Day 15: Rocks, Welcome to Chengdu and Pizza!

We visited another mountain of rock carvings and these ones were even more impressive than the ones the day before. These ones had escaped the destruction and were only broken where nature had eroded it. Our guide told us tons of stories and information about the carvings. Who they were and what lessons they told. There were mountain guardians next to a depiction of Lau Tzu, the emperor and empress of heaven with symbols representing long life. Stories of enlightenment and examples of punishment for betraying the family. 

Mountain Guardian and LauTzu Rock Carvings

They place was packed and we very quickly noticed that the local tourists were probably taking just as many pictures of us as we were of the rock carvings. Turns out white people are not that common over there.

Our local guide was by far the least skilled one we had on the tour. His group management skills were poor and his English was even worse. However, we learned that we were his first big English tour so we cut him a little slack, and when you could understand what he was saying he actually knew a lot about everything in the area.

After the rock carvings was a painful four hour drive to Chengdu. Chengdu is a city of about 5 million but I originally guessed much higher as we passed towering skyscrapers and brilliantly lit up shopping centers with expensive specialty stores. Chengdu is the world famous home to the panda and it receives many many tourists every year because of it.

Our hotel was right on a corner just a block off from the main shopping street, fantastic location. Ryan and I ditched the group at dinner. We had seen a restaurant on the way over that we could not possibly resist. Pizza Hut. Turns out “western” food is actually a sort of upscale hip dining experience for the Chinese. When we walked in we were formally seated at a table for two. All the people in there were young, high school aged or in their twenties, all friends and dates, we saw no families or small children.

In the front of the menu were set meals were you could choose a few things for a set price. I thought we were just there for pizza so I flipped straight to the back so see their selection. They had English translations below the Chinese characters for all the meals. I found a pizza I thought looked good and suggested it. Ryan was a little more impressed with the whole scene and wanted to try more than just a simple pizza, he asked if we could get one of the set meals in the front. I had only had a moment to glance at the first line when the waitress walked up. I wasn’t able to communicate that I needed five more minutes to look at the menu so I just jumped right in and pointed at the set menu. We got to choose two entrees from the selection. One of them was the pizza I had picked out before so I pointed to that and then spaghetti also sounded really good. Only after that I noticed just how many other choices we had. There were 6 lines of items and we got to pick one thing from each line! I was instantly overwhelmed with the waitress standing right above me so I tried to toss it over to Ryan,

“I picked the first two things you go ahead and pick out what you want.” I told him.
“No, you pick them out.” He says casually.
“I haven’t even had a chance to read this yet, you go.”
“Just point at things.”
“I don’t know what there is!”
“Doesn’t matter, pick random things.”

Arrg! So I read and ordered at the same time which made the whole process take a lot longer than it should have. Finally when we got it done and the waitress left I gave Ryan a good kick across the table for leaving me hanging, but he just laughed at my ability to get flustered so quickly.

The food came out in no particular order, just whenever it was ready, but let me describe it in a way that will emphasize how much food we actually got. We were served an appetizer of fried asparagus, which was delicious. We each got a plate of a simple salad and a bowl of ham and potato soup. On top of that were the entrees, a personal pan pizza (tasted just like home) and a big plate of spaghetti which was covered in some sort of chili sauce and very spicy. It was fantastic but too spicy to each too much of. We also both got drinks and a chocolate mousse dessert. The total bill came to 147yuan, or when split was about $13 each. For the price of an average meal back home we got three starters, two entrees, drinks and dessert. I love China. They wouldn’t take our tip though. We tried twice to give them extra money and they kept giving it back.

I was proud we managed to successfully feed ourselves in a foreign speaking country without the help of a guide. We also successfully managed to make our entire group jealous the next day as we told the story of the delicious pizza, and it sounded like we made a good choice because no one had been impressed with the group dinner. 

Day 16: Giant Buddha and Sword

We had been running a lot in the past week. It felt like half our days had been spent either on a bus or in an airport, so I was greatly looking forward to our three nights in Chengdu. Finally a few days to chill and just sightsee without all the traveling.

We met the group at the usual 9am meeting time where our local guide told us it was going to be a two and a half HOUR drive to see the big Buddha. Yaaaaay another day spent on a bus. We were going to visit the giant Leshan Buddha statue, carved straight into the mountain side and sitting at more than 70 meters high. On the way he told us the story of the statue which turned out to be a lot more interesting than the statue itself.

