Chengdu Round 2 (August 1-3)

This felt like a more successful trip to Chengdu, not sure if it was due to being in a better hostel and meeting people or if it was that I did more while there, either way, this time around was more enjoyable then the first.

After the enjoyable 10 hour bus ride back from Jiuzhaigou, I was wrecked and ready for bed, but had to decide my plan of attack for the next week, was I going to Guilin a day early, or was I sticking to the original plan, but in the end I didn’t decide anything and went to dinner with the Belgian I met on the train from Xi’an to Chengdu earlier in the week. We decided to try out one of Sichuan’s famous hot pots. We had no idea what to order, what anything was (due to the Chinese menu) or even how a hot pot worked. So we pointed and hoped for the best. A hot pot is kind of like a Mongolian BBQ in a way, except you don’t have a grill to cook your food on, you have a hotpot, which is chillies, spices, oils in a broth like liquid that heats up and you cook your meat or vegetables in it. The results of our point and order method turned out rather well; potatoes, mushrooms, some vegetable that was delicious although to this day I still am not sure what it was, some tender beef pieces and a mountain of beef that was sliced like bacon, and the broth/cooking liquid we had was spicy, but extremely tasty! By the end of the dinner we were masters at cooking the meat to perfection and left with a state of accomplishment, and a full belly.

7am start the next day and another two and a half hour bus ride (too many buses in the space of 5 days!) to the town of Emei. Mount Emei Shan is a large area that is home to monasteries, monkeys and some amazing scenery. It is also home to one of the highest, if not the highest monastery located on a mountain top at over 3000m high.  My original plan was to get here, and embark on a hike that would take over 6 hours (a combination of hiking and chairlifts) and this was the reason for my early start. Some bad news greeted me when I brought my ticket, a couple had just come from the top and they said it wasn’t worth it as the cloud was so thick up there that they couldn’t see three meters in front of them, so change of plans. I grabbed a map and decided to opt for a different, lower route that included a few temples, monasteries and the largest eco monkey zone in the area.

So I hiked, climbed, walked and at times ran around the area for around five hours, which seems like a long time, but in those five hours I only managed to see about 20% (if that) of the park. It is impossible to see the whole park in a day and now when I look back at it; I wish I stayed in one of the monasteries on the mountain so I could’ve explored more of the mountain and made it to the top for sunrise, which is supposed to be breath taking.

The highlight of the day was definitely the monkeys. They are so cheeky and clever, and not one bit scared of humans. On the footpaths through the monkey zone there were people with bamboo poles to hit them away, and there was even a few old men with slingshots to shoot them with, sounds a bit cruel but they were definitely a necessity.

At first I was looking at the monkeys in awe and snapped away taking pictures of the cute little creatures, but within three minutes I saw why the guards of the tourists were there. When I read in Lonely Planet, they advise not to have any food visible as they will try to steal it from you, I thought this was a bit of overkill, but no they weren’t lying. A man next to me had a milk smoothie bottle in the side of his bag, and the biggest monkey I saw there chased him down, snatched the bottle straight from his bag and climbed onto a rock, opened the bottle and drank it like a human. And there were more instances like this too, several people losing their water bottles, a lady getting her sandwich stolen right from her hands and even one guy losing the sunscreen from the side of his bag. They were terrors. All their thieving ways aside though, they were still very cute and I got some amazing shots of them too.

So I arrived back to the hostel 13 hours after leaving, so I was wrecked. I caught up with a Brazilian and Australian that I met the previous day, had a few drinks and was in bed nice and early, ready for a serious sleep in, something I hadn’t had for weeks!

I woke the next day to pouring rain, which couldn’t of been more perfect! So the day was spent in bed, lazing around watching Kill Bill 1 & 2 and finally sorting myself out and booking myself a way to get to my next stop, Guilin.

Incense out the from of a temple at Mount Emei Shan 

Candles at Mount Emei Shan 

Mount Emei Shan

Turtles at Mount Emei Shan

Turtles at Mount Emei Shan

Mount Emei Shan

Mount Emei Shan

Moss covered statue at Mount Emei Shan 

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan 

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan

Monkey at Mount Emei Shan

Monkey on someones head at Mount Emei Shan

Eating some corn

One of the many paths at Mount Emei Shan

Mount Emei Shan

Chengdu Round 1

A 16-hour train from Xi’an to Chengdu was not something I was looking forward to. And to rub salt into the wounds, I had no luck getting a cab to the train station so I had to walk for about 30-40 minutes with my heavy packs on in 30+ weather. By the time I arrived at the station, I was wet with sweat, frustrated and to make matters worse, I couldn’t find where my train was leaving from.

But of course it all worked out and I found my train, located my bed and got settled in for the long journey that was sure to be unpleasant.

To my surprise the journey actually wasn’t that bad. I was lucky enough to have probably the only other English speaking person on the carriage, possibly the train, in the bunk below mine. So the first 4 hours was ok, we just chatted and laughed at the Chinese and their weird and wonderful ways, tried the Chinese version of two-minute noodles and pissed of the lady across from us cause we were talking and laughing. So really it was a painless train trip thank god!

Chengdu is China’s fourth largest city and I didn’t know this before I got there. I was hoping for a bit of a smaller, slower town then Beijing and Xi’an, but I was wrong. It was just like the others, busy, smoggy and mental. So I checked in and literally chilled out that afternoon and night and organised the next parts of my adventure as I didn’t want to be stuck here an extra day like I was in Xi’an.

As the city seemed like the others, I wanted to make sure I had something planned for the next day as wandering around the city didn’t really interest me as there didn’t seem to be much here, so I booked myself on an outing to the Panda Breeding Centre.

The Panda zoo I will call it was pretty damn cool. Although it was absolutely bucketing down rain, it was still a fun day out. The zoo focuses purely on breeding pandas as from what I learnt, this is not an easy task. So there were enclosures containing pandas of all ages, from the nursery to teen pandas and then the big old ones. Even though the rain kept a lot of the pandas inside which made snapping photos difficult due to the thousand Asian flashes bouncing off the glass, a few of the furry fellas were outside in the rain which meant I got at least a few good pics.

That afternoon was spent booking the rest of my china trip so I got everything in that I wanted to as I already have had to leave off a few places as time just wouldn’t allow it, and organising my 10-hour bus to Jiuzhaigou, one place I was not going to miss.

I will be back to Chengdu again as this is the only place the bus leaves to go to Jiuzhaigou, so I will plan some more adventures then and avoid the smoggy city.

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Pandas at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base