Monday, Sept. 29
After less than two weeks on the job, Mark found himself with a week-long holiday. A lot of his colleagues went far afield for the duration, but we hadn't planned anything. We still haven't been assigned a car and driver, but we were able to borrow the car and driver from another expat who will be away for two weeks. The only problem is that the driver doesn't speak any English. We arranged to have him meet us at 9:00a.m. Monday morning in front of the hotel.
Zhang Juan is a short, muscular, well-groomed man probably closer to 40 than 30. He has already worked out a system to minimize communication problems. He has a notebook in which he has written down key phrases in English and Chinese. He also has a friend he will call on his cellphone to talk with us and tell us what he suggests (or ask what we want). Before we left the first day, he used one of the men from the hotel staff to get our plans for the day. Would we be wanting to go out of town? If we wanted an overnight trip, he would need two day's notice. We told him that we would be doing day trips only.
Our first stop was to the laundry, but it was closed for the day. Zhang took us to another one down the street. He went in with Mark (all the dirty clothes were Mark's - I'm waiting for our own washing machine) to make the arrangements.
Our second stop was Ikea to get more things for the apartment. It is one of those obnoxious stores that leads you through the entire store so you have to look at everything (although they had a few maps posted with some not very obvious short cuts). I left Mark in the lighting department doing a study of all the types of light bulbs available while I found a dish rack, hot pads, and wastebaskets. I looked at placemats, but did not see any I particularly liked. Among the stranger ones available were red plastic ones with a pair of white rats, with their tails making heart shapes. I could have also bought a red rat napkin holder to go with it. (Is this the year of the rat?) We found a couple of upright lamps (with the proper light bulbs) to use next to our bed; they came packaged in compact boxes about 15 x 10 x 5.
I was carrying the lamp boxes (and Mark everything else) as we rode the escalator down to the parking area. Zhang saw us from below and quickly ran up the stairs and down the escalator to relieve me of the boxes. It was a thoughtful gesture, but also one that made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
Mark and I pointed to a large park - the nearest one we could find on the map - as our next destination. It was labeled "Dongu Park of Municipal administration". We didn't know what we'd find there, but it looked large and showed two lakes. We drove up to the park, but it seemed that much of the park was taken over by a large wedding.
On Saturday, Jane had pointed out a procession of cars with pink ribbons, designating a wedding party. Saturdays - and the National Holiday week - are propicious times for weddings. The confluence of the two rivers - at the park next to the Shangri-La - is a particularly auspicious place to be photographed because of the symbolism of the joining of two bodies of water.
Zhang pointed to "Wait a moment" in his phrase book, then called his friend to translate. His friend suggested that we would be better off going to Huang Lon Xi (Yellow Dragon Stream), an old town that has become a major tourist attraction. We agreed. It took close to an hour to drive the 30 or so km. south of town. It was our first time out of the city. It took a while to reach the end of the highrises (some of them very upscale), then we passed through a town with mostly two-story buildings, then at last into the countryside. Everything was green - a lot of terracing, a fair amount of water. There was a new four-lane road the entire way. Just before getting to the town, we passed through an area of grape arbors; there were dozens of little stalls along the end of the road, each with three or four fat bunches of grapes hanging from the top. Since we have been getting plenty of fruit at the Shangri-La, we didn't buy any, but it made me aware that I need to learn how to clean the fruits and vegetables here properly. Jan told me that some women use a few drops of borax. Others use detergent, then rinse them thoroughly, but this won't kill all the germs.
Huang Long Xi has a few genuinely old temples and has a long history as a center of trade, but the touristly part of town is most new buildings built in a traditional style - two-story, overhanging balconies with wooden posts, black tiled roofs with corners that point upward. The narrow, pedestrian-only streets are tiled with gray stone, and the buildings were festooned with red paper lanterns. It was crowded but orderly. We didn't see any other Western tourists, so seeing the Chinese crowds was part of the attraction. As we crossed a curved bridge into the main tourist area, we saw several women sitting on mats weaving hats and decorations from brightly colored flowers. We saw the occasional tourist wearing one of these halos of ferns and flowers. The shops are all the type with pull-up metal doors like we use on garages, so it was easy to peer in. One had a large rack of brightly-colored long dresses of satins and brocades, including a shoulderless wedding gown, several antebellum dresses, and some traditional Chinese outfits. We soon realized that this was a photography place. Mark and I considered getting a picture taken for our Christmas cards (the one male outfit was a Chinese warrior), but in the end decided against it. There were several more shops like this one, and we saw a number of teenage girls dressed up in hoopskirts and broad-rimmed hats and long hair-pieces taking pictures of themselves, or posing for pictures at scenic spots.
There were tacky tourist items that wouldn't have looked out of place in the U.S. There were jade carvings and jewelry and hand-painted silk. I would have liked to look longer at the silk, but a shopgirl kept thrusting scarves at me, label forward, saying "silk! silk!", so it wasn't worth the effort.
