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...

Father Chiang Tells His Tale

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.

We picked up my father (who I call Baba) a few minutes later, hopped on a 10 RMB bus back to the city, and it was just like old times.







"So how did you end up making it in today? I thought you said you might have to take a flight tomorrow," I asked in Chinese.
"Things ended up working out," Baba responded, also in Chinese. By the way, how much did you ride from Gulangyu to the airport for?"
"You mean the dock across from Gulanyu, right?"
"Yes, obviously - Gulangyu is an island."
"100 RMB... but that was a special price."
"Ha! I paid 1 RMB... I could ride to or from the airport 100 times for your price!"
"Like I said, I paid a special price... anyways, what happened on your trip?"
"It was somewhat eventful... and even people trying to set up traps along the way..."
"Like at Shaoxing??" Larry joked.
"Haha, like at Shaoxing, but we evaded all those traps, just like I did at Xiamen."
"Well what happened?" I inquired again.
"So I took a plane from Taipei to Jinmen, and then arrived in Xiamen via boat around 3:30pm."
"Just as planned, right?" I asked.
"Yes. But once I got to Xiamen, I was greeted with hoards of travel agents all looking for business. One of them offered me a day trip for 80 RMB. I told them I don't have a full day anymore, but then they argued I could do the afternoon part first and the morning part the next day."
"But the tour group has already left," Larry interrupted.
"Yes, so they said that I can get a personal guide and a private car for 200 RMB.
"200 RMB??"
"Yes, that was my reaction too - so they agreed to drop to 120 RMB."
"Okay..."
"I agreed and so they sent me to Gulangyu where I had booked the hotel. Once there, a guide met us, a Ms. Zhang (张大姐). She introduced her business with, 'So on Gulangyu Island we have three tours, Program A, B, and C. Program A is 200 RMB, and shows you all the different sightseeing spots. Program B has everything except X, Y, and Z, and is priced at 150, while C is just 90 but only has A, B, and C. Which one do you want?'
'Well, I had already paid 120 RMB just to get here. I don't understand why the tours were not included. I have no intention of paying anything more!'
Ms. Zhang replied, 'Well the tours cover the cost of the entrance fees, which are outside the cost of the tour guide and transportation.'
So I told her, 'I would rather walk around the island for free and not pay any entrance fees at all!'
'But you can't do that! Come on, we won't have any money to buy food to eat...'
'What do you mean, I'm already paying 120...'
'We don't get paid by the travel agency. We are independent tour guides that get a cut from the entrance fees. If you don't go see the exhibits, we'll starve!'
'But why is that any of my business...?'
'Come on... have a heart... I know what we can do! Why don't we come up with a new program just for you. We'll show you around Xiamen University and Nanputou Temple, and tomorrow we'll see Gulangyu. All for 100 RMB.'
So I agreed and paid out another 100 RMB. Ms. Zhang took the money and ran, leaving me with a newly minted tour guide girl, fresh out of college, a Miss Zhuang (庄小姐)."
"Ah, so that's where the trap is laid!" exclaimed Larry.
"Haha, yes. Anyways, we went to Xiamen University first. While touring around I asked her how big Xiamen University was. She said there were 300,000 students! I didn't believe her for a second. The biggest university I know of doesn't have half that many!"
"Doesn't Ohio State have 100,000?" I checked.
"Maybe, and that's the biggest university I know of. Anyways, she went on to explain there were 2 campuses, with 150,000 each. Yeah right! 隨便說說﹐隨便聽聽."
"Uh huh."
"She also said that the campus is bigger than Gulangyu, which I doubted, but wasn't going to bother challenging her on that one. Anyhow, after going there and Nanputou Temple, we went back to Gulangyu where I dropped off my things and we went to dinner. I asked her where to go, and she recommended a very expensive seafood restaurant on the island."
"You treated her?" Larry asked.
"Of course."
"So she took advantage of you using her position as your tour guide!"
"Yeah but what can you do... anyhow, after dinner I went back to the hostel and tried to buy a ticket for tomorrow. Unfortunately, it wouldn't take my credit card."
