Eroded landscape along Li River

The eroded landscapes around Guilin is one of those sceneries that one would think about when China comes to mind. The picture of many little karst hills in the countryside, and a calm river in the foreground with a lone fisherman. This is one of those areas I wanted to go before leaving China, and as famous as it is (meaning many tourists) I guess this is one of those places that has to be seen to be believed. So then it is, I have managed to organize a trip to Guanxi province just after the Sichuan trip on the way back to Shanghai just to see it with my own eyes. Will be flying into Guilin directly from Chengdu.

20 November 2008: Landed in Guilin at 9 pm after an hour and a half from Chengdu. Small airport, obviously so compared to Chengdu and probably not a good comparison at all. Slept during the landing and since it was late at night, it was probably impossible to see anything. Temperature is a nice 13C at night. Balmy compared to Chengdu in the single digits.

Film used during the trip, including Sichuan Province

My luggage is one of the first to appear, good considering I was the last to check in! In 1 minute I was out of Guilin Liangjiang airport (yup, the official name) and into a Golden Dragon brand bus bound downtown. I’m not a guide book so I have no idea where this bus ends but it does go to Guilin Train Station and its where I am going. Dumped my backpack into the luggage hold and its time to wait 30 minutes. The cost of the bus to the train station from airport is 20 RMB. According to what people tell me, as long there is a flight arriving, there will be an airport bus.

Within 30 minutes the bus dropped me at Shanghai Road with a finger pointing to the direction of the train station, quite obvious it requires a bit of a walk. Looking at the GPS maps on my E71, I managed to find a signboard leading to the Flowers Youth Hostel in Guilin. I will have to walk through little alleys and small restaurants selling dodgy food (i’m sure it tastes good though) and mini travel agents. Hostel is on the second floor of a maze of buildings. No fanfare, I’d arrive, get the room, get a shower and do a little blogging and sleep to prepare for the next day to Yangshuo.

Locals load up anything and everything into the bus cargo hold

21 November 2008: Up at 8am today, taking my time this morning. After breakfast at the hostel, I make my way to the train station next door. Like any place popular with tourists, this place is teeming with a species of human called touts. They lead me to the next bus going to Yangshuo. Seems that all buses at a parking lot on the right when facing the railway station goes to Yangshuo. Tickets are bought on the bus and cost 17 RMB if I remember well. 1 hour later we are in Yangshuo. Both my GPS are running so that I don’t get tricked into getting off earlier and fleeced. They didn’t bother trying. Maybe they are looking for caucasians to try that trick.

Yangshuo Bus Station

In Yangshuo, the bus pulled up at the only bus station close to the famous West Street. Looks like touts live near bus stations as I am again greeted with them when getting of the bus, this time they seem to be part timers as they all have crocheting as their main work while waiting for the next bus to pull up. All of them!

Made my way to the hostel I have booked here and rested for a while. Yangshuo Backstreet Hostel has a nice location but takes sometime to locate. There is a free WEP locked Wifi at the hostel but when I was there connection was spotty.

Cycling around the Yangshuo countyside...

... and sometimes you encounter strange vehicles

The weather forecast has been wrong today. I was expecting sunny skies but what I got instead was cloudy and foggy day. The limestone hills are starting to be visible here in Yangshuo but no fine photo opportunities, unless you’re into taking limestone hills with mobile phone towers on them.

I then rented a mountain bike from the hostel and it was time to go out for a bicycling ride around the countryside. Thought I’d do the usual anti clockwise trip out where I came from on the road out to Guilin, and branching off to the left towards a small town called Yima and once hitting it turning left back towards Moon Water Cave and along the Yulong River. Sounds complicated but I guess this is quite a popular route so ask around in Yangshuo.

The bicycle I got was too low, but the seat was adjustable. The rear wheel seems tacoed as it wobbles. But as long as it holds up. There is no basket on it so I swing my tripod and camera pack around like rambo carrying ammo. Cycling was easy enough. Got lost a few times but asked the locals for Yima and got my bearing again. Fresh air. But scenery, although interest, did not make me whip out my camera all the time. Probably it was not possible to shoot with including some kind of telecommunication infrastructure into the photo. Which I detest. So I took it as a nice cycle in the countryside. Bought a small pomelo along the way and ate half of it on the spot while still on the bicycle and while chatting to the seller. Not as sweet as I expected, hearing that this area is famous for that fruit, but to be fair, perhaps its because I bought a younger small fruit. Will probably need to let it mature a few days.