Most of the stores sold food. The restaurants had large plastic tubs in front of them filled with live fish and eels. I saw one woman gutting the fish on the street, leaving a pile of bloody guts on the ground. Fresh vegetables were also displayed on the street. Some stores sold mounds of fried fish or shrimp, other were cooking sate. The tea vendors had a sort of fountain arrangement when the tea boiled over the top of a glass pitcher into a pool with dried flowers and other tea ingredients.
Zhang had insisted on coming with us. When Mark wanted to try some sate, Zhang insisted on paying for it. While Mark and I would have been quite happy just "grazing", I felt we needed a sit-down lunch to repay Zhang, especially since the noon meal may be his main one. We found a restaurant which overlooked the river in the back. Fortunately the menu had items listed in English as well as Chinese. We were each given a small bowl, chopsticks, and a small packet of kleenex for napkins. The eggplant in garlic was very tasty - 5" slices of thin Asian eggplant swimming in a sea of garlic, ginger, chillies, peppers, and oil. Altough I tried to get mainly eggplant, I ended up with a pool of oil at the bottom of my bowl. We also had a kung pao pork, but the small pieces of pork were mostly fat. We had some green (what we called kankung in Indonesia) which were good. We had been urged to order a soup as well, though it turned out to be far too much food. We had to ask for separate bowls for the soup. It was a light broth (it appears that the local soups function more as an alternative drink - we also had tea - than as a stand-alone taste sensation. It had large pieces of egg, cabbage, and thin slices of tomato floating in it. It was actually a very pleasant meal, costing about $7.50 for the three of us.
From the glassless window we could see the confluence of the two rivers. An occasional motorboat would zoom past with ten passengers in bright orange life vests. The more traditional transport is a two-deck flatbed boat propelled by two men wielding long poles.
After lunch we needed a long walk. Part of the waterfront had tea gardens several tables deep, shaded with trees and umbrellas. The large rattan chairs had armrests and looked comfortable. Some people were playing mah jong or other games. An old woman was selling baby rabbits from a wicker basket - with smaller baskets for taking home your rabbit. A man had a cotton-candy machine on the back of his bicycle - he made spherical white balls of candy on a stick. Another woman was making an intricate pattern of sticky candy on a glass, which would harden into a lollipop. We saw the harbor where we could board one of the traditional boats.
We walked on to a pedestrian suspension bridge leading to the spit of land between the two rivers. The bridge was crowded both ways. It was fairly bouncing, helped along with the efforts of several teenagers, but it felt safe and stable.
On the other side there was the low rent spillover from the old town. There were amusement rides and games - shoot the balloons off a board with a rifle, spin a wheel to win cigarettes, a bungy bounce for kids. The unpathed path was muddy in places, so we had to watch our step. Again, there were lots of tables set up under the trees with people drinking tea and playing games. There were some old trees that signs claimed were over 1000 years old. They certainly had wide, gnarled trunks.
We walked over another suspension bridge to the other side of the river, but there didn't seem to be much to see there. On the way back, we saw a man herding three large pigs across the bridge. Ahead of us were a couple of men on motorcycles. They were going slowly, but the lead one didn't seem to realize that his motor would spook the animals, so he had to stop as the pig-herder calmed them down. They had no trouble with our passing.
When Mark commented on a teenage girl bouncing the bridge, I remarked that he would have done the same at her age. If he did it now, I warned him, he could come back in 6 months and everyone would point him out as the man who shook the bridge!
Tuesday, September 30
This morning we went to the Panding breeding area, which was about a 40 minute drive. It's very new and set up to cater to foreign tourists; when we viewed it from Google map, the park was not yet completed. (Then again, the Shangri-La Hotel does not appear on Google map, and the Waterfront is in the process of being built, so the satellite images lag behind.) We got there right at opening, at 9:00 a.m., as did several tourist groups. There are a lot of paths to take to the various panda enclosures, so we tried to time things so we had the exhibits more or less to ourselves. We saw a couple of the adult giant pandas eating bamboo and another one turn herself over, but that was about it for giant panda activity. There was an indoor hospital for infant pandas. Two tiny ones, about 8" long, were in incubators. Two others, about 15" tall, were being held by women dressed in surgical hats, gowns, and face masks. They looked like stuffed animals until one began pawing at his nanny's breast, and she bottle fed them. After feeding, they were placed in a crib with a pink blanket.
The red pandas were much livelier and more fun to watch. They look like racoons with bushy red backs, red-striped tails, and bushy brown legs. There were seven of them playing together and going after the food they had just been fed. Mark took some good pictures for his father, who is an animal buff.
The panda area is heavily forested, mostly with bamboo, though the pandas eat so much bamboo that most of their supply is grown elsewhere, nearer to their natural habitat in the mountains. There is a large lake on one side of the park which has friendly black swans. There are tables and chairs for a tea garden along part of the lake; the water nearby is just bubbling over with carp - goldfish - most of them 12-18" long, in white, gold, orange, black and various calico colors. Mark also had a good time photographing the butterflies among the zinnias.
