Hello from Chengdu. Today is the first of my two week trip around China. I am taking a travel break before continuing my language study in Hangzhou. I of course like to travel anyway, but also this break gives me a chance to get out of the classroom and really put what I have learned to good use.
Today I flew from Hangzhou to Chengdu. Chengdu is the capital city of the Sichuan province in central-west china. Many of you may know Sichuan for two very famous things: Panda Bears and Spicy Food (schezuan).
Chengdu really struck me from the first as an interesting place. Very different from Hangzhou. But it has a very comfortable “vibe” to it. I am staying at a neat hostel that is surrounded by small cafe’s boutiques and little restaurants.
My colleague in Singapore, Shirley, is from Chengdu and she happens to be here this week on holiday, visiting her family. She met me for dinner at a well-known teahouse that serves traditional Chengdu dishes. We sampled 13 of the famous Chengdu snack dishes --- and that proved to be a filling meal. The restaurant also features an evening art performance. They had traditional costumed dancing; an erhu player (Chinese two-string fiddle); a hand shadow puppet show; a comedy act; and the performance I was truly excited to see: Chinese Face Changing dance. For those of you not familiar with this ancient and mysterious art, I suggest you do a Google search for a video of a performance. It is amazing to watch these masked artists’ faces change from one brilliant color to another in the blink of an eye.
It was very good to see Shirley again and I look forward to other adventures in Chengdu over the next few days.
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