Leshan is a city located right where three rivers meet. Some thousand years ago a monk lived on top of one of the mountains overlooking the rivers. There was a spot where there must have been and underwater whirlpool because many boats would get stuck in that same spot and crash against the rocks. The monk watched this tragedy happen over and over again. One day he decided something needed to be done against the danger of the river. Being a monk he decided that carving a giant Buddha would help give the boats protection as they passed through that area. He went off and spent several years raising money to build his Buddha. When he finally collected enough he went back home and went to the county official for permission to carve in the side of the mountain. But the warlord was a greedy man and demanded some of the money for himself. The monk refused and the warlord said he would not give his permission unless the monk either gave him the money or his eyes. Without hesitation, the monk reached up and tore out one of his eyes and presented it to the warlord. Shocked and scared, the warlord gave his permission to build the Buddha. It took over 90 years to complete the sitting Buddha over 200 feet high, and once it was completed the river calmed and never again did the rocks claim a boater’s life.

Giant Buddha in Leshan

The science behind the conclusion is actually the hundreds of tons of rocks that were thrown into the river during the construction of the Buddha most likely filled the whirlpool hole or altered whatever was causing the problem in the first place. But hey, it worked.

We spent approximately 5 minutes admiring the Buddha. It was indeed impressive but for a two and a half hour drive it hardly seemed worth it. There were cliffs all around the Buddha, stairs and walkways built right into the side of the mountain, I would have loved to explore around the area, but alas, we didn't even get to walk up close to it. We only saw it from a boat on the river.

On the way back we got to stop at one of the most gorgeous little villages I’ve ever seen. It had a stream running through the middle of town down to the river so there were trees, bushes and little carvings that lined the entire town. It was beautiful. This was where Ryan got his sword. Yep. We often saw swords for sale and Ryan picked out this big beautiful sword for 190yuan ($30 or so). It was only after he paid for it that he wondered how he was going to transport it home…stay tuned for that story.

Dinner was a collection of “snacks” which were all delicious and left our table littered with dozens of little bowls. It was a wonderful meal and very amusing. 

Day 17: OMG PANDAS

Pandas!!!! Yes today was the day we visited the world renowned Panda research center in Chengdu. There are less than 2,000 panda’s in the world, most of which live in the Chengdu province. The research center has over 100, including 26 that are on loan to other zoos around the world. China will not export panda’s but you can rent one for $2 million dollars per year!

Pandas in Chengdu

They are the most adorable creatures, they’re like giant teddy bears. They’re huge and fuzzy and they roll around and it’s so cute. They were really active when we were there, some of them were hanging out in the trees and some were playing together, lots were eating. It was really interesting to watch them eat, they eat bamboo which is actually not very filling or even very nutritious for them but that’s what they eat. They strip it like a banana to get the outer layer off then eat the inner part. Apparently in the spring some of the females will fake being pregnant so they can get the better food. When pandas are born they’re about the size of a mouse so it’s really hard to tell when a female is pregnant or not. The Mom will stay with the baby for a year and a half until she lets it out on its own. Generally pandas are solitary creatures.

We had the opportunity to hold a baby panda. You got about 5 minutes to play with it and hold it and they would give you a commemorative T-shirt and pictures of your time together. But first you had to make a 1300yuan donation to the research center. About the same as $200. Pandas were cute buuuut I’m okay without the Tshirt, Kthxbye. That money went towards good use though, that place had the best bathroom of the entire trip, it had those super computer toilets, soft toilet paper and the place was actually clean. We also saw other western tourists which was something we actually didn’t see often.

We had sandwiches for lunch, which were heavenly, and after the panda center we were exploited at another factory that did both silk AND embroidery this time. We ended the day with a visit to a lovely city garden which boasted containing several hundred varieties of bamboo. I picked out about four and after that they all looked the same.

Day 18: Train Travel in China

We were leaving for Xi’an today and Ryan was confronted with his first problem, how to get his sword onto the train. We discovered you can’t mail swords through postal mail. Gump helped us get it boxed up and shipped over with the excess luggage, it cost about 80yuan. His cheap sword was suddenly not as cheap. I was feeling annoyingly sick so I was really glad it was a low key day.

We were taking an overnight train to Xi’an. Train is the most popular way to travel in China. Especially during the holidays when everyone is trying to go home all at the same time. There are four ways to ride the train. They had soft sleeper cars with bunks and mattress. They had hard sleepers which I assume is the bed without the mattress. They had chairs to sit in, and then they also sell standing tickets. Standing tickets means exactly what it sounds like, there aren’t enough chairs so people will stand during the entire trip. And China is not a small place, we were on a 14 hour train ride from Chengdu to Xi’an, I can’t even imagine how painful that would be to stand for 14 hours.

We got the soft sleeper cabins because we’re spoiled tourists and the expensive cars to them were probably only like $20 for us. Each cabin had two bunks, there was space in between the size of the door and no more. Ryan and I roomed with Anne and Ric. People socialized out in the train car hallway but I was still feeling sick so I just tried to rest for the trip. It was much more comfortable than a 14 hour plane ride, but that’s about it.