Chengdu

I went to Chengdu, China recently. I was surprised! It's a great city.

This was taken at the Sichuan Opera. It was quite entertaining! Pretty chilly in that room too. It was cold the whole time I was in Chengdu, although it is not generally known for being a cold place.

This is "Ancient Street." It was built in 2005. (Huh?) Anyway, it was so quaint, and the fact that there was a Starbucks on this street didn't bother me at all.

This is no mannequin...that's a real guy all dressed up to look scary, like in the Chinese movies.

Lots of artists and artisans set up shop on Ancient Street.

Sichuan snacks. I don't know if the food smells bad, or the girls are just trying to keep the food clean by not coughing on it. Apparently the girls can't breathe with those masks on, which is why none of their noses are actually covered.

Still in Chengdu...there are quite a few lovely restaurants like this one called Grandma's Kitchen. There's a Tex-Mex restaurant down the road that looks similar.

This seven year-old girl must have thought I looked lonely dining by myself in Chengdu, because she sat across from me the entire time I was eating dinner at Grandma's Kitchen. Her parents were upstairs, and this girl had finished her meal, and so she just hung out and we talked in Chinese for more than half an hour. This girl, like everyone I asked in Chengdu, told me exactly where she was when the devastating earthquake hit outside Chengdu in May. She was in her second grade English class in a first floor classroom. None of the kids knew what was happening until their teacher told them it was an earthquake. The kids all scurried out of the room to safety outdoors. Chengdu city didn't really suffer damage or injuries to my knowledge. The outer poor villages and towns were the ones where all the devastation poured down.

Chengdu is a really fun, modern city. Overlook the smog, and I think it is one of the most fun cities I have been in. Everyone dresses fashionably. Tibetans in native dress (red and orange robes) roam the city--too bad I didn't get any photos of that. There's electricity in the air, and yet it is laid back. If you ever get a chance to go, I give it two thumbs up.