Was expecting the cycle path to be country dusty road but it is very well paved with concrete. I would find out why on the way. There are many large tourist buses going this way as well as there is a bamboo rafting starting point in the middle of the way. Tourists would take the raft to the bridge back to Yangshuo, and tractors turned into transporters would haul the rafts back to the starting point. Saw many of those tractors hauling 2 boats each. I don’t bother with the river rafting. The scenery again looks interesting but no nice photoshoot. Disappointed really. Expected the countryside scene here to be phenomenal, but it was just soso. Maybe it was over expectation.

The cycling trip took 3 easy hours. I had a few kilos slung across my shoulder so I stopped often. No, not to chew on the pomelo but just to stretch. It is not exactly the same as my road bike back home. Not half as smooth. Considering what I paid to rent it I didn’t expect it to anyway. The way back from the bridge junction to Gaotian town and Yangshuo is a little long and boring. Couldn’t wait to get over that stretch and when I did get back to West Street, can’t wait to dive into a bowl of jiaozi dumplings. Tastes everybit worth the long trip.

After a short break, returned the bike and was out at the waterfront for a walk when an old lady came up to me offering a boat ride in her private skiff. Didn’t think too much of it so started to ask her plenty of questions. As it was starting to get late she offered a short 45 min ride upstream and back to Yangshuo for 30 RMB for a taster. Before long I arranged with her longer trips the next day, one from Yangshuo to Liugong and a second one from Xingping to the Fish Tail Peak and back. Took the short taster trip but nothing much to shout about. The peaks are a little more like normal hills and not as concentrated as a typical Guilin scenery.

Boat anchoring point next to the Gaotian bridge

The next trip would start at 0730 hrs tomorrow morning.

At night Yangshuo starts to come alive. I’m guessing the tourists all come from the hundreds of tour boat from Guilin that make its way to Yangshuo every day. Maybe not. But there are definitely plenty of laowai and Cantonese speaking tourists here. Every shop on the west street happened to be a bar or some kind of foreign restaurant and it was not that easy looking for a simple local fare. Every shop seems to be selling beer fish, but according to the boat lady today they are all reared and doesn’t taste as good as the ones caught in the river.

Kitchen at breakfast place

22 November 2008: Woke up at 0600 hrs and before long I was up and about in the streets. Stumbled upon a small roadside stall and as a first customer of the day, and for 5 RMB I had a nice bowl of dumpling soup. Warms the body in a cold morning as today.

Weather today seems rather bad compared to yesterday. It is supposed to be ultra cloudy today and I will be lucky to see the sun. Looks like a day for black & white film, so I packed more this morning.

Walked to the pier and right at 0730 hrs the lady and her youngest son came with their motorized raft to pick me up. We would cruise to Fuli and then to Liugong and then cruise back to Fuli where I will catch a public bus to Xingping and her other son who covers Xingping will pick me up for the second leg of the trip. Sounds like a plan.

On the way to Fuli Town

The trip to Fuli was a little more scenic than what I have seen the day before. The river traffic at this time of the day means that there are significant waves on the river surface and the lack of colour means I was taking more photos with the film camera that dslr. The boat lady would tell me of the names of all the peaks next to the river and seriously I was not paying attention. So I cannot really recite them one after another. Just sat on the boat soaking in the atmosphere. What is clear is that once we got to Liugong, the hills start to get more normal looking and less of the Guilin look people came to look for. Before long it was time to turn back to Fuli.

When we got to Fuli I got to speak to her son for the first time as he was the one manning the boat. He told me he brings a lot of photographers on boat trips early in the morning and to take the quintessential Guilin photo of sunrise and a fisherman in the foreground. It will take a couple of days to get the right photo and summer is best. In fact he was supposed to take a Singaporean film crew tomorrow for a film shoot early in the morning.

I paid them 150 RMB for the leg. They walked me through Fuli old town to the bus stop. On this Saturday morning the town is bustling with vegetable sellers, street barbers, fish sellers, all reminding me of what a rural China of lore looks like. I took my Leica M6 and started wasting Tri-X film like there is no tomorrow. Along the way the boatman told me about some of the photographers with Large Format cameras and I was hooked. I took his phone number and told him I will be back in summer and he will bring me shooting to all his secret spots.

