The week after University finished I took my vacation time and went to a province south of 西 安(Xi'an) - 四川 (Sichuan). 四川 is known for it's hot weather, spicy foods, big cities, mountains, and pandas.
I went with my friend Simone. She sat behind me at University. She's from Germany and definitely on my list of the top people I've met here. I was glad to have a travel partner. And no I didn't speak German with her. When I started learning Chinese my German completely left me.
We started our trip and ended our trip in 成都 (Chengdu) - the capital of 四川. Embarrassingly, this was my first time traveling on the train. I should have been doing this more because it's cheap and surprisingly comfortable. We got on the train around 9pm and by 11am the next day we were there and rested. We stayed on a hard bed. There are 3 beds on each side. I think the top or middle is my favorite. On the way back the bottom was pretty uncomfortable in the morning when everyone was waking up.
At first I liked 成都 more than 西安. It's greener, less crowded (in the area of our hostel), the people seemed more friendly, easier to get around, cleaner, etc. The traffic is REALLY bad. There are some areas that for some reason are fairly quiet and then in other areas it's bumper to bumper and barely moving. The buses are new and all air conditioned which was a huge change from 西安. But there are a lot of people on the buses - just like 西安. It's really humid in 四川. We were lucky to get some cloudy days.
There are beautiful parks in 成都。
They feel less artificial then most Chinese parks. At least they're not shy about their artificial lake.
There are many things to do in the parks. Drink tea at a tea house, dance, watch people dance, watch the boats on the artificial lake, date, and get your ears cleaned.
All of these pieces of paper have information about a single person - male and female. Their stats include hobbies, income, phone numbers, height, and the year they were born.
There are lots of men walking around ready to clean your years. I was surprised by how many people had dirty ears. I was not one of those people - I can clean them myself.
Hot pot originated in 四川 so we decided to try it on our first night. I suppose it was a bit more spicy but otherwise it was the same as what we eat in 西安. Hot pot is good but a lot of work digging around for your food - especially if you're hungry. It's not my favorite.
We only found the Chinese bar street where beers were expensive and Chinese people wanted to drink with us - bad idea. Luckily we turned down all requests for company except when the monkey man stopped by the table. Actually, I did turn him down but he still put the monkey in my lap.
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