While most of the other tour participants went to see the Panda Sanctuary in Chengdu, I decided to give that attraction a skip and just walk around downtown Chengdu instead. A late sleep in since it was a free day and more needed journal updating in the morning making this free day quite a productive one.
By the time I left it was nearly lunch time, and I took a walk to the nearby Jinli Ancient Street tourist attraction. Lots of food and decked out for photos and tourist trinkets, I did not feel it was the right spot to take a lunch break so after a walk around just observing more tourist from different part of China doing touristy things, I took a bus a few blocks away to the people’s park.
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| Jinli Ancient Street - Chengdu |
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| Jinli Ancient Street - Chengdu |
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| Jinli Ancient Street - Chengdu |
My instinct usually works when finding unique food in a new place and I somehow found the local lunch place which was packed with people and runs very old school ushering customers and pushing out orders as fast as they could so they could sell more meals within the limited lunch break.
I got a nice local Pork Trotter which was herbal instead of spicy. I never did expect that since I was in Chengdu and in Sichuan province where everything was perceived to be spicy but then here, I am enjoying a local intangible cuisine that is not spicy.
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| Lunch in Chengdu |
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| Local Pork Trotter Lunch |
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| Local Chengdu Restaurant where I ate |
After lunch it was a walk in the park, and I kept an eye out for the marriage section of the park where there was hundreds of bulletins post for eligible male and female looking for a life partner.
The people’s park turns out to be a nice escape from the bustling and modern city of Chengdu. A lovely place to take a stroll just watching the locals past time drinking tea in expensive tea house enjoying music and opera or even a nice little ear cleaning routine.
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| Chengdu Central Park |
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| Locals Enjoying Tea at Chengdu Park |
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| The famous Marriage Market in Chengdu |
From the park, I took a walk to the center of Chengdu not knowing what I would find but was surprised to see a wide-open space surrounded by futuristic museums and a statue of Chairman Mao. The contrast in every other block in Chengdu downtown is striking, and I had barely left the first inner ring.
Continuing the stroll, I ended up in the touristic shopping pedestrian street and while I just walk around observing the people, somehow out of all the modern and big international brands, I spotted the small little shop selling pancakes Chengdu Style. Intangible Cultural Heritage Pancakes. Join the queue and more food was always good.
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| Downtown Chengdu |
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| Downtown Chengdu |
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| Downtown Chengdu |
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| Intangible Cultural Heritage - Chengdu Pork Bun |
The last stop was Anshun Bridge which supposedly a scenic bridge to take picture, but I guess we had seen quite a few of those going through China making the Bridge just another one in China. After that I ran out of time and headed to the meeting spot for dinner with the whole crew.
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| Anshun Bridge |
I have not met Bing for more than a year, and he had not changed a bit. It was my first time meeting Merry who supported us always via email and group chats and for once it was a rare gathering of almost all the tour participant for a meal. Only Ugo opted not to join as he was not feeling too well.
I kept joking around mostly but had some good catch up with Bing. I wanted a job so bad with his crew. Hire me please, no money involve is necessary, only petrol food and lodgings is all I asked but it has to be legal, a work permit so none of us get into trouble.
Bing reply was I needed to find a nice China girl to marry first so he can hire me. Work permits in China for foreigners are tough to get apparently.
Travelled on: Oct 2024
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