4ever Discovering
A (Jam-Packed) Day in Chengdu
If You Only Had One Day To Explore Chengdu, Here Is What You Can Do!
If you travel to China like Emily and I did, you will need to plan your trip very carefully. We wanted to see as many cities as possible within our time limit, so some cities got cut short. It is definitely best to spend at least 3 days in any city; that gives you enough time to explore and say you kind of know where you are going when walking around. Unfortunately for us, some cities we were only able to spend a day or two in; Chengdu being one of them. Emily and I knew for certain we wanted to see the Panda Research Base and the Leshan Buddha; however, we didn’t leave ourselves a lot of time to explore the rest of Chengdu. Because we spent most of our time with the pandas, I will give you a breakdown of what else we did within the few hours we had to spare!
The day we arrived in Chengdu, Emily and I knew we wanted to find something to do for the night. With time not on our side, we needed to do as much as we could in a short amount of time (even if it meant spending a little extra moolah along the way). Luckily, our hostel offered a fair amount of tours we could do to see more of the area. That night there was a tour pick-up/drop-off to see one of the infamous Sichuan Opera productions. Chinese Opera is huge and famous everywhere. Emily and I didn’t think we would get the chance to see a show again while we were in China, so decided to spend the money and see what all the fuss was about. It never really registered that the play would be in a different language at the time; however, it was so well performed, it didn’t even matter that I couldn’t understand it. There was enough emotion and drama to tell what was happening in the story.
After we paid for the tour, a car came and picked us up to head to the theatre. Before the show started, we were able to spend some time at one of the local tea houses (all included of course). It was pretty chilly, so it was nice to sit and have a cup of herbal tea. The one thing I noticed while in China was that there weren’t really any doors on the buildings. A lot of places just used large sheets of plastic with slits cut in them. It reminded me of a car wash. Because there wasn’t anything really blocking the air, I found many buildings were cold (including the tea house). While we were drinking our tea, there was a man walking around, asking if people wanted their ears cleaned. He was actually charging people to sit and enjoy having their ears Q-tipped (with a heavy duty, metal Q-tip). The strange part is, this is quite common in China. Emily and I met another girl who signed up for the tour who was teaching in China. She said she sees this all the time around there. The man even will show you the guck he pulls out from your ear. I don’t know about you, but I thought this was nasty, especially while you are enjoying a cup of tea! There is a time and place for everything; ear cleaning should remain in the bathroom.
After our tea, we assembled into the theatre with everyone else. It was a sold-out show; we had seats right in the back row, but we could still see everything. There wasn’t really a bad seat in the theatre. Now, something to know about Sichuan Opera is that it is known for ‘face-changing’. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard that, but I was excited to find out. Many of the actors wear masks throughout the performance, and continue to change them while on stage. It was like a magic trick; one minute the man was wearing an orange mask, then he stomped his feet and it changed colour. The actors continued to do this, some even changed their masks about 5 times in a row, all within 10 seconds. It was incredible how fast they could do, within us really knowing how they did it. Then, after they went through all the colours, all of a sudden the mask was gone! I guess a magician never reveals their secrets.
This show was filled with so much emotion, you really felt like you were a part of it. Although I didn’t fully understand what was going on, I figured out it was a love story about a man and a woman. From what I know, the man wasn’t wealthy or manly enough for the woman, so the dynasty sentenced him to the underworld. The woman loved him even though he wasn’t ‘right’ for her, and they eventually found each other again. The man grew stronger and overpowered the soldiers, finding his way back to the woman. Real sappy, eh? It was actually super entertaining; they even had an acrobat doing balancing stunts throughout the show. It was really impressive! Once the show was over, I left in awe wondering how the heck they changed their masks so fast without anyone seeing. It was an awesome experience, and definitely worth the time and money to go. Sidenote: This was rated as one of the top things to do in Chengdu on our city map, so that influenced our decision to go.
Along with the Sichuan Opera, Emily and I spent our remaining time trying out different foods in the area. Something important to know is that Chengdu is known for its spicy food. Even before we left for China, I was telling some locals where we were going, and all they said was be careful of the spicy food in Sichuan! I figured if people from other countries knew about this, it was probably true. I don’t enjoy spicy food all that much to begin with, so I wanted to make sure my mouth didn’t burn off while visiting here. As soon as we got to the hostel, the worker told us we had to try traditional Sichuan hot pot. Emily and I have eaten hot pot in Taiwan before, but I think in Chengdu they take the words ‘hot pot’ literally. Again, trying this dish was rated one of the top things to do in Chengdu, so we had to do it! I’m all about doing crazy things for my bucket list.
The hot pot Emily and I tried was (thankfully) not crazy spicy. After a long day visiting the Leshan Buddha, we were starving and found a restaurant nearby. Luckily the worker spoke English and understood when I told her ‘medium’ spicy. The hot pot was brought to the table in two separate broths; a creamy one on the outside, and the spicy one in the middle. This was great because we still got to try the really spicy one, and resort back to the ‘no spice’ if we didn’t like it. Emily and I hadn’t eaten all day, so when the menu came, I kind of went a little overboard ordering the dishes. Everything looked so good; it was like going to Costco on an empty stomach. You buy too much, and regret it later. Oh well. We had so much food; we both left the restaurant stuffed. I can confirm I did not enjoy the spicy broth; it wasn’t that it was too hot, there were just some overpowering spices in it I did not enjoy. Emily and I both stuck to the normal broth after trying both.
Although our time in Chengdu was short-lived, I think we did a great job exploring around and seeing what we really wanted to. We made our priority list, and put the pandas on top. Everything else we were able to do while we were there was just icing on the cake! I think we managed our time well enough to make the best out of a 2 day visit (with maybe cutting back on our sleep a little too much for a couple of nights). Overall, Emily and I had an awesome time in Chengdu and will most likely be back another time. There is still so much to explore of China, there was no way we would have been able to do it all in one trip! Chengdu is also not too far away from Tibet, so next time I come back, I will make a pit stop there (and maybe climb a little bit of Mount Everest!)