Workers repairing (or rebuilding!) a road in Fuli

Open air barber parlours in Fuli

Fuli wet market

Soon I got on a small mini bus. It was cramped to the roof, chinese style and I had to sit on a little stool on the floor, ok to sit, impossible to get up. All this while we wind fast through the Yangshuo countryside to Xingping. Looks like this might be a popular route.

Got to Xingping and there were dozens of ladies running after bus offering passengers private rafting trips. Sounds like this is the only reason to come to Xingping. I got fetched at the bus station by the brother of the boatman in Yangshuo after he bought a few packs of Guilin cigarettes. Has picture of the karst countryside on it. We took a 6 RMB cart ride to the pier, and there were tens of rafts there. This sure looks like a proper franchise and this place is surely a magnet for tourists. We passed many tourists on the way back from boat trips in the morning.

One of the commercial cruise boats on Li River

Locals crossing the river using small slim boats

The boatman showing me the scenery depicted at the back of the 20 RMB note

This is definitely a popular route. Going from Xingping to Yangdi. Not too sure everyone goes all the way to Yangdi, as my boatman tells me that halfway to Yangdi is the best time to go back as the scenery for the rest of the way is not too nice anymore. To give an idea what to expect, the first segment once you get on the raft and clearing the electrical wires, is the view on the rear of the chinese 20 RMB note. At the end of the halfway mark looking back at Xingping is a view usually seen on advertisements and my boatman showed me the same view on a cigarette pack. After the disappointment of yesterday, I feel a little redeemed today.at the weather is hazy and water choppy because of the continuous stream of large tour boats from Guilin making its way to Yangshuo, all with kitchens at the rear and endless floating rafts, making it impossible at 11am, to shoot a picture of a serene river. I would hear of the many times the guy brought photographers in the wee hours to take photo. Every month the sun rises in a different spot and during summer it is supposed to be best. During the cold winter, there are water vapour in the morning before the wind sets in. In summer sometimes it is possible to see a thin film of mist at a certain altitude giving a nice atmosphere. But today I can only catch silhouetted shots as it is too late and not the ideal season. I have in my mind what I want to take in the future and will need to set appointments for them to take me here when the next time comes.

We then sailed the raft downstream back to Xingping while I sit relaxed on the bamboo chair thinking about the return trip next year, perhaps.

Poster of Chairman Mao still hangs on the walls in Xingping

We got off at the tourist raft landing area and proceeded to the old street that leads to the bus station. As usual, souvenir stalls abound near the jetty, and soon the street starts to have a nice old feel to it. Old people wearing mao era coats and I noticed every home seems to have a central mao propaganda poster still on. Genial. My leica went to work on surreptitious shots, no standard photo of smiling old people posing for camera for a sum of money for me, those are so stereotypical. They deserved to be shot in their environment. Off the hip shooting with Duffmeter is in order. After stopping for a quick lunch, I’m on the 2 pm mini bus back to Yangshuo. This time I managed to find a place to sit. Bus fare is 5.5 RMB from Xingping to Yangshuo. This compared to 4 RMB I paid from Fuli to Xingping earlier in the morning. Bus took a little less than an hour to get to the destination.

After a long day of boating and meeting the family of boaters and learning what to expect next time I come, it was time for a rest. Took a nap from 1500 hrs to 1800 hrs and then went out looking for cheap local Yangshuo eatery.

And then its an early night. Happy with the 4 rolls I shot with the leica today. The dslr saw some action but a lot less. Today is a day for b&w film. Used up 2 rolls of Tri-X and 2 rolls of Neopan 1600 for contrast play. I think I will do a couple more old towns tomorrow before leaving this town back to Guilin and Shanghai.

Gaotian: Truck full of live pigs

23 November 2008: So, a very late morning. Got out of the hostel at 10am this last day of my 2 week trip. Checked out and had two plates of dumplings before catching the small van to Gaotian town paying 2.5 RMB for the pleasure. Wandered around the streets of Gaotian and other than ingeniously improvised construction machinery moving about town, there are nothing much more to see. My leica and kodak Tri-X film went to work here. There are vans plying Yangshuo and Gaotian and stops anywhere in between every 8 minutes so I don’t worry.

