Chengdu, with a metropolitan population of more than 14 million people, is like a number of other mega cities in China - completely unknown to most people in the west. As the capital of the Sichuan province however it holds a claim on all of the area's Pandas and the eponymous variety of spicy food. Chengdu is a contradiction though, there is a dichotomy between old and new. In the public parks, people sit around in tea houses playing Mah Jong, chatting, singing and, most importantly, drinking tea for hours. In other parts of the park, people play instruments, sing and exercise . In the city center though, there are colorful fountains and shining, new luxury brand stores like Ferragamo, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. The people run the gamut between young, affluent trend setters and sociable elderly. The city is definitely more relaxed and running at a slower pace than Beijing.
Our first night in Chengdu we went out for a local specialty, a hot pot dinner. This dish is somewhat like a Chinese take on oil fondue - you order a broth, meats, and vegetables then dump all the food in the broth, let it cook and enjoy. Featured prominently in our dish, like many Sichuanese dishes, were Xanthoxylon peppers. These caper sized fireballs come on a vine, in clumps like grapes and are so strong they make your mouth go numb. The sensation is somewhat like a mild anesthetic with a dash of Tabasco sauce. I was sweating and my whole mouth was tingling after dinner.
We spent our first full day in Chengdu outside the city - about 140km away in the small town (population > 300,000) of Leshan. Our first stop in the city was the local market. We walked past lurching bags of frogs, noisy crates full of chickens, ducks, and rabbits, bowls of fish and snakes, and at one point a pot of turtles. In no short time, the local vendors would sell all these creatures to people for dinner. (see the photo of Ellie holding a rabbit) The main attraction in the town, however, is the worlds largest Buddha. At 71m tall, seated, the Buddha's large toe is said to be large enough to hold a picnic. The Buddha was originally built in the 700s AD - besides that there is not much to say, other than that it is a very large Buddha. We spent the rest of our time in, or nearby Chengdu.
We briefly visited a street market in Chengdu, it was refreshing to see turtles being sold as pets, not food. Vendors sold all the elements you would need for a traditional Chinese garden plants, rocks, fish, pond equipment, and turtles of many different shapes and sizes. Some were smaller than a palm, fully grown, and some were easily more than 30lbs with spikes. A few vendors rode by on bicycles covered in bird cages.
My favorite part of our visit to Chengdu was, perhaps, the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base. We spent the majority of our time there watching baby giant pandas eating in the nursery. Unfortunately the guards were quite militant about enforcing the no picture policy and I was unable to sneak off any good shots. The adult pandas spend most of their time eating, sleeping and playing - fortunately we timed our visit with the morning feeding and were able to see lots of pandas awake and eating. The panda base was also home to a large number of red pandas. These are much smaller than giant pandas and look suspiciously like a cross between a red fox and a giant panda. There's a funny thing about China - you can do an awful lot with about $6. (see picture of me with the red panda)
Our final stop in Chengdu, before boarding the train to Xi'an, was a local opera. We couldn't understand much but got around that issue with the help of a local named Tray Lee who translated surprisingly well. I'm certainly extrapolating but the opera seemed to be a triumphal moral comedy. It followed a down on his luck gambler's antics as he tried to sell his wife as a prostitute for gambling money and her eventual revenge. Most of the theater-goers were the relaxed elderly we'd seen in parks earlier and sat around drinking tea during the performance.
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