Pandamonium!

Last weekend was packed full of fun little sidetrips to some great places around Chengdu. We started with the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. Started about 2000 years ago this is the system that is still in use today to keep Chengdu's water supply right on target. The science behind it isn't too exciting but it was impressive that they were able to do it so long ago, plus the place was absolutely beautiful.

From there we went to Mt. Qingcheng, home of some of the most important temples in Taoism. Again, absolutely beautiful. It was definitely nice to get outside of the city and be in a little bit of nature, away from tons of huge buildings and breathing fresh air. There was a 2 hour hike from the bottom to the summit with various temples and great sites along the way. At the top we walked all throughout the main temple and ended up having some tea served to us from actual Taoist monks, absolutely a highlight of the day. However, the tea break was cut short because they let us know that the chair lift back down was about to close so we needed to rush. We got to the chair lift and realized that it had stopped running about an hour and a half ago, so there started our race against the sun. It was about 6:30 and the sun was already getting low, after arguing with the people who ran the chair lift to no avail we began our jog back down the mountain (this time the short way). We ended up getting back down in plenty of time and with a fun little story.

On Monday we did what most tourists come to Chengdu for - to see the pandas! Let me preface this, for some reason I really started liking pandas about a year ago (it may or may not have coincided with Kung Fu Panda coming out) so I was pretty damn excited to go see them. Chengdu and the surrounding areas is home to about 90% of the pandas left in the world, with about 120 at the Research Base here in Chengdu. We got there nice and early in the morning when they were just being let out and served breakfast. The place was huge and we walked around for a while and then I did the coolest thing of my life for about 2 minutes...

That's right, believe your eyes. I had a baby panda sitting in my lap. I have about 25 other pictures from it where you can see my face immediately light up. I couldn't get the huge grin off my face for a couple hours afterwards. It was almost as good as holding Gracie.

Lastly, we made our way to Huanglongxi (aka "Ancient Town") because apparently someone heard that we should go there. I had never heard of the place but it was definitely a good time. A very small town with some of the typical shopping you'd expect but with a lot more of a China feel to it. Again it was a beautiful place right on a river, the view is great as you cross one of the sketchiest walking bridges ever built. Some more temples were seen and I even got to peek my head inside of one of the monk's rooms. It really makes me appreciate all the unnecessary things that I have. From there we took a stroll down a small street and found the oldest man in the world, who just so happens to be a calligrapher. The accent that he and the surrounding women had was so thick that even the small amount of Chinese I've picked up on was nearly useless. After the guy through back a shot of rice wine he slowly got to work painting. He did four pieces for the four of us and all are (from what we hear) extremely good. The guy was an absolute badass and the artwork was absolutely worth my $3.

So that was my weekend. This week has been packed full of studying and a trip to the KTV for karaoke and drinking. I leave tomorrow for Chongqing, the 3rd larget city in China. It will be my first Chinese train experience of the summer and should be quite interesting.

Something I Forgot and the Nightlife

I forgot to mention in the last post that I also went to the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum. I was hoping for something like MOSI and got something like a collection of 9th grade science projects. The newest thing in there was from about 1992 and about half of the exhibits were shut down. We ended up having a blast inside though just making fun of how terrible the museum was - absolutely worth my $2 US.

Next, I really need to mention the nightlife in Chengdu. The bar scene I've only scraped the surface of here but I have become an absolute club rat in the last 2 weeks. Let me give you the rundown of what its like...
You walk in and it has the look, sound and feel of any old regular club back in the states. However, they have performances on stages here to keep people entertained. So far I've seen a couple of locally famous singers and some pretty good breakdance moves. I found out that they think breakdancing is an American thing to do - like playing baseball or eating apple pie. Also, they don't just go up to the bar and order a drink, sip on it, etc. The usual consists of a handle of Chivas or Jack Daniels and about 8 bottles of tea. Mix them in a big glass they give you and take shot after shot for a couple of hours. I've realized that the Chinese make them very, very weak. I've realized this because the Chinese love to take shots with Westerners and give them free booze. In fact, we're off to a place tonight that is offering me and 20 other international students from SWUFE (where I'm studying) a couple of free bottles tonight because having Westerners in the bar raises the status of the club. It really is that ridiculous.

Aside from the clubs we found an awesome Spanish bar run by a guy from Barcelona. Plus, the owner's brother is a travel agent so we'll be getting very familiar with these guys. And my proudest moment came when me and Darrel (another UF student here) found a restaurant in some back alleyway to drink at. That was the best so far. Not any other Meigguo ren (American) in sight. Plus, the kids that were there couldn't stop looking at me because I was white. A 4 year old little boy even said "hello" to me and it was easily the most adorable thing ever. I of course replied with my newly learned "nihao".

Sights So Far

Although nobody has seem to have ever heard of Chengdu (myself included until about a year ago) there really are some great things to do here. First and foremost, the most publicized highlight of any Chengdu trip is the pandas. Chengdu is the home to the most pandas in the world. I'll get back to this in about a week as I'm making my trip to the research base in just a few short days. Next comes the Sichuan Opera - yet another Chengdu must-do that I haven't gotten to yet. That one's going to be going on Sunday night.