Before leaving the hostel I took down names of 2 villages near Gaotian not more than 4 km away. The one on the way back to Yangshuo, located 3 km away from Gaotian looks like a good idea as I can catch the passing van to get back Yangshuo before 2 pm.

Taking the motorcycle taxi to Longtang Village

It is a nice half hour walk from Gaotian before I get to the moon hill entrance which is also where the entrance to longtang village. To take a shortcut, I took a motorcycle, riding pillion, into the village which is almost 2 km from the main road. Paid the driver 5 RMB which I think is a lot but the driver insists is the going rate.

Local Longtang Villager

Chicken coop

Longtang Village (N24.73056, E110.45011) is a normal village that happens to have a few old buildings. Few means my fingers can count them without resorting to my toes. And the fact that they had the balls to charge 30 RMB made this the number one most useless expense this trip. I have seen small villages like these and when they do charge that kind of entrance fee, they are usually a hundred times more impressive and do not smell too much of animal faeces all the way. Spent 30 minutes there and realised its time to get back to Yangshuo to have a sinful lunch before going back to Guilin airport.

Called Mr Li the motorcycle driver, as he hangs around the main road. In 5 minutes he is at the entrance and 5 RMB later I am on the main road flagging down a crowded local bus bound for Yangshuo. Costs 2.5 RMB for the trip.

Tractor carrier with exposed engine, very common in this part of rural China

That is unfortunately the last adventure for this trip. The rest of the afternoon is spent taking the bus back to Guilin and collecting my large backpack at the hostel there and going to the airport after a simple dinner. Got to remember not to have my leatherman tool on my belt pouch before going through the xray at the airport.

So ends my 2 week trip through the mountains of Sichuan province and worn limestone landscapes of Guangxi province. Forgot I’m just on a temporary holiday and felt as though I am a perpetual traveller.

Between the two provinces, no doubt I love Sichuan more than Guangxi. They are both joined by disasters in 2008, an unfortunate association with each other. Theres the great earthquake in Sichuan and it was interesting to see how things really were from all those that related it to me during my stay, and the recent november floods in Guangxi, again the people recalling vividly how it was.

Li River vista

*End*

Chillis left out to dry at Jiuju Village, Danba

Processing corn in Zhonglu Village, Danba

Based on time killer recommendations from Joy from Sim’s Cozy over at Chengdu, I will make a one day stop over at Danba as the only way to get back to Chengdu from Rilong is to go through Xiaojing and Danba. It helps too that there are 2 daily buses (0630 and 0700) from Danba.

Ancient watch tower up close, Zhonglu village

Danba seems to be famous for two things. Everyone says the girls there are beautiful. Even best in china, but I have heard of that before in Suzhou. And as expected its because of the climate that gives them a nice complexion. And everyone here also says that the good looking ones are in Chengdu. Danba is also popular for the couple of tibetan villages around the town. Danba lies at the confluence of rivers, and in a deep valley. Some of the scenic villages are perched high on top of steep mountains. 14 November 2008, Rilong to Danba: It was a 0700 pickup by the same Mr Zhang that brought me to Rilong from Xiaojing. We arranged a trip to Danba for 300 RMB, about 150 km away and a day trip to 3 villages around Danba for an extra 100 RMB. Plus the 150 RMB I owed him from last sunday. While I know the driver normally runs a mien bao car (private hire vans that pick up anyone anywhere between set destinations), I allowed him to pick up 2 ladies to drop near Xiaojing. With the 17 RMB we made, he brought me to the best beef noodle place in Xiaojing. From what I can see, salt, soya sauce, plenty of hand pulled noodles, mountain cow beef, bamboo shoots, coriander and plenty of chilli and you have a serious bowl of best noodles I have tasted in china so far. I have seen many mountain cows in Siguniang and its the first time I have tasted it.

Mountain road on the way to one of the mountain top villages around Danba

After a heavy bowl of beef noodles in Xiaojing it’s time to continue to Danba. I will visit the villages first before buying bus ticket and finding a place to stay in Danba.

