Our next destination was Chengdu, the capital of my home province, Sichuan.
Famous for its laid-back lifestyle and creatively spicy cuisine, Chengdu is a wonderful place for vacation and retirement. There were thousands of tea houses for chatting/gossiping as well as for playing Mahjong, the favorite sport of Chengduese.
The weather in Chengdu doesn't differ much from the rest of Sichuan: humid and cloudy. Sounds depressing to people who like sunshine but perfect for skin care. In fact, girls from Chengdu, or Sichuan in general, are praised for their smooth and watery skin so constantly that it's almost cliché now.
Chun Xi Lu or Chunxilu is the busiest shopping street in Chengdu. (Think Wangfujin in Beijing.) I always believe that you can judge how well a city is doing by a walk in its central business district.
Häagen-Dazs did a great job in branding itself. A middle-class brand in the United States now has a luxury touch (and price!) in China. I don't fall for it that much, though. No, you can't find THE best food in a chain. Just can't.
One thing stroke me most about Chengdu was its diversity. It has both Wenshuyuan, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the great bodhisattva Manjusri, and Qingyanggong, a famous Taoist Temple. Now I found some trace of Christianity as well.
Another place of interests, the Wuhou Memorial Temple.
Having grown up in Sichuan, I had been fairly aquatinted myself with Chengdu. But it never failed to surprise me. This time I was going to visit the Jinli Street, a revival of architecture and folk life of Chengdu back in the beginning of the 20th century. (Think Xintiandi in Shanghai. Check out this nice article from BusinessWeek about Xintiandi.) As a new development to boost tourism, it was an instant hit. People loved it; so did the numerous small businesses residing in it.
Interestingly, Sichuan had never gained as much attention in the (long) history of China as it did in one particular period called "The Three Kingdoms", which lasted about 50 years. This colorful era produced hundreds of very interesting characters and stories, on which a great novel was based, as well as hundreds of video games(!) in modern Japan and China. In American English, it would have been called a "cult". These were just one of many sets of cartoon figures people had created.
I didn't know too much about the old architecture in Sichuan but it looked good enough to me.
Vendors gathered in this small and crowded street, selling things that were distinctively Chinese, as they should.
An old theatre for Sichuan Opera. Wish they have some performance from time to time.
You could find some nice bars/tea houses here as well as the world-famous "Chengdu Xiaochi", which refers to a huge variety of street food/finger food/appetizers/tapas/... Once you try them, you would CRY for more.
Famous for its laid-back lifestyle and creatively spicy cuisine, Chengdu is a wonderful place for vacation and retirement. There were thousands of tea houses for chatting/gossiping as well as for playing Mahjong, the favorite sport of Chengduese.
The weather in Chengdu doesn't differ much from the rest of Sichuan: humid and cloudy. Sounds depressing to people who like sunshine but perfect for skin care. In fact, girls from Chengdu, or Sichuan in general, are praised for their smooth and watery skin so constantly that it's almost cliché now.
Chun Xi Lu or Chunxilu is the busiest shopping street in Chengdu. (Think Wangfujin in Beijing.) I always believe that you can judge how well a city is doing by a walk in its central business district.
Häagen-Dazs did a great job in branding itself. A middle-class brand in the United States now has a luxury touch (and price!) in China. I don't fall for it that much, though. No, you can't find THE best food in a chain. Just can't.
One thing stroke me most about Chengdu was its diversity. It has both Wenshuyuan, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the great bodhisattva Manjusri, and Qingyanggong, a famous Taoist Temple. Now I found some trace of Christianity as well.
Another place of interests, the Wuhou Memorial Temple.
Having grown up in Sichuan, I had been fairly aquatinted myself with Chengdu. But it never failed to surprise me. This time I was going to visit the Jinli Street, a revival of architecture and folk life of Chengdu back in the beginning of the 20th century. (Think Xintiandi in Shanghai. Check out this nice article from BusinessWeek about Xintiandi.) As a new development to boost tourism, it was an instant hit. People loved it; so did the numerous small businesses residing in it.
Interestingly, Sichuan had never gained as much attention in the (long) history of China as it did in one particular period called "The Three Kingdoms", which lasted about 50 years. This colorful era produced hundreds of very interesting characters and stories, on which a great novel was based, as well as hundreds of video games(!) in modern Japan and China. In American English, it would have been called a "cult". These were just one of many sets of cartoon figures people had created.
I didn't know too much about the old architecture in Sichuan but it looked good enough to me.
Vendors gathered in this small and crowded street, selling things that were distinctively Chinese, as they should.
An old theatre for Sichuan Opera. Wish they have some performance from time to time.
You could find some nice bars/tea houses here as well as the world-famous "Chengdu Xiaochi", which refers to a huge variety of street food/finger food/appetizers/tapas/... Once you try them, you would CRY for more.
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