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Sichuan

Chengdu

Chengdu was the first and only major city I would visit in China. I was prepared for a lot of people, a lot of noise, a lot of high buildings and perhaps a feeling of claustrophobia. Maybe because I was expected the worst, I actually found Chengdu a pleasant place to be. Yes, there were a lot of people, even more than in London, and there were lots of high buildings in the centre and a lot of lights, but it wasn’t noisy. People, cars and bikes moved around the city quietly. I think that was the major aspect which made it enjoyable. I spent several days here, split up by my tour to Western Sichuan, and as it was my last stop before the yoga training I also had some errands to do (buying white trousers for the opening ceremony, posting postcards, topping up on toiletries). Despite this, I managed to fit in everything I wanted to do. See below for my highlights of what to do in Chengdu:

  1. Enjoy the food - Sichuan has arguably the best food in China, and Chengdu is a hub for it. I ate a lot, and enjoyed all of it hugely. Definitely the best food of the trip! Notable mentions are hot pot and the similar Mai Cao, baozhi for breakfast (preferably the kind stuffed with spiced meat), mapo tofu, dandan noodles (peanuts, minced pork and noodles in a spicy sauce) and the fresh figs (purple ones, unlike the green variety in Xinjiang).
  2. Cooking class - I love doing cooking classes in different countries and when I saw one advertised at my hostel I knew I had to do it, I was dying to learn how to cook some of this delicious food. Amazingly, I was the only person in the cooking class on that day, so was treated to a private class with two guides and one chef! The two guides, both guys in their 20s from Chengdu, picked me up and showed me around the market first. They pointed out different produce and explained what they were used for, and I let them know if we had that in England. We bought two of the overly perfect looking peaches for us to eat later, and a century duck egg for me to try (an egg which has been preserved using chemicals). We explored the spice area and they explained that Sichuan cooking used the sichuan peppercorn which gave the food the floral taste and also caused the numbing sensation, and dried chilli which gave it the spice. After we had seen all the important produce we headed to the kitchen, which was right on the edge of the market. Here we had jasmine tea (traditional for Sichuan) and ate the peaches before preparing to cook. I cooked three dishes: (1) Chinese cabbage - stir fried cabbage in a spicy soy sauce, (2) Twice cooked pork - belly pork which is first boiled and then cut into thin strips (like bacon) and stir fried with garlic leaves, and (3) mapo tofu - tofu in a spicy sauce. All three were surprisingly simple to cook, and absolutely delicious. We enjoyed them with rice and the century egg, which was black and a strange gelatinous texture that I didn’t love. It was such a great experience and I can’t wait to cook the dishes at home. It was also a nice opportunity to speak to some locals (who had excellent english) about their thoughts on China.
  3. Panda sanctuary - If you mention Chengdu to any Chinese person, their initial response is always about the pandas there. It is the home of the giant panda and there are several research centres and sanctuaries you can visit. I visited the main one, closest to Chengdu, for a morning to catch the pandas whilst they are most active. I can’t say I was massively into pandas beforehand, but wow they are very cute to watch. So clumsy and fluffy and do not look like they should be attempting to climb a tree (and often fall down when they do). I managed to avoid the crowds for the most part - the park is huge and there are a lot of pandas - so it was a great morning activity.
  4. Check out the different areas - When it wasn’t pouring with rain, I hired the little bikes that are everywhere to cycle around the city, which was at times slightly nerve-wracking but mostly wonderful fun. When it was pouring with rain, I used the very efficient, very clean metro. Places worth mentioning are the People’s Park, which was the first city park in China and huge and jungle-like filled with old people dancing in groups (a common thing in China it would seem); Qingyang Buddhist Temple, pretty and rather atmospheric in the rainy weather; Anshun Bridge, pretty cool but not the most amazing bridge I’ve seen; Kuan Alley, a network of narrow alleys leftover from the old town that are now filled with food stalls and tea shops; and the Chengdu Museum, free to entry and very comprehensive but very busy. I also travelled a bit further out from the centre to the Eastern Suburb Memory which is a hip shopping and eating area in an old electronics tube factory, filled with independent clothing stores and art displays.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Chengdu and would recommend the city to visit for a few days (or more, if you want to eat even more delicious food).

