Half Day in Chengdu

The tale of my Sichuan travels is written as a continuous story and starts on the entry "In Chengdu" on Nov. 5th, 2008. For context and continuity, feel free to start back at that point and read on forward first if you have not already done so.

However, first we had half a day still in Chengdu:



Off the bus, we went across the bridge to the bus station, where we bought ourselves three 8am bus tickets to Jiuzhaigou. Looking at the map,



we sketched our route out roughly - basically, we planned to ride up to Jiuzhaigou (way up North), and then meander our way down slowly by whatever means we felt like - bus, taxi, "bread van", horse, foot, hitchhiking, etc.

Our Master Plan now set, we Three Musketeers took a bus back and walked home, where we were greeted by this cute but over-hyper little miscreant:



After dropping off our stuff, we decided to head over to Jin Li Street(锦里古街), a part of Old Chengdu behind Wuhou Ci (武候祠), dedicated to Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) of the Three Kingdoms, one of the most storied periods of Chinese history.







Many of the names of restaurants on the street have to do with stories from the Three Kingdoms Era, such as these:




A bunch of tasty snacks could be found inside. Here is one that sold a bunch of chuanr (meats on a stick):

Other tasty snacks:



There were also games you can play, such as this one with crossbows, which is fitting as the Shu-Han Kingdom, based in the Sichuan area during the Three Kingdoms period, was known for their crossbow archery:



After walking around Jin Li Street and eating dinner, we went back home and battled Larry in a couple tenacious rounds of army chess. It was already late when we finished and decided to retire for the night.

"Let's forget swimming," Baba said.
"That's fine, you guys can sleep in, but I'm still going to do my daily swim," Larry replied.
"Works for us."

I slept well, but not long, as their small dog woke me up by yelping all morning. Soon enough, he burrowed into my room somehow and charged on forward. Afraid of another attack (perhaps he was planning to hump my face), I got up quickly but grumpily and started packing for the trip. Larry and Baba were already up, though not early enough for swimming. They were also busy packing away.

We had planned to be out for 3-4 days, so we shouldn't be needing too much, but nevertheless I decided to bring my pack just in case. After taking out half the items (unnecessary things for Sichuan, just items to bring back to Shanghai/US), it was already 7:20 - I was running a bit late. Larry hollered to finish up. I hastily did so, and ran to the restroom for a quick 2 minute shower. Larry and Baba were just out the door when I finished, and I quickily followed. It was 7:35.

The local buses will not make it to the bus station on time, so we tried to flag down a taxi. None were in sight yet, but we had yet to reach the intersection. Larry was growing concerned. We sped up our step slightly. When we were about 100 meters from the intersection, a taxi flew by. Larry bellowed at him from afar, but the taxi seemed to continue on... but then slowed... the driver was looking around... unsure still of his senses, until he spotted us running towards him. We got in quickly. "To the long-distance bus station!" Larry cried. The driver complied. "Will we make it?" Baba asked. It was close to 7:40...