"It doesn't take international credit cards for flights within 24 hours of purchase," I pointed out.
"Actually it must be something else, as I'll explain later. Anyways, after that, I called up Miss Zhuang and she said there's a place across the street from the travel agency that sells airplane tickets. So she drove back over and picked me up, but when we got there, we found the place was closed."
"Bad luck. You guys probably should've tried before going to dinner and touring around."
"Well I just didn't know any better before I tried going online. Anyhow, from there, I walked around Zhongshan Rd, the main pedestrian road in Xiamen. It was busy with lots of people, but the strange thing was that there was no activity. No one was buying anything; people were just walking around, resting, looking around. It's not like Ximending in Taipei. They just don't have enough street vendors with cheap but tasty foods to grab people's attention. So after Zhongshan Rd, I took the boat back to Xiamen, called you up, and when you explained how international credit cards can't be used for flights within 24 hours, I tried to book for the next day instead. However, that didn't work either, and I checked on a couple different sites."
"Really?"
"Yeah, so I called up Miss Zhuang late at night..."
"Is this the start of an affair?" jabbed Larry.
"No, I just told her that instead of touring Gulangyu tomorrow morning, we're going to go to the ticket office across the street from the travel agency.
"So you ended up not being able to see Gulangyu at all?"
"Well I ended up walking around the island by myself at night, though of course I didn't go to any of the exhibits with entrance fees."
"So you missed out the on the piano museums and everything?"
"Yeah it is nicknamed 'Piano Island'," Larry pointed out.
"Right, so anyhow, around 8am the next day, we went to the office. Prices have gone up from what they were online, but I had no choice, and ended up buying a ticket for the 11:45am flight. I finished at about 8:30am, and had plenty of time, but was really confused on how much time it takes to get to the airport. The front desk at the hostel had said it only takes 20 minutes, while the travel agency mentioned 20-45 minutes. But then I asked the bus driver, and he said anywhere from 1-2 hours! Finally I asked the airline booking office, and they said it takes at least an hour, but perhaps 90 minutes if the traffic is bad."
"It only takes 20 minutes - at least that's what it took me when I took it via taxi," I said.
"Well by bus it ended up taking a whole hour, though of course I only paid 1 RMB while you paid 100."
"Indeed..."
"Anyhow, I left my luggage at Gulangyu since I had not planned to go straight to the airport, and was hoping to tour Gulangyu at least a little, but there just wasn't time. So I went back to the island to get my luggage, and bought two tickets, one for myself and one for Miss Zhuang. However, pocketing the ticket, Miss Zhuang said she wasn't going back to Gulangyu right away, as she has another tour group to direct.
"She sure knows how to take advantage!" Larry exclaimed.
"Yeah, and not just her too. Actually, after I bought my plane ticket, I went to the travel agency and asked if I could get a refund or partial refund of my 100 RMB, since I didn't tour Gulangyu. The travel agency said no. It seems I got cheated out of 220 RMB.
"Even though I paid 100 RMB for the airport ride, at least I didn't throw money away on the Gulangyu tour!" I noted.
"So after I got my luggage, I got on the 1 RMB bus which surprisingly took a whole hour, thereby getting to the airport at 10am. With nothing to do, I waited around until 11:45am, and then came into Chengdu a couple hours later."
"I see."
"So what are we going to do now?"
"I think we're planning to go to Jiuzhaigou tomorrow, so we're going to go buy some bus tickets to ride up there in the morning," Larry said.
"How long does it take?"
"It's hard to say with the earthquake and everything, but it used to be if you left around 8am, you cold get there by 3-4pm. However, it could be longer now due to all the restoration work that needs to be done on the roads."
"Wow, that's a long ride! What's after Jiuzhaigou?"
"We'll slowly visit the other places of interest on the way, maybe hitchhiking or negotiating a price with a driver or something."
"Sounds like a plan."