Western Sichuan tour

I wanted to visit a few places in western Sichuan to experience the Tibetan culture present there and see the scenery, which was a mixture of snow-capped mountains and luscious green valleys and the more barren plateau. After researching it further, it seemed the only feasible option to visit these places in my timeframe would be to do a tour. I found an english tour which offered a more off-the-beaten track experience with lots of cultural emphasis and contacted them. Sadly, no tours were running whilst I was there but they recommended that I go with a Chinese group instead, and I agreed. Now, I expected the Chinese tour to be the same as the english one, just in mandarin, but this was a mistaken assumption. It was more of a whip around the interesting sights with no cultural exploration facilitated, so not quite what I had wanted but still it was nice to see the different places! It also allowed me to experience chinese culture more, being in a group with only 3 other chinese people, and whilst this was interesting, I can’t say I love the culture. It involves little communication between one another and lots of stops for photos. The plus side of the whole trip was that we ate meals together and the food is designed to be shared, so I just let them order and was treated to a delicious feast of different things every meal.

In my four day trip we visited:

  1. Singuniang Mountain National Park - We got to spend a good five hours here and it was a stunning national park. In what seems to be true Chinese national park fashion, there was a shuttle bus that took you from the park gate to the highest and furthest point into the park, and then made several stops on its way back down. People mostly explored the park by getting on and off this bus, and the stops were quite crowded. However, there was an excellent path in between the stops, made up of wooden boardwalks and gravel trails along the river and crossing fields of yaks, that was completely deserted. There wasn’t time to walk the whole way back down (it was a huge national park) but I walked as much as possible and it was amazing. I even came across a hidden waterfall which towered above the valley. Mount Siguniang is 6,250m, but the highest point in the park that was accessible was low 4000s. Most of the trip around Western Sichuan was at surprisingly high altitudes, at least 3000m, so we had all been given a small tank of oxygen to use if needed, which I did find quite funny. The park was filled with red wood trees and there were several, small lakes which were so still that they reflected the surrounding valley and trees perfectly. Compared to the dry, barren scenery of Xinjiang, it was such a shock to now be in lucious green mountains. I was prepared for this, but the variation in China’s natural landscape still took me by surprise.
  2. Yala Snow Mountain National Park - Sadly, the infamous Yala Snow Mountain (5820m) was firmly covered by clouds and I didn’t catch even a small glimpse of it. But I did get to watch a small herd of yaks (which I’ve decided are my favourite animal) wash and play in a river, so still nice. The driver of our shuttle bus for this national park was Tibetan and told us that he was unable to get a passport because of this. It was interesting to hear him talk openly about this, and about his love for the Tibetan language.
  3. Moshi Park - I had no clue what this was before entering the park (it just reminded me of the childhood game Moshi Monsters), but disembarking the shuttle bus (really a feature of every park!) I was happily surprised by the scenery. This small park surrounded a geological abnormality, where moon-like grey rock cut through the green hillside, pointy and angled. There were walkways that weaved through the rock and hills, with informtation about the legends used to explain the rock formation (in summary, an army being turned to stoned). There were lots of marmots keeping an eye out for dropped snacks too, very cute.
  4. Tagong Grasslands and Monastery - The main place I wanted to visit. The beginning of the Tibetan Plateau, with scenery to match. Gone were the trees and green vegetation seen in the national parks, replaced with rolling hills of short, dull-coloured grass. Broken up with strange towns like Tagong, a mixture of modern Chinese and traditional Tibetan which, aesthetically at least, clashed terribly. But the red and gold of the monasteries made up for it, complimenting the green hills perfectly. We ate noodles and then explored the hill with stupas, then two monasteries. Familiar from my time in the Himalayas in Nepal, also filled with Tibetan Buddhism, we saw prayer wheels and five-coloured prayer flags.
  5. Mugecuo Lake - Huge high altitude lake, at 3700m. Lovely to wander around, and there was even a traditional dance show performed at one end. On the way back down, there was a little petting zoo of marmots and a jet of water that went higher if you screamed at it (no context was given).
  6. Cities of Danba, Kangding and Xinduqiao - All very strange, again due to the clash of modern Chinese (lots of flashing signs) with the Tibetan style buildings and natural valley. Kangding, the biggest city, was especially odd but fun to explore. It included a lot of loud music and dancing in the squares.

To my horror, in addition to the spots we visited, we also stopped at a photography, dress-up place. I’d seen these at all of the major sights I’d visited in China, and the idea is that you hire a traditional outfit to wear for photos. The outfits in question here were the traditional Western Sichuan, Tibetan outfits. I initially resisted getting dressed up but after this seemed to offend the guide, and he assured me that there was no charge for it, I succumbed and selected a red outfit. It was quite fun, but I didn’t really see the point in any of it. After this, it was back to Chengdu and I can’t say I was too sad to say goodbye to my Chinese tour! It has made me very keen to visit Tibet and actually experience the culture properly. Perhaps I’ll be making use of the fact that my Chinese visa is for two years for that one…