Zhonglu Village, Danba

On the way learnt some interesting facts from the driver. First, he confirmed that people get rocks to build houses by creating landslides by roadside. As by the road always means a mountain next to you, the landslides cover half the road breadth. Also learnt that the Dong An brand of chinese mini van is crap and costs only 30k RMB each. His is better and more reliable at 50k RMB. Business is also bad this year for all in the tourism business because of the earthquake. They all hope that it would be better next year when the road reopens. A full section is closed, or better illustration would be the word ‘destroyed’. He also recalled being in his van on May 12, and could see the mountains move and landslides everywhere. Its apparently the first time he has seen one and the previous one was before his time, about the time the red army marched through the valley. Google it up, I don’t have wikipedia when I wrote this so I don’t know when that was, but I’m guessing 50s or 60s.

View of surrounding village from the top of Zhonglu Village

Zhonglu Village (N30.89823, E101.93823): First stop, the village closest to Xiaojing. Ok, so the villages also charges entrance fee for non locals. Not sure what non locals mean. My driver is from the next Aba prefecture but its free for him. Surely I look foreigner so that’s an easy catch. 20 RMB gets you through a dirty old man and he will raise the barrier for you. After that its a full 15 minutes uphill. GPS tells me its below 2000m at entrance and you go up at least 400m in altitude before getting to the village. Zhonglu is perched on top of a mountain, on the way up it is all steep slope but at the top there are just gentle slopes, enough to cultivate plants. I got out of the car next to a primary school and walked a while. Not sure what to see in the village other than the scenery especially the next village just across the valley. There are a couple of those ancient watch towers here. Snap snap a couple of photos and its time to move on. There are animals everywhere so watch out for droppings. Pig droppings you can smell, not cows.

Corns left out to dry in Jiuju Village

Jiuju Village (N30.92061, E101.86818): Next up a ride through Danba across the river twice and its time to go up hill again. If I can explain the scene, valley floor fast flowing rapids, surrounded by 500m high steep mountain cliffs with sparse vegetation and white buildings with pointy corners on its roof top and a few watch towers.

Processing corn in Zhonglu Village, Danba

Jiuju village takes longer to drive up. Possible to get a taxi to bring you up but there doesn’t seem to be taxies up there to bring you back down. This village is famous for its stone tibetan houses, which seems a little more uniform than Zhonglu earlier. Entrance gate is on top just before entrance to the village. Ticket costs 300 RMB and for that you get a ticket with a stamp and postcard all in one. Again, vice vistas but up close the houses are houses, all sorts of things hanging around. Plastics and satellite dishes don’t really spell ancient for me.

Processing corn, to remove the husks from the good stuff. Strangely this is for feeding the pigs!

We made it to a model home (actually it looks like a 20 room hotel) and as thwarted owner and her daughter was crushing corns, we joined them on the rooftop. One thing I noticed here, the houses in this area are all flat and there are always staircases up there. Most houses dry corn cobs up on the roof, and this one seems to remove the skin from the corn but it still remains in the bean shape. My driver tells me that the corns are used to feed pigs. Not easy to see the pigs as they are kept in the house. Follow the smell. There are also chilies being dried. We know that is for humans.

After, its time for one last village.

Suopo Village with watch towers extending to the top of the mountain

Suopo Village (N30.85032, E101.92859): Village could be seen last sunday as I was coming to Xiaojing. Since I’m not in the mood to pay for more entrance fee, and the villages look better from far, I told the driver to drop me off on the highway for a wide angle shoot. When we got there, there were construction on top of the mountain above where we were about to park the car, and having been scared after the 2008 earthquake, my driver told me he will park 100m away in case rocks fall.

Up close view of the watchtowers at Suopo Village

Suopo is also perched on top of a mountain, but the slope is gentler, and rises at least 400m to the top. There are many old towers here, all the way from the bottom to the top of the mountain. They look at least 5 storeys tall and look like factory chimneys. Driver says they’re not used anymore. Amazing sight. 12mpixels on my dslr caught them all with enough details. Danba Town: Time to drive into Danba. He dropped me off at the bridge and I caught a taxi down to the other end of the town to the bus station. Normal fare is 10 RMB but I only had 5 loose change and he took it anyway. No sour face neither. Nice chatty fella.

