Note: This is the third instalment of a series covering my trip to southwestern China. Read Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 here.

CHENGDU

Day 7: We savoured one last morning view of the Chongqing skyline from our rooms before heading to Shapingba Railway Station for our ride to Chengdu.

Because we had quite a bit of luggage, we split into pairs upon our arrival and took different taxis to our accommodation. When Mum and I got there, my brother was waiting alone.

Apparently, upon reaching the hotel, Dad realised he had left his backpack, including his recently-purchased tablet, on the train to Chengdu. He had to wait for the already-departed train to make its way to Chongqing (an hour one way) and back before retrieving it. After checking into Atour Chengdu Taikoo Li, the rest of us walked around in the vicinity, taking pictures with the “I AM HERE” panda perched on Chengdu IFS.

Once Dad returned, we made our way to Tianfu Red Mall. The scant information courtesy of Google showed an Animate store had recently opened, which was why I wanted to visit, but as we stepped into the mall we realised it was entirely dedicated to ACG (animation, comics and games) - a pleasant surprise for me.

I gleefully walked around the shops, purchasing merchandise from one of my favourite games - one a China-exclusive, and the other at almost half of its cost in Singapore due to the lack of shipping fees (though I needed some encouragement from my brother, as I was stuck there overthinking it).

Day 8: First thing in the morning, we stepped out of the hotel to see our driver in a ZEEKR 001, which my family was impressed with (and it became my favourite ZEEKR).  We were taking a day trip to Leshan, famous for the 71-metre tall Giant Buddha that is not only the tallest pre-modern statue in the world, but also the tallest stone Buddha statue.

We first toured the nearby Suji old town with its rather interesting bridge and had lunch.

Now, the main attraction. The climb up to the top of the hill to see the Buddha from above was somewhat tiring, but the climb down to the Buddha’s feet via steep stairs jammed with tourists was, in a word, terrifying. And we still had to climb back up to the exit.

After we made it out of the park, our driver brought us to a hotpot restaurant. Not a conventional place for afternoon tea, but he perhaps wanted us to get the experience. It was quite atypical in the sense that we got to choose the skewers we wanted by taking them off the shelves the way one does in a málà restaurant.

For dinner, we ended up in a small restaurant as recommended by our guide. Of note was a particular drink, a lychee soda made with water claimed to be sourced from the melting snow off the nearby Emei Mountain. I liked it enough to take a picture in the event I wanted to buy more from a supermarket during the rest of the trip, but sadly I never saw it again.

Day 9: For some reason, Mum wanted to see the pandas despite the initial lack of interest. A late start to the day meant we arrived at the Chengdu Panda Base close to noon, and because we’d fulfilled our purpose about 15 minutes into the park (seeing live pandas), we walked around for another hour to make good use of our entrance fees (about SGD$10-15, but the park was pretty big anyway, so we had a good look around).

Heading back to the heart of Chengdu, we went to Kuanzhai Alley, stopping in a tea house to watch traditional performances including biàn liǎn (face-changing), a signature of Sichuan opera. Interestingly, some of the performers went around the tables doing their routines like pouring tea and giving high-fives. It was a pretty standard trio of old streets otherwise.

Later, we made a visit to People’s Park as my parents wanted to see the area dedicated to matchmaking.

The effectiveness of matchmaking aside, it was somewhat comforting for this singleton to see that in this day and age, people of all ages (I saw profiles of people my age and even a few from my parents’ generation) are still looking for love. My cynical side, however, wonders how many of these forms were submitted out of cultural obligations to get in a relationship and eventually marriage. Either way, I’m not convinced filling up physical forms and putting them up in public is the way to go.

Day 10: For our last day in Chengdu, we covered several “cultured” locations, like the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, where the famed Tang dynasty poet lived for five years till he escaped amid a rebellion.

We then visited Wuhou Shrine. I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms in graphic novel form as a kid, so seeing quite a number of familiar names given a canonised form, if you will, was both awe-inspiring and… puzzling. Perhaps it was just the way he’s been depicted, both in the graphic novel by AsiaPac I read and in Koei’s Dynasty Warriors game franchise (often as the face of the games no less), but Zhao Yun seemed oddly old for a member of the Five Tiger Generals with his ghostly-white complexion.

Finally, we headed south of the city centre to the New Century Global Centre, a mixed-use complex with a claim to fame of being the world’s largest building by floor area. It turned out to be underwhelming once we realised much of the massive space was occupied by the water park, with the shopping mall comparable to the average-sized mall.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Honestly, I came to find Chengdu in general underwhelming towards the end of our time there. Beyond the aforementioned cultural sites and Tianfu Red Mall, it is not a city I am particularly enthusiastic about revisiting any time soon.

I will admit though: There are still some places I would have liked to visit, like a cafe operated by the Chengdu-based audio company Moondrop which I could only find via Baidu Maps while I was there. It was sadly too far to fit into our already packed itinerary (an hour’s bus ride from the city centre).

I would’ve also liked to visit some music venues given that the city is home to a burgeoning hip-hop scene, with the four-man group Higher Brothers being Chinese hip-hop’s biggest export.

Doing research on China as a tourist sure is tough.

~ Wei Feng

Images: Myself