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A little Chengdu for you

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June 27 – day in Chengdu 

The past few days had worn us out and except for the Tyler, we all slept until almost 10am. Sue and Tyler had made a photo book of their trip to China from April and gave it to the family. They loved it!! After a quick breakfast, we set off on a short walk to the excellent Jinsha museum. The museum in the western suburbs is dedicated to the archeological discovery made in 2002 of over 6,000 relocates from the 3,000 year old Shu kingdom. The relics from 1200-600bc include some intricate gold ornaments one of which has become the symbol of greater Chengdu. The discovery helped scientist put together what life was like in the Sichuan basin 3,000 years ago. 


After about 90 minutes of exploration, Sue and Tom were sent on their way to explore central Chengdu while the kids returned to the apartment to play, have lunch and ultimately to go see Transformers 5 in a real movie theater! 

Sue and Tom were given metro cards and put on a pair of the omnipresent MoBikes. The bikes are genius. You use your phone and Wechat to scan the QR code. That unlockes the bikes rear wheel, charges you 1 yuan ($0.15), and starts the 1 hour timer. We rode the bikes the 10 minutes to the metro station along the bike only lane and when we arrived we locked the bikes, which registered the end of our ride. And the best part? You can leave them anywhere! There is no special drop off/pick zone. We love it when we find superior innovation abroad!


The metro was super modern and efficient. The stops are announced in Chinese and English making travel a breeze. We took the subway about 6 stops to People’s park in central Chengdu. The park is a lovely green park with men playing Chinese checkers, paddle boats on small lakes, people dancing to loud music, and old ladies standing around reviewing the “mate wanted” signs. Whether it works or not is unknown, but there were over 100 descriptions of men and women and what they had to offer and what they were looking for.  


While the kids were at the movie theater, we enjoyed some tea at the large shady tea house by the lake, but opted against having our ears cleaned by the ubiquitous ear cleaning dudes. They take their lounging very seriously in Chengdu, as we left after about an hour and noticed that in that time period, no one else had left. We walked past the giant Mao statue and the massive Tianfu Square (now with a shopping mall underneath) and through shopping street after shopping street. 


Along the way, we discovered a copy (or the inspiration for) and impressive burning man installation from the previous year called “sonic runway.” Eventually we found a place to sit and have a late afternoon snack. Fed and rested, we were back on our feet and strolled past an old Taoist temple impossibly wedged between glitzy high rises and toney department stores. The highlight was seeing a “make your own” Magnum store, Sue’s all time favorite ice cream. We hopped back on the metro and buzzed over to Jinli snack street which was in a park and was jam packed with tourist and locals. We wandered the alleys while the kids swam in the pool back at the apartment. 


Around 7:45pm we reconnected at the Shu Feng Ya Yun tea house for some traditional Sichuan opera. The evening was delightful if mostly incomprehensible. The favorites, of course, were the shadow hand puppets and the face changing dancers. At the end of the performance, June (Jerry’s dad) arranged for the kids to play with the puppets and learn how to make the various shapes used during the show. Tyler and Jerry worked diligently at making birds, owls, dogs, and rabbits. They got quite good as the instructor spent nearly 20 minutes helping them and we were the only customers. 

At 10pm, we strolled outside where June had called a DeeDee car (Chinese Uber) and the 8 of us packed into the Buick minivan for the 20 minute drive home through virtually deserted streets. After classic late night meltdowns, both kids were asleep at 11pm. 

Despite being a city of 14 million people where 8 story buildings look small, Chengdu emits a laid back, welcoming vibe. Definitely a city we could live in.