Suopo Village from the highway

More mountain top road

Bus ticket cost me 117 RMB from Danba to Chengdu at 0630 hrs tomorrow. The bus station also houses a hotel, and I took a room for 80 RMB. They asked if i wanted single room or standard room, I asked what the difference is, and he said its the same, so I said give me standard then. This is a typical chinese government hotel. Reception has a burning coal pot as there are no central heating. Toilet is a squatting type. Comes with towels. Floors are never swept. And you are kept warm with electric blankets. Sounds of tractors permeates from outside narrow streets, and occasionally chinese Jingbei motorcycles go past playing tacky chinese techno. Naturally riding with helmets are frowned upon here.

After 1 hr snooze after wondering why my leica M6 wouldn’t meter today (dead CR1/3 battery), I went out for a walk around town.

For dinner, walked into a small 5 table restaurant and naturally went for the yak dish with extra mini celery and a bowl of soup with eggs, tomatoes and vegetables. Very nice dish and cost me 32 RMB. I am now a convert to yak.

Downtown Danba is a narrow place. This is because the town at the bottom of the vallew with fast flowing river on one side, and a mountain on the other

The trip back was in a rickety bus, probably not too old but daily 12hrs trip made it rattle a lot. Joining me are 23 other smoking and chicken feet eating locals including 2 ladies in traditional costumes.

It has been a long week, battling issues associated with high altitude. Resting back at the hotel after dinner watching chinese TV. Tomorrow morning I will return to Chengdu and to the north thereafter.

This western trip has been interesting. A whole region with towns and villages built either in deep valleys or high in the mountains. The steepness of which made it easier for me to understand why the earthquake this year was so devastating. It takes almost nothing to cause huge landslides here, and there are mountains everywhere.

Signing off for part 3. Next: part 4 Jiuzhaigou National Park

Chengdu Airport Bus queue

8 November 2008, Shanghai to Chengdu: From the airport, bus 303 seems to go to Chengdu city. Was reading about bus 300 but I did not see it. Bus trip cost 12 RMB and comes with insurance, although it seems lost in my mind how we will claim our own insurance should something untowardly happens along the way. As with any bus in china, this bus even comes with its own tour guide. In my half baked putong hua, sounds like its 30 minutes away. Good. Nap time.

Spent the afternoon walking around Chengdu and there is a nice street where everything is old and has a market. Naturally my leica came out to play there. Chengdu definitely looks more refined than other cities in China, other than Shanghai and Beijing of course. Its quite obvious this is not a poor place.

Transporting items by bicycle is common in the backstreets of Chengdu

Everywhere you go in Chengdu there are hotpot restaurant. I’m tempted to try them but I travelled alone so it will be wasteful to gobble down a whole load of soup with floating chilies. But I promised myself I need to try it or I have never been to Sichuan.

Waiting for the bus, China style...

Language: I swear I don’t have too much of an issue with the local Sichuanese dialect, at least I understand it as much as I do putonghua, which is not too bad, but people I meet here sometimes tell me its difficult to understand locals. The dialect sounds like a bastardized version of putonghua in a song singing way.

These two kittens at Sim

Staying at Sim’s Cozy Hostel in the north of Chengdu. Corny name but met Mr Sim himself and a very helpful guy. Had a chat with him to find out the best itinerary for my next week in Sichuan. So the plan now seems to be 4 days in Rilong around siguniang shan and a day in Danba, before returning here for a night and then the long bus trip to Jiuzhaigou National Park. His place can book bus tickets for 20 RMB commission and I’m sure for many other things in this area. Good to not have to run around to get tickets. 

Chengdu Chadianzi Bus Station waiting room

9 November 2008, Chengdu to Rilong: Awake early in the morning at 5:30 am and before long, left my main backpack at the hostel and made it to Chadianzi bus station to Siguniang Shan. Taxi driver was a local with bad teeth and cab smelling of strong local cigarette smoke. Very chatty but seems to be honest. Chadianzi is quite a distance outside Chengdu to the north west of the city. By the time I got there, there is a sizeable crowd outside the station before 6 am. Looks like the waiting hall opens only after 6. Anyway, will continue this post on the dedicated Siguniang post. 

Continued in Part 2…

15-16 November 2008: Arrived in Chengdu from Danba in another bus station. This is a small little one south of Chadianzi and west of town inside the ring road. Never bothered to do any research on its name.

It was time to stop a taxi and go to the hostel and make myself comfortable and pick up the ticket I ordered for tomorrow’s trip to Jiuzhaigou. The night of the 15th was the time to pamper myself and go have some full texmex dinner. There is one recommended by Sim’s cozy at the west gate of Sichuan university.