What I have actually done here is the following. I visited the Green Ram Temple which is only about a 5 minute cab away, home to about 20 Taoist monks. Parts of the temple itself date back up to 1300 years ago. Next was a trip to the highly commercialized "authentic" Jinli St. Going back about 1200 years, this street used to serve as a social street with many restaurants and shops. Now its awesome restored ancient architecture is ruined by the placement of a Starbucks inside. It is literally the first establishment on the street and nothing else could crush the culture of this place more. However it wasn't all bad. The way it looks is ridiculously badass and I did have my ears cleaned by a top notch pro. I never knew how much wax I had back in there. Afterwards I could feel wind blowing on the inside of my ear, it was a cool experience for sure.

We've also had the opportunity to make it to a couple of open air markets of two very different varieties. First, one with little trinkets, souvenirs and unauthentic paintings. The second, and absolutely more interesting, was the food market. My god it was awesome. Their fruits and veggies look way more vibrant and fresh than anything that Publix tends to carry but more importantly their meat selection far surpasses Whole Foods and even Fresh Market. Pig faces, live frogs, a bucket full of eels, cow brain, an even bigger bucket full of chicken feet, and endless amounts of meat just sitting out with flies all over it.

The last two places we've been to so far are Dufu's Thatched Cottage and the Jinsha Relics Site Museum. Dufu was apparently a very famous old poet in China who spent four years in Chengdu writing some of his most famous work. They set aside an entire park in his name (which really is ridiculous considering all around it is skyscrapers) built around the cottage he built here in 760 AD. The Jinsha Site Museum is a place that is about 3 blocks from my dorm, however, we decided to hop the bus downtown to go to the place because we are all severely retarded. After going the wrong way for about half an hour we caught a $3 cab all the way back a little past our dorm and to the museum. Long story short, some old shit is housed here. This place holds the logo that is synonymous with Chengdu (check out the pictures in the link below). The picture shows the model version that is good for pictures. The real one is made of gold leaf and is about 4 inches in circumference and extremely unimpressive. Otherwise there was some pretty cool stuff there including a gold mask that I wish I was wearing right now.

Check out some of the sights of Chengdu!

More Adjusting

3. The air. The sky is grey all the time. And not in the "uh-oh looks like a storm's coming" kind of way. After one week here, I have only seen the sun 3 times and it was for about 10 minutes each time. It just turns from light to dark outside but its never bright. It really is difficult to imagine until you have been here. The most I have seen of the sun so far is this...

On top of this, there is a distinct smell of China that lingers everywhere you go. Imagine walking into a Chinese restaurant that hasn't been cleaned in about 6 years - that's the whole city.

4. I don't understand shit. Although I have become very good at pointing and signaling things with my hands and using body language.

I realize that some of this stuff might sound bad, but in all honesty I love China. It's amazing here and I couldn't be happier. Everybody that I've met has been overly nice and very accomodating. All the Chinese do their best to help you out and realize that we might not necessarily want to eat a fish face (even though I was served a chicken foot and cow's stomach last night). All in all, I love Chengdu.

Adjusting to Chengdu

It's now been 4 days in Chengdu and I'm starting to adjust slightly. I didn't expect it, but there's not exactly a ton of adjusting to do. Going in I absolutely had the wrong idea about what China is. That being said, here's a rundown of how Chengdu and Gainesville differ.

1. This city is seriously massive. I don't think I had a grasp on how large the number 9.75 million was until now. Downtown (as seen below) is a total jumble of skyscrapers that you just get lost in, and they don't stop. I'm about a 10 minute drive from downtown and still all I can see when I walk out is huge buildings. Absolutely gigantic.

2. Food. They eat Chinese food all the time here, no joke. But the thing is, about 95% of the food I've had has been great. I've realized that the more normal the food looks, the crazier and worse it actually is. So now if it looks weird, slimy, or totally unidentifiable I pretty much go for it and end up with a smile on my face. As an fyi - yes I've eaten meat and yes I like it; the beef is delicious. There's a ton of places to go grab food and its all cheap as hell. A typical dinner costs me about 90 cents. Nothing fancy: just go in, sit down, point at characters and say "ji ge" (translation: that).  Of course, sometimes you get some crap. My roommate brought me back some grub, this is what it looked like...

To be continued, gotta go to class!

I Have Arrived, Swine Flu Hasn't

After a 3 hour flight to Newark, a 14.5 hour flight to Shanghai, and another 3 hour flight to Chengdu, I have finally arrived here in Chengdu.

The flights as a whole were not terribly bad for me. I am the exact opposite of most people on planes in the fact that I simply can't stay awake on them. I spent 13 of my total 20 hours in the air asleep which put me in perfect condition for my arrival. However, I didn't quite realize the process that getting into China was. And despite most people's first thought, it wasn't because the officials were going through my luggage and triple checking my visa (that part of it was actually very quick and easier than it is to get back into the US). But no, our hold up was because of swine flu. Apparently China is very serious about not letting this one seep into its borders. So in order to make sure that no contaminated man, woman or child came in they implemented these people...

Someone in my program really explained it best when he compared the experience to E.T. when the cops show up to quarantine him. Dressed from head to toe in spotless white gowns with the surgical mask and goggles, they really went all out for this one. And if this wasn't enough, they used some futuristic space age equipment on us to see if we were contaminated. The machine looked a lot like a speed gun with 4 red lights shining out from it making a diamond pattern. They quickly made their rounds asking everybody to pull their hair up and close their eyes as they somehow took your temperature by pointing this thing at your forehead (in case you were wondering I'm a cool 33.7 degrees Celsius).

After all of this we were finally able to go into China. So after 20 total hours in the air flying over the north pole, 27 hours of total travel time including a layover in Shanghai where we miraculously found our gate, I am now one of the 1.3 billion people in China.