. Once Tom is back and the games are finished we head out for our final day in Chengdu having checked out and left our bags in the hostel.

Our first stop is the Peoples’ Park, a massive public park. It is bustling with life. Walking along the pathways through the greenery, past small rivers with cute bridges and lily pads, we come to an opening. This opening is filled with different market stalls selling a wide array of goods: there is even an impromptu stage set up holding an art auction. All these stalls are overshadowed by our next discovery though. Having walked past the square we come to a walkway which is in between two wire structures filled with either blue or pink sheets. On these sheets are official forms of match makers filled in by local singles looking for a partner. The sheets start with some basic information such as age, height, weight and a little bio. Following this is a section where people list what they are looking for. We have Simon translate many of the pages for us. One of the requests I find funniest is on a man’s paper: he asks that suitor’s parents have a pension so he will not be burdened with the cost for their care, something I have never personally considered when looking for a suitor. We are also surprised to find that many of the people reviewing these sheets are groups of elderly woman, Simon says it is a favourite past time of elderly mothers of single men to come to the park and try and find their sons a potential partner. Personally I am not sure how I would react if my mum came home one day and told me she had found a number for a potential wife on a sheet of paper in the park.

Peoples' Park

After the park we head to Jinli Street, an ancient street famous for its different food stalls and array of shops. As early as the Qin Dynasty Jinli Street was the most famous place for baldachin, a rich, ornate cloth and was one of the busiest commercial areas during the Shu Kingdom. Unfortunately we don’t get a lot of time here. Knowing we are not going to have a chance to get dinner tonight, we opt for a sit down meal which takes up most of our remaining time. I having had enough of sharing food options so order two dishes for myself: a dumpling soup and a pork dish that came with cucumber and rice. It was nice although the dumplings were rather bland without the dipping sauce, to which I added a lot of chilli. So after finishing our food we rush through a small section of the street and back through the park to get to the metro and head back to the hostel to collect our bags before heading to the station. We end up getting to the station with plenty of time. Trains here give me more of a feeling of air travel or at least the stations remind me of airports: the apparent need to turn up a minimum of an hour and half before your train, the crazy security regulations and check, as well as my passport being scanned at every possible point. Simon has some business in Xi’an so accompanies us the whole way meaning at least we don’t have to worry about misreading any of the signs.

The train journey is a relatively quick one only three hours long, our destination Xi’an, the walled city. Although not a very long train journey, it is evening when we arrive and are dropped off by Simon at our hostel. It is a nice hostel with a lovely common area that tonight acts as a bar with live music. As we aren’t meeting our new guide Sophia until 3pm tomorrow Tom and I decide to have a few drinks while we play cards and listen to the live music. Erika joins us after her shower although she doesn’t partake in drinking. After a few beers though Tom and I end up rather hungry again even after our rather large, late lunches. Erika is kind enough to join us on a slightly intoxicated quest to find an open restaurant. The only one we can see online is a Macdonalds around the corner which we have to use the underpass that goes under the bell tower to get to. So we set off on our adventure and of course it starts raining as soon as we are outside but never the less we make it and enjoy our food. On the way back however we encounter a new problem – turns out the underpass gets closed for the night. Luckily for us Tom has a keen sense of direction after a drink and we find our way back no problem, although we did have to cross a rather large six lane road with no lights but luckily at 1am the traffic isn’t too heavy. Once back I climb into my pod bed and pass out having had another full day, ready to wake up and explore the new city.

Peoples' Park Market Place

Jinli Street

The early hours

Al fresco match making

Needed some heat!