20210726 Chengdu

First impression, Chengdu feels just like any costal city of East China, with modern CBD, railway station, and subway. Living cost seems somehow lower though.

Food is not so good as one would normally claim, possibly due to my bad strategy to try to get accustomed to authentic local food. However some dessert does impress me as I had my first taste on sweet jellied Tofu, very much like pudding.

Local city feels like a strange combination of 2020 East coast CBD with 2000 East coast streets. Prostitutes advertisements are everywhere in hotel, and occasionally I can see one or two of them sharing an elevator.

The elder generally speaks only local accent which is a trouble for me. Good for me that my girlfriend can understand them quite well.

There has been an effort to modernize, or to renovate old streets as tourist spots all over China. What surprised me is that old Chengdu streets, feels just like any East China old street.

Panda, as one of the most famous local cultural element, can be seen everywhere in the city, i.e. posters, sculptures, clothes. Some of these sculptures are really interesting, and the one really impressed me was one built right in the middle of CBD, right on top of one building, featuring a climbing pose.

20210801 Dujiangyan

Ancient irrigation system.

Refer to https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/334943779 as a general tour plan. Nothing too bad, yet nothing exceeding expectation either.

20210801 Qingchengshan

If I may say, just as Qingchengshan itself is a mountain developed for religious purpose, the best, and most interesting scenery, is local people.

Hitchhikers

Experienced taxi driver refused to drive us uphill as they expect traffic jam, and an almost certain empty trip back, so they were charing us an additional ￥100. We finally met a driver who charge us only ￥50, who later regrets, as the traffic jam, was true. 1.5 hour in to the jam and we decided that we will walk the rest 6.5 km. We covered 3 km in 40 mins, and my gf went exhausted, so we decided to hitchhike. The first 2 car went passed us were empty, but did not stop. We got lucky on the third one, who turned out to be an entire local family. Two kids even had to share one seat so we could get in. This is actually my first hitchhiking, and I feel so grateful to them.

Vendors

We all know wares are expensive at tourist spot. Down the hill the water costs ￥5 per bottle for a commonly ￥2 one, and the seller warned us that the price would double uphill. We did not fall for that. Water uphill, is still ￥5, till the highest shop.

Monks

Baiyun Temple, located at the peak of Mount Qingcheng, was destroyed in 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It remains half rebuit in 2021, though construction progress can be found on site.

A banner reading 'Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of CCP' is unexpectely hanging right on what used to be, and would be the Mahavira Hall, making a distinguished scene.

Taxi Drivers

Construction workers who were granted access to the tourist spot so that they could fix the temple, were taking advantage and intimidating us the difficulty of getting down hills, so that they can charge us ￥70 per person and drive us down hill. We refused.

Later down the hill, due to some misjudgment, we payed a taxi driver ￥100 so he can drive us down really fast in order for us to catch the last train. And he did it as promised. The next 20 minutes I experienced the most exciting taxi driving so far in my life. Driving god of Akina Mountain bless him.