Lijiang to Chengdu, CHINA - 09 may 2002
The 9-hour bus-ride spun me round and round downhill from Lijiang to Panzhihua. Panzhihua must be the opposite of what Lijiang is. It is set by a brown river and has many factories with chimneys (even nuclear reactor sorts) churning out toxins and pollutants constantly. The apartment buildings perched precariously on the banks of the rivers are grey, ugly and grotty. Panzhihua is smog-filled and utterly depressing.
I must be getting to the ‘real’ China, I thought. I had to start getting used to this sort of view, instead of the prettified touristy towns I had just been to. Another bus took me to the train station in the nearby town, Jinjiang. Then, there was a mad rush for tickets for the train to Chengdu which was leaving in less than an hour!
The ticket-seller must have thought I was a local. She practically shoved the ‘hard seat’ ticket to me. This was cheap and mostly purchased by the locals. I was elbowed out of the ticket-window before I had a chance to inquire about the ‘hard sleeper’ option. Oh well…
I would have to treat this train-ride to Chengdu as one of those character-building experiences in my life. It was 13 hours of upright sleeping for me on a cramped set of seats facing each other and with a tiny table that barely jutted out for the four of us to share. The lights were left on the whole night. I could not move a notch because the girl sitting next to me was glued to my hips as she leaned on the tiny table to sleep. I had to dance my toes around to prevent dying from Economy Class Syndrome. Later, I almost reeled in shock when I finally and desperately went to the toilet. My butt could touch the pile of shit if I squatted a tad too low. One never breathes in the toilets of China.
Chengdu, CHINA - 10 may 2002
I woke up to a very foggy Sichuan Province. When I arrived in Chengdu, it had the same thick fog hanging around the city. Visibility was incredibly low. It felt like there was a soft-focus lens in front of my eyes permanently and I was posing in some cheesy wedding shots.
I did not read my guidebook properly and hopped onto the wrong bus. I was made to get off at some random spot by the conductor and spent the next hour or so wandering around the blurry city to locate my hotel. This was not the most pleasant experience considering the awful sleeping condition I was in the night before.
Weather was shitty, I was tired. I slept the rest of the afternoon in, I must say, the best dorm room I had been in so far.
Leshan, CHINA - 11 may 2002
I had not had anything planned for Chengdu and when a dorm-mate Alex (but this time, female Alex from Germany) mentioned she was going to Leshan to see the Grand Buddha, I decided to join her.
It would have been a great temple-park, had it not been so expensive. It was Y40 to enter. This was almost the first time I paid admission and I could not quite get used to it. Yeah, I know. I was being Miss Cheap-skate. This is a park where a 71-m Grand Buddha had been carved into the side of the cliff overlooking the confluence of two rivers. Even sitting down, this is the largest buddha in the world. The next largest was the recently destroyed one in Bamian, Afghanistan. There are a few very beautiful temples around.
The Grand Buddha is impressive nonetheless. It had been carved around AD 713. I believe this is an endangered treasure as major restoration work had been going on for the past decades to save it. The rock where it was carved into is soft, so it would not be surprising if the Grand Buddha should collapse down the side one day. Also, foliage continue to grow in between his ears, fingers and toes.
One thing many Chinese tourists love is to pose in tacky ‘make-believe’ shots. There was a photo-shoot going on where tourists (inadvertently Chinese) could pay Y15 or so to stand on a bench and point their index finger. The photographer would try to take a picture of them digging the Grand Buddha’s nose or something. Very kitsch.
The day continued to be foggy and depressing. The only cheer I got for the rest of the day was to discover Chengdu had a hypermarket Carrefour where I could shop for groceries like the city girl that I am and pay at real cash registers.
Chengdu, CHINA - 12 may 2002
I joined the Panda Tour organised by my hostel. I figured since there was no public transportation there, I might as well join a tour. In other words, I was lazy. Big mistake. It had been raining since 8pm last night. If I had a choice, I would continue to snuggle in my warm bed. But since I had already coughed up the money, I had to go.
The weather was really crappy. There was no chance to walk around and wander at your own pace. It just rained and rained and rained. We spotted about five or six pandas around the compounds but I guess the rest were smart by cozying up to their beds to avoid the chills. Still, it was really nice to see these rare, gentle, fragile creatures, hardly evolved since eons ago, lumbering around and chewing bamboo shoots nonchalantly.
Something which I did not quite approve of is tourists paying Y100 to cuddle a baby panda and take a photo with it. That, to me, is an absolute exploitation of the pandas. This act would be extremely traumatizing to the poor vulnerable dears. Sigh…
The rain continued for the rest of the day, lasting close to 24 hours. Female Alex was leaving Chengdu tonight for Lijiang. She bet that once she left Chengdu, the next day would be glorious and blue. Such was her luck, she complained. We shall see.
Chengdu, CHINA - 13 may 2002
And Female Alex was right!! Today was indeed glorious and blue. What a difference the sun made to my impression of Chengdu. I started to like Chengdu.
I had to take my third and last shot of anti-rabies injection to complete the course. Before I left Singapore, I only had time to take two shots. I asked for directions to the Vaccination Clinic and I found myself in a dodgy part of town, right next to a wet market.
Indeed, I saw the sign for the Vaccination Clinic but it was selling tyres and bicycle parts. Hmm… A few steps later brought me to a hospital-looking place and I felt relieved. That was more like it, I told myself.
But wandering in the hospital was fruitless, I kept being directed to the back exit. Finally, an impatient cleaning lady shooed me out of the back exit and I stood facing a back alley with the smell of urine around. I spun around and finally, spotted the recently relocated Vaccination Clinic. It was indeed in a dodgy part of town, next to the wet market.
I explained my requirement for an anti-rabies shot and the lady puzzled over it for a while before deciding on ‘the French vaccine’. It cost me a mere Y60. This was strange. One shot in Singapore cost me almost Y600 and I was warned that it would be much more expensive to take the shot in China as I would be treated as an expatriate. But, this was only Y60? What had I just been jabbed with?
Chengdu, CHINA - 14 may 2002
Many of the back streets of Chengdu would turn into fantastic markets and there are just many, many cheap eateries around. Chengdu is a really interesting place to explore if you get down to it.
Dali and Lijiang mainly cater to tourists so many people could speak standard Mandarin. Here, the locals usually speak the Sichuan dialect. If they spoke slowly, I could just about make it out as it was, fortunately, a little similar to Mandarin. And it was great at some tiny eateries, where the friendly locals made the extra effort to try and chat with me.
There are many temple parks around Chengdu. I had visited a Taoist temple yesterday and today, I lounged around in a Buddhist temple. There were signs in front telling people to respect the temple grounds and they should not 1) spit, 2) raise their voices, 3) gamble, etc… among other things.
Hmmm…
1) Try telling the Chinese not to spit. Every other corner, I could still hear the ‘aaarrrrrggghhhh-pttyui’ sound.
2) Try telling the Chinese not to raise their voices… Those who could not find their grannies, friends or children were shouting into every temple to track them down.
3) Try telling the Chinese not to gamble. The temple garden was filled with scores and scores of old geezers playing mahjong (a game with tiles played by four people).
On the other side of the temple park, was the tea-drinking area. The place had low tables and bamboo chairs where a great number of locals were sitting under the shady trees, smoking, chatting and sipping tea. Nothing touristy about it. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and people-watch.
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