Big Trouble in little china~Chengdu

After Xi'an I flew down to Chengdu (due to time constraints, there was a lot of flying~next time I'll take the train). After finding the hostel, no problem thanks to a smack in the head from a bus driver, I met up with a few people I met in Xi'an. They took the train, and had a snaffoo that an extremely kind couple was willing to help them out with, which was lucky for us. They, being Chinese, were able to get us all to a really awesome hot pot restaurant and order for us. The food in Sichuan is spicy (foods from different provinces in China are all different) but delightfully so. Here, they boil a type of soup at your table, where you boil your meat or vegetables (Think SHabu-Shabu style) in the broth, and then dip them into a peanut sauce. You never actually drink the soup, its just a broth the cook the vegetables in. This was my favorite meal in China, it was so flavorful and delicious! It was also nice chatting with people, and talking to Chinese people about traveling their country. That night was Halloween, which goes without explanation. Yummmm

The next day I woke up early to go to the Panda Sanctuary~China's largest. We went early because apparently pandas only like being awake for 15 minutes a day so we had to make sure we were there for it. Nothing was really labeled so it was just a zoo with red pandas and regular pandas, including the cutest baby pandas ever, until you got to the movie that explained how pandas reproduce and it is ridiculous. They need help, can't do it themselves because they don't want to. Then the baby is born and they slap at it. They deserve to be extinct. After that we went through the creepiest museum ever which was just a bunch of stuffed animals in behind glass. Since this was a tour through a hostel I hung out with a lot of people and made a few friends, which would prove to be useful the following day.

Cute Panda Bearsss

After the bear sanctuary we walked around the city, seeing as Chengdu isn't a place you spend a lot of time in, so we tried to get everything done, which proved to be easy. We saw the largest Mao statue in China, and another Temple, the Wenshu Temple. THis one was also nice and quiet, a cool retreat from a bustling city (Chengdu is china's 5th largest). It was also a huge complex which was nice to walk around.
The garden in Wenshu


After walking around, it was dinner time, where we thankfully ran into some more people from the hostel who spoke Chinese. We went to a restaurant where we (and by we, I mean they) asked for recommendations and we ate a variety of foods, including Peking duck and beef stomach, but they were all delicious, although some were extremely spicy.

The next day was one I was really looking forward to. Angel, a Chilean boy I met in a hostel and I decided to go to Leshan, which is known for being home of the world's largest Buddha. We went down to the bus station, which was a cluster fuck, to get into a van with some Chinese people until to van stopped on the side of the street 10km from where we wanted to be. Some chinese guy started yelling at us to get into a cab, and against our better judgement we jumped in, as we had no other way to get where we wanted to be. A 15minute taxi ride and we were at the entrance to the park. We walked around, admiring the Buddha's before climbing a mountain to get to what we were there for. After turning a corner you see a head.


Not just any head, but a head 10 times the size of you, which is just ridiculous to see. You slowly climb down a set of stairs that wrap down the cliff that the Buddah is built into until you get to the bottom and can do nothing else but look up and wonder how people hundreds of years ago were able to do it.
Theres me just as a frame of reference

That night was my last night with friends, so we made it count, which is something I would pay for greatly on my flight to beijing the next day.

Chengdu:a city worth visiting, but no place I'd like to go back to. That being said, I met a lot of people and did have a great time. I stayed in an interesting, although at the end of the day a decent hostel. Recommended: The Mix Hostel, Chendu. Althought the bathroom situation was a little sketchy at best, all in all a fun place to be.

Patience, Faith, and lots of chile peppers,
ErinJ and co.