02-03 July β China (Sichuan) β 110 miles
Left Mount Emei – not sure if I ever really got a decent view of the mountain itself. I saw something in the rear-view mirror – one of those nice hill/mountain pictures where there are multiple layers, each one a different shade/colour – but nothing that jumped out as justifying the title of “China’s #1 Mountain”.
But – did stop off in Leshan, and have a quick look at the largest Buddha statue IN THE WORLD! That was alright. Fairly big.
Then the ride to Chengdu – fairly short, and nothing spectacular about it scenery or road-wise. Rather, the traffic. Constant traffic, and some fun to be had when you just bought into the local driving style. Every rider in the evening was saying something like “I should be in jail”, “I broke every single road rule today”, “I can’t believe some of the things I did today”, etc, etc. And yes – me included. Running red lights – several. Overtaking on the outside of the road – many times. Squeezing through gaps which didn’t really exist – yes. Using the sidewalk to overtake… yeah, sure, nobody else was using it. Overtaking when there wasn’t really room, but just yelling at the oncoming traffic to “move over” – that’s how things get done.
Several times during the day I had the thought “I am really going to need to make sure I cleanse myself of these habits before I get back to riding in NZ or the UK”.
But – eventually got to Chengdu, and a lovely hotel – “the Pearl of Chengdu”, apparently.
And, got talked into joining everybody at that most horrible of establishments – the ex-pat Irish Pub. And a good night was had by all.
Today, a little jaded, visited some pandas. I very nearly passed on the opportunity again (last time I was in Chengdu, we got off the bus – tried to figure out how to visit the pandas, it seemed too hard, and we got back on another bus to head onwards)… but talked myself into battling through the hangover.
And, yeah – Giant Pandas. They’re kinda cute. And, it turns out, used to be trained by chinese warlords as weapons/soldiers. I can’t figure out what my reaction would be if I saw a Giant Panda approaching me on a battlefield… melt with “awww… how cute!”, or run away yelling “holy shit… they’ve got monsters!”.
So, Pandas – several hours wandering around the rather large complex, amongst many many loud chinese tourists. Not great hangover cure. Saw a couple-dozen of the Giant black-and-white variety, and by the time I got to the section of the little red fellas – I was happy with just seeing a couple.
Eventually headed into town, wandered some local streets – before trying to get back to the hotel. Taxis – would not stop. Long story, but the combination of rush-hour and rain… I could not get a taxi for about 3 hours. Started walking, then realised that the show we had booked for that night was where I’d started walking from – walked back – and caught the second half of a “Changing Faces” Opera show… which was quite interesting. Too tired to really explain much of that just now, but there was some finger-pupper stuff, some sort of chinese-pantomime skit, and then the actual “Changing Faces” – where the “actors(?)” would change their masks and/or clothing in a split-second… sometimes out in the crowd right in front of people… so quick you can’t see how it’s done.
