Chengdu

The eight hour bus ride from Kangding to Chengdu was the easiest of the three all-day bus rides between Zhongdian and Chengdu. It was entirely on quality paved roads. In fact, the afternoon’s segment was actually on a real, honest-to-gosh freeway!

Upon arrival in Chengdu, I met a couple Canadian guys. Together, we were Matt, Mike, and Mark. We set out in search of hot pot for dinner. Chengdu is famous for hot pot. They put a vat of boiling broth/oil on your table and you dip skewers of raw vegetables and meat in until they cook, like fondue. But it took us two hours of wandering around before we finally found a place, and then they didn't even let us cook the stuff ourselves, but served us a vat full of assorted fish heads, chicken parts, and vegetables, already cooked, which we were to fish out with chopsticks.

This morning my new friends and I met bright and early at 7:30 to catch a cab to the Panda Breeding Center. There we saw dozens of adorable panda bears, adults and cubs, feasting on bamboo leaves. They also had more frisky and raccoon-like, but equally adorable, red pandas. For $50 you can hold and cuddle with a panda cub. For $150 you can hold and cuddle with the panda cub who is the official mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (!).

Chengdu is a big change from the places I've been for the last month. A modern metropolis of 10 million people, it's the largest city I've been in so far (it's the 4th largest city in China, and one of the largest inland cities in the world!). I'd gotten so used to the clear skies, crisp (even downright cold) weather, and beautiful high mountain scenery of the Himalayas that warm, humid Chengdu is quite a change.

I'd also spent the last month in predominantly minority areas, so it's a big change to suddenly be surrounded by mostly Han Chinese again. The city is modern in its outlook, architecture, and style.

Traffic is busy, about half of it on cycles and half in cars. It's orderly, though. Every intersection has traffic cops and ladies with flags directing traffic. There are barrier-separated lanes for cycle traffic. Many of the motorized cycles are electric, so they pollute less, but they also can sneak up on you without warning.

First Starbucks I've seen since Hong Kong. Actually, there are several Starbucks here. And they charge the exact same prices they do in the United States...$4 for a frappucino! I shouldn't have, but they had a "green tea frappucino" and I was weak.

Spending $4 for a drink in China wasn't the only foolish thing I did. I went to the train station intending to purchase a ticket to the city of Lanzhou, 22 hours to the north. Instead, I accidentally purchased a ticket to Liuzhou, 30 hours to the south. It was my fault; I’d messed up the pronunciation. Fortunately I was able to exchange the ticket for a 20% fee.

There aren't many American movies playing here, and those that are seem to be B- or C-grade movies that were released in America 2 or 3 years ago. Even India is more on top of the latest releases than China.

Chengdu, like many Chinese cities, seems to organize its shopping districts by categories. Thus, in my wanderings I have discovered whole "districts" devoted to very specific products, such as maps, surveying equipment, metal rods, and sporting goods. On the other hand there are certain types of stores which can be found everywhere, like fruit stores and hair salons. The propensity of hair salons is somewhat astonishing. Not just in Chengdu, but in every Chinese city I've visited. In fact, it's even more astonishing in the small towns, where the ratio of hair salons to residents must be even higher.

Last night I went to the MGM, a nightclub with lots of neon lights. It was the first nightclub I’d been to in China. I got in without a cover. I seemed to be the only non-Chinese person on the premises that night, but that didn't seem to be a problem. I found a group of girls to dance with. We didn’t speak each others’ language, but you don’t need language to dance. I was struck by how little difference there seemed to be between this scene and its counterpart in an American nightclub. Social mores here in the throbbing pulse of urban Chinese youth culture are a world different than those of recent generations. These teenagers twenty-somethings were all drinking and smoking, girls and boys alike, dancing to electronica and hip hop.

I walked around a lot. Sometimes I took the bus. Some of the buses are very modern and have high definition TVs. One such TV was playing what is clearly the Chinese version of "American Idol" and I did a double-take because they mimicked the original perfectly. The panel of judges even physically resemble Paula, Randy, and Simon.