Finally getting free Wifi, it was time to send out all my phone pictures onto flickr while eating.

After an evening recalling my trip to the coordinator who recommended me the trip to Siguniang, it was time to repack clean clothes and get a hot shower before heading out the door at 7 am to Chengdu’s xinnanmen station to Jiuzhaigou on the 8am bus at the tourist bus station. Sounds corny but its just like any other bus station and the bus looks the same as well.

19 November 2008: Back in Chengdu from Jiuzhaigou. Got off the bus in the north of Chengdu, and fired up my GPS and realised the hostel is only 2 km away. A short walk and half hour later I’m back. Am too tired after the 10hrs bus ride where I went thru 7 hours of War and Peace on audiobook so had a simple dinner at the hostel and started preparing for the day trip in Chengdu tomorrow. I admit I didn’t spend too much time in Chengdu proper, and it is just like any other large Chinese cities except this one is cleaner and doesn’t look as cramped.

Panda and breakfast

20 November 2008: My last day in Chengdu and it is time to visit the Giant Panda Research Center, something not to be missed by anyone coming here. How can you not see Pandas here? The day tour is arranged courtesy of the hostel using their own car. For 80RMB, I get entrance fee included and a guide plus transport to the park. It should be possible to get a taxi there or bus, but considering the getting on and off, I think 80RMB is quite worth it.

Morning is the best time to go, 9 am is feeding time. For pandas that means they get to spend their energy in the morning crawling to the bamboo and actually eating them. There are 3-4 pandas to enclosure and obviously plenty of foreigners there with cameras. Usually I only get to see 1 or 2 in action, either wrestling or eating bamboo, and the rest would be sleeping. Being the famous sloths that they are, their sleeping style are quite interesting. Sometimes perched on a tree branch, or lying spread eagle on the ground. Interesting creature. Very high on the cute factor. In a while the Cantonese tourists would arrive and scare the pandas to sleep with their loud conversations.

Then its time to move on to the baby panda station. Photos are not allowed but with my leica M6, I snapped anyway masking the shutter sound with coughs. It was a cold morning! On 2 joined cots, about 8 baby pandas with coats of fur already grown, sized like a medium sized fat dog would be sleeping, reminding me of the panda mascot on some of the current ANA aeroplanes… Like in a flying panda position. For little girls this would be the best place to work in the whole world, job being to pick up the baby panda one by one, stroking them and cuddle them for the tourists to see behind glass. There’s even an armchair to sit down while stroking the animal.

Red Panda at Sichuan Panda Research Center

Next would be the red panda enclosure. it was difficult to get a good picture of them as we had a large group of rowdy chinese school students coming through, the panda looking confused with all the commotion. One of the guy in my group always wanted to hold one, so a ‘donation’ of 200 RMB gets it done. I volunteered to man his dslr while he gets to feet the red panda apples while cuddling it. Apparently not too far from 200 RMB will get you a photo op with a giant panda and the baby pandas will cost a little more, 400 or upwards. They will make you don a surgical suit and latex glove before touching them.

Then there’s a video presentation and a museum, but hey, its not a tourist center till you see those isn’t it? I breeze through then as soon as possible. Started at 830am and by 1130am the trip was over, happy to have seen my first live panda. And finally those animals will two repeating single syllable names are no longer foreign to me.

Gaudy looking Russian themed karaoke bar in Chengdu

Back in Chengdu its time to burn some time in the afternoon. As I have not taken breakfast nor lunch, I grabbed bus number 1 across to the other side of the ring road to the south and found a restaurant where I ordered dry chilli noodles. As it was not enough, a second bowl of spicy beef noodles was in order. With a bowl of sweet dumplings the total cost was only 17 RMB. Cheap.

Next was time to go to the only computer center in Chengdu, not to look for computers of course but to look for some LR44 batteries for my leica M6 meter. 4 of those made locally cost 8 RMB. Now I have juice for the meter before my next leg of the journey.

I confess I do not plan to spend too much time in Chengdu. It was never in the plan. Man made modern things do not interest me. Nor is the largest buddha statue in the world and so on. Only pandas are in the plan for this trip and at 7 pm I will be on my way out, flying off to Guilin.

Move on to part 2 of this article…