Chengdu, China - September 23, 2002
After finally getting in that Chinese movie, I took an overnight train to Chengdu, China. Its the heart of Sichuan provence. I'd heard alot of intersesting things about it, and was quite interested to check the place out.
The train ride was the biggest experience. Each train car is subdivided into smaller compartments. Its called a hard-sleeper compartment, and in each section there are 6 beds.. kind of 3 bunk beds right next to another 3 bunk beds.. with a small extremely thin table near the two bottom beds in that section. Anyhow, I thought I was lucky to get the bottom bed, next to the floor, but I was wrong. The bottom beds are open to anyone else from the other 6 beds to sit on and talk away. So I tried to sleep that night while some drunk Chinese guy was talking almost non-stop to his friend on the other lower bed. At first I was pretty annoyed.. and it seemed as if everyone in our compartment was annoyed.. the drunk guy did almost 99% of the talking to the others for the first 8-9 hours of the train ride.. and then everyone went to sleep.. and first thing in the morning.. the drunk guy gets down off his bunk bed.. and sits on my bed again telling more stories.. but in the morning.. his friends were more interactive with him.. maybe because they knew there wasn't much time left of the journey.
Anyhow, I'm up in Chengdu now. I arrived early in the morning around 8am.. I didn't get much sleep.. but the first thing I did was get a bicyle today. I drove all around the city.. I tried to go the tourist sites, parks, and just exploring. Chengdu is well-known for its bamboo tea-houses.. and I found quite a few around the parks and other places. Its also well-known for Panda Bears.. which I intend to see tomorrow.
I found a hotel along a river that cuts between the city.. its quite beautiful.. and there are parks there.. but overall, Chengdu seems a bit dirty.. and there is alot of construction. I think it could be a very interesting city in a few years.. when all of the plans the city has for it materialize. At this time, its still too dirty from exhaust fumes and construction.
At night time, I tried to find some good expats bars to try to meet the locals, but I seemed to most turn up backpacker tourist bars. They were okay, but not really a good clue into the local expat scene. Evetually I met a guy from Taiwan though.. who had been living in Chengdu for 10 years. For the most part, he said it was a very boring place, but the people were quite kind and honest. He said that most of the region is farmland, and most of the people are quite simple. He said they weren't materialistic or money-oriented like Shanghai, and preferred simple lifes. For example, if a girl was to just find a simple guy and help run a small shop, she would be quite happy. Anyhow, he was an interesting fellow, and a good view into Chengdu life as seen from an expat perspective.
Tomorrow, I will go see the Panda Bears in the morning, and then go to Leshan the next day to see the largest Buddha in the world.
Continued journal entries in China:
September 24, 2001
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com