Chendu, China
Saturday, April 29, 2006
As we moved West, the towns were supposed to get poorer, but that did not appear to be the case when we reached Chengdu. Chengdu is the richest city in the south-west of China. We were blown away by the wealth. Although the average salary is still quite low, the stores stocked designer goods too expensive for us to ever fathem spending money on. The street boulevards were dottet with trees. It was quite impressive. Our most memorable experiences in Chengdu were the visit to the Panda Sanctuary, and an amazingly delicious (and cheap) vegetarian meal at a Budhist monestary. Chengdu is also the gateway to Lassa, and the Tibetan Plateau.
The Sichuan province is known for its spicy food, which we love, but we also found two aspects of it that we didn’t like so much: quite oily, and the use of a type of seed (like pepper corn), which leaves your tongue feeling numb. Apparently Hunan is spicy like Sichuan, but without the mouth numbening spice. We didn’t visit the Hunan provice, but I have a feeling I’d LOVE their food. Grant says I obsess too much about food, but how could you not in a country with such a tasty, diverse selection of cuisine?
Some people commented before we left that we’ll either gain weight, or loose weight. Judging by the food experiences we’ve been having, we’d better start running… a lot!
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Spent first half of May 1st (Labour Day in China), at the Panda Research Park and Sanctuary in Chengdu. For a modest donation, they allowed us in to the pen for a priceless photo with one of the 1000 or so Pandas on Earth. In the photo, you’ll see Yuan Yuan, a 2 and a half year old female, who was happily gorging on Bamboo while the humans looked on in awe!