And so, with that rough outline of a plan in mind, we were off on our glorious journey.

In Chengdu

Yesterday afternoon, I hopped on a plane (only 260 RMB ticket + 200 RMB tax & fuel surcharge!) from Guangzhou to Chengdu, and arrived in the early evening. It was a bit cooler in Chengdu compared to Guangzhou (about 23 degrees Celsius), but still comfortable enough for me in shorts and a t-shirt despite the fact everyone else was already in long sleeves. My old friend Larry Wang had told me to take Bus 303 and get off at the First Ring Rd. (一環路) bus stop. I did that, but due to the size of my pack, I had trouble seeing as I came down the steps, and so I misstepped and literally fell out of the bus, though landed on my feet.

As the bus drove off and I dusted myself off, Larry, in his bicycle helmet, shorts, and bright orange workman's safety vest, surprised me from behind with a loud greeting, "Aye! Jerry!" I turned and greet him heartily. He seemed the same, his endearingly youthful heart was not a shade over 12 years old. Larry brought his bike with him, but said he didn't bring a second bike with him. He asked if I preferred to bike or to take the bus; since I did not know the way and was wearing my pack, I opted to take the bus while he biked. We parted and arrived at our destination at the same time.

As we approached his house, Larry, in typical spontaneous fashion, let out a resonating belly-laugh, "HA, HA, HA, HA!" to announce his arrival. His apartment on the 5th floor, which also has roof access, much like his sister's place which we stayed at in 2004 during CET's Spring Break. It was a cozy place, with a small but energetic fox-like dog, which kept yelping and grabbing at me with its paws, trying to hump my leg. After a plentiful dinner, I tried to get some sleep before our adventure the next day, which starts with swimming at 6am, one of Larry's daily habits.

Truth was, I didn't sleep well, though perhaps that was to be expected after staying up to about 4am the past couple nights. However, I awoke at six anyways in hopes of a Hangzhou-like time readjustment. Larry and I took a couple bikes and we biked 15 minutes to the swimming pool. The morning weather was cool, and it was a pleasure to bike through the city with just about no traffic. We arrived at the pool, and while Larry has a regular pass, I went to the window to buy a one-time pass for 20 RMB. The cute girl at the window handed me the ticket. We went inside, and I quickly realized I had been here once before in 2004.

Larry seems to know everybody at the pool, as there were plenty of regulars. He several people in the changing room, and started singing spontaneously as it was his style. I couldn't help but be warmed by his cheery song, and despite the cold shower, we went to the pool in high spirits. After 5 minutes of Larry's standard calisthenics, which he learned during high school in Taipei, we started into lap swimming.

The problem with public pools in China is 1) it's way overcrowded, and 2) people swim too slow in general (or rather there seems to be no delineation between fast lanes and slow lanes). Half the time is spent figuring out how to pass the people in front of you, and occasionally there are traffic jams within a lane as multiple people in both directions are trying to pass others. Luckily, the pool is 50 meters long, otherwise the crowding per lane would be ridiculous. I spent a good amount of time trying to find a good stretch of open space in front of me so I can practice my glide (pushing off and seeing how far you can go in one breath - 50 meters gives me an opportunity to see how much further I can go past the halfway point), but I found since I spent all my energies trying to get in front of people, almost every time I was ready to glide, I was still short of breath. It was not until closer to 8am, when the pool closed, that I was able to have more room.

We went back to the locker room and changed. There was probably over a hundred people, but Larry still sang like he was alone in the shower. Soon, others started whistling along. Larry let out another hearty belly laugh. "Do you know how to laugh?" he asked me. I chuckled at his question for a little bit before suddenly turning to him with a serious face and replied, "No, I don't." We laughed together in unison.

We biked back home and rested a bit. On the way, we stopped at a fruit market to buy some fruit. Larry picked out about 30 RMB worth of fruit, but he didn't bring any money with him, so I ended up paying. "I'll pay you back when we get home," he claims. "It's okay, I'll just eat 30 RMB of fruit," I joked.

My father, who is flying in from Xiamen to join us, is scheduled to arrive at the Chengdu Airport around 2:20pm. Around 12:30pm, we headed there by bus, and got there with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to visit the airport fruit stand:



There were a number of interesting Sichuan fruits, including this "many-fingered fruit":

Apparently later I found out it was only decorative, and not for consumption. There was also this fruit that looked like a yam, though it tasted nothing like it:

There were also a couple poorly dressed beggars at the airport, including this one wearing a rather unfashionable plaid shirt:

And this one, a rather retarded looking fellow who was once spotted in Suzhou:


They really have no shame. Their trashy clothing and propensity to dig around in public trash cans have ruined an otherwise pleasant experience at a classy airport.