The Renée Review

April 22 – 25, 2006

Greetings from Chengdu, China, population 10 million.  Chengdu is home to numerous panda conservation and research operations, afternoons enjoying teahouses, The Sichuan Opera, spicy Sichuan food and the hot pot (more spicy food, served in a pot, fondue style).  ISS – invisible sky syndrome, exists here also (see previous China blogs,) though we did see the sky peek out for about an hour on our second day and then again while driving the five hours from Chengdu to Chongqing, more on that later.

Our hotel choice was the Sheraton Lido; it offers a good city center location, boasts a modern elegant lobby with spacious guest rooms, though their suites were nothing special.  Service was not great and Sheraton's prices were higher than Beijing, Xi’an & Chongqing for everything; accommodations, car, and guide services.  Additionally, I think the combination bell desk / concierge has a postage scam running.  When I asked to have 2 letters and 10 postcards sent to the states, the total was about 90 RMB – it’s 8 RMB to the dollar.  I asked them to return one of the postcards I was sending as it did not yet have an address and that I only wanted to purchase the stamps, but learned that purchasing stamps was not possible? Funny thing, when the bellman / concierge returned my postcard, he also began giving me coins, until another colleague yelled at him.  Then, he handed me back the postcard and a 5.00 RMB bill???  Ultimately, I hope the items given them actually make it to the states.  We’ll see…
 
Our first excursion was to the giant panda breeding research base.  We went early to watch them feed.  If you go later, the pandas are inactive as they eat in the morning and sleep for the rest of the day.  Apparently, the panda is a carnivore.  If you were to feed them meat, they enjoy eating it, but are too clumsy to catch prey and therefore feed on bamboo.  Their favorite variety is arrow bamboo, which they happily crunched on while we watched.   We also saw several red panda, one of which Marlo and I both got to hold.  The animal was about the size of an extra large house cat and very happily relaxed in our laps as it fed on apple. Both species are endangered.

After delighting in the pandas, we left to visit the Wenshu Monastery and park.  This monastery is beautiful, full of activity and very well preserved.  Incense burners were active all around and as we arrived around noontime, one of the treats here was the opportunity to watch the monks go in for lunch.  They all filed into the dining hall and were served a choice of vegetarian options.  Outside, the head monk struck the prayer gong and went inside.  Next, the monks began a beautiful chant followed by prayer.  When they finished, they began eating – in silence; they are not permitted to speak during meals.   We later enjoyed tea at the teahouse in the park adjacent to the monastery, where we exchanged cultural insights with our guide – he was excellent and really spoke English well!  Anyone coming to Chengdu would do well to contact him for guide services.  His western name is Forest because he loves the actor Tom Hanks & really enjoyed the movie Forest Gump.  Forest is a freelance interpreter and can be reached at foresttrans@yahoo.com.cn and his cell number is 13880743782.

Lunch was at a Sichuan restaurant.  We were seated upstairs and on the main floor was a Chinese wedding party.  We’d noticed several wedding processions on the street today and Forest explained that this day on the Chinese calendar, April 23,2006, was considered auspicious, therefore a very lucky day for a wedding.  He also said the Chinese are extremely superstitious and on calendar days that are considered unlucky, some people will not leave their homes.

After lunch, we finished the day at the 8th century poet “Du Fu’s Cottage.”  We had never heard of Du Fu, however he is to the Chinese what Shakespeare is to the world.  The attraction is hardly just a cottage and one could spend several hours walking the gardens, enjoying the teahouse and seeing the library, waterways, pagodas, etc.  Unfortunately, we still have no clue about Du Fu’s poems, as they do not translate well into English.

Our next day was spent driving to the town of Le Shan, two hours outside of Chengdu to see the worlds largest Buddha, cleverly dubbed “The Giant Buddha.”  This marvel took 90 years to build and sits at the confluence of three rivers.  The Buddha was erected to protect boaters from capsizing and being drowned by the power of this convergence.  Foiled by ISS the picturesque sight, at least picturesque in my guidebook was interesting, but lacked the beauty I had hoped to see.  We chose to view the Buddha from the water in order to appreciate the scale of this monument.  We boarded our vessel and sat with the other passengers for a full 45 minutes before it departed.  The total journey to the attraction took less than 5 minutes and the entire journey took 20 minutes!?!  I think our guide (Ku Yen) should have opted for one of the smaller water taxi boats and had we known how close we actually were, we would have made the suggestion ourselves.  The other option is climbing, however the crowds were already there en mass.  With only one narrow winding stairway down and one narrow stairway winding up, it would have been a struggle with so many people.  Ku Yen brought us to the river for another Sichuan lunch followed by the two-hour drive back to Chengdu.  Not worth the fuss…I found myself more annoyed than in awe.  Unless you could be assured of smaller numbers and blue skies, it’s a tough trip to make – the Buddha is however, spectacular.

Diner tonight?  Well, Ku Yen wanted hot pot, we wanted Mexican, and all settled for Tex-Mex.  THANK YOU GOD!  Variety in China seems to mean what kind of Chinese food would you like to try?    The restaurant was great!  Peters Tex-Mex Grill, 117 Ke Hua Bei Lu, Chengdu (near Sichuan University west gate), telephone 028-85180903.  They also have a second location located at 12 Tong Zi Lin Dong Lu, Chengdu.  Tex-Mex was completely foreign to Ku Yen who decided to order ice cream cake as her starter, very cute.  

Following dinner we went to the Sichuan Opera at Shufeng Yayun.  I had been desperately trying to avoid doing the Opera thing as every driver, bell boy, concierge, guide etc. in each city we’ve traveled, has hit us up to attend.  The opera obviously pays serious commission!  Much as I believed I would dislike the experience, I actually had a great time.  The opera was a series of variety acts showcasing brilliant costumes, song, instruments, comedy, acrobatics, hand shadowing, puppetry, and the finale – a brilliant ever changing rapid mask “face changing” dance with fire spitting thrown in.   While the actors were busy on stage, another show occurred in the aisles as servers with teakettles continuously refreshed our jasmine tea with hot water poured from 3-foot long spouts.  All in all, very entertaining and the heck with the big commissions Ku Yen received for bringing us here, we loved it.

Finally the five-hour drive to Chongqing, “the mountain city” – we should have been in an airplane, a mere 45-minute flight, but Air China cancelled. Fortunately, we learned of the cancellation 30 minutes prior to our departing for the airport.  A wonderful Dutch intern named Thomas Wesselink at the Sheraton helped us by going to the hotels ticketing center and was told that Air China needed to physically see our tickets in order to book us onto another flight.  He advised us not to go to the airport, but to head directly to the Air China ticketing office in the city.  During this time, our Chinese driver who spoke no English, Mr. Peng, showed up to transport us to the airport.  New arrangements were made and we left for Air China with the Sheraton Hotel concierge cell number and Mr. Peng’s cell phone for translation.  Air China proposed a departure date to Chongqing on their airline for Thursday.  Today is Tuesday, so can you guess what we thought about that idea?  

Sheraton finally shined as an agreement was made with Mr. Peng through the hotel concierge via mobile phone for our transport to Congqing.  We obtained a refund from Air China (small miracle), purchased goodies from a bakery and set off at frightening speeds from Chengdu to Chongqing. The winding freeway, roads and hillsides were planted with tea, beautiful rice paddies, goose farms and villages.  We passed this green countryside at a terrifying speed of roughly 140 Kilometers per hour.  Obviously we survived.