Shinhua Bookstore
After we left the pandas, we wanted to find some better maps of Chengdu, so we asked Zhang to take us to a book store. The one he took us to is not far off of Times Square, the large walking mall I had visited with Jane. There was a map stand just inside the door, but the only maps of Chengdu were a bus map and others that had no more detail that the one we already had from the hotel. Then Zhang led us through the store - which was packed with people, most of them young - up two escalators to their real map section. It was map heaven. We ended up with two road atlases of China (one in Chinese and one in English), and eight assorted maps and map books of Chengdu and Sichuan province. Most of them are in Chinese, which will take a bit of getting used to. One of the most useful ones we found was a "Cultural Sites Map of Chengdu", which was published in August, 2008 (4 yuan - 6 yuan to a dollar). It has dozens of museums (two textile museums, an insect museum, a natual history museum, science museum, and many art and history ones), parks, and other places of interest. It will take us quite a while to work through them all. (Online, I have also read of a mah jong/ tea culture museum which opened last March.)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
September 25-28: Rainy Days
Thursday, Sept. 25
There was a spectacular lightning storm in the morning, and a heavy gray cloud made the morning almost as dark as night. It was a good morning to stay in.
The weather had lightened somewhat by midmorning, when I had my first Chinese lesson. My teacher is a young women who uses the English name of May - since May is her favorite month. She has taught Chinese part time for the two years while she is studying graphic design at the university.
Most of the first lesson was on pronunciation - tones and vowel sounds. I learned just a few phrases at the very end - "I am an American" and "Mandarin language". She also gave me a book - "Chinese made Easier", which has two CD's - one on pronunciation and the other on the lessons. In the next two days (what are rainy days for?) I went through the first 20 of the 32 pronunciation lessons. The trouble is that after a while everything starts sounding alike. I can manage the tones by themselves, and some of the sounds by themselves (x is a sh sound, but with the tongue behind the lower teeth instead of the upper), but putting it all together is a tonguetwister of major proportions. The pronunciation appendices don't help much by telling me that the "ch" is "voiceless aspirated palat-alveolar affricate" and that the "ang" vowel is "low central unrounded voiced velar nasal". I think I'm better off just listening to the tapes and trying to imitate them the best I can.
Lesson 1 in the book was much more satisfying than the pronunciation exercises. I can now say hello, good-bye, "I am not a teacher", and "Miss Lu is a student." The Chinese is given in both the pinyan and the characters; I'm trying to learn both at the same time. I have another book of characters I'm studying. I keep looking at the characters on signs and trying to read them; frustration at being illiterate is a great incentive for studying.
Friday evening Mark and I went out to eat with Jane and her husband Jerome, who is Mark's colleague. The restaurant wasn't that far away from the hotel, but what with the traffic and the rain, it took us close to an hour. It gave us a chance to get acquainted - I had never met Jerome before, and Mark had not met Jane. We ate at "The Vegetarian Lifestyle" restaurant, which is on the fourth floor of a large shopping center. It specializes in vegetarian versions of traditional Chinese dishes. One of our selections was "cashew chicken", with the "chicken" out of tofu. It was quite good, but I was more interested in vegetables that look and taste like vegetables. Our best dish was mushrooms with long skinny stems in a teriyaki sauce. We also had mixed vegetables, including slices of pumpkin, and a spicy green bean dish. The restaurant was clean and pleasant, and even has good bathrooms - I wouldn't mind eating there again.
After dinner we drove to the Waterfront to meet Bessy; Mark had arranged for us to have a night-time viewing of our apartment to see if the lighting is adequate. We drove into the basement parking area which is under all six of the Waterfront highrises, then took the elevator from the basement to the 29th floor. Except for the kitchen, the lighting seemed adequate, so we told Bessy that we would like to start the moving in process.
The Chinese National Holiday is October 1. Many of the schools and businesses were in session the last weekend in September so that they could be off the entire week of Sept 29 - October 5. When Bessy told us that she would be off, but that her colleague Anthony would handle our moving in on October 1, we were a little skeptical that we'd be able to keep to this schedule.
Since Mark was working on Saturday, Jane picked me up to go to Carrefour, a French department/grocery store, to pick up some provisions for the apartment. Jane's driver, Yuan, speaks beautiful English, and was a great help to us. When Jane couldn't find envelopes in the store, she called him on her cell phone so he could talk to the store clerk and tell her what she needed. I bought some toilet paper, Listerine (two priorities with Mark), detergent, soap, sponges, kleenex and shampoo. The brands were for the most part unfamiliar, as was the arrangement of goods, but check-out procedures are about the same. Stores have started charging for plastic bags; I bought a cloth Carrefour bag instead, and will plan to bring my own bags in the future.
On Sunday morning it had finally stopped raining. Jane picked me up again, and we went to Jinli Street to look around. We didn't buy any street food, but we had a good look at some of the shops. Neither one of us was interested in buying anything just yet. A clerk in the silk shop said she remembered me (from my July visit.) I don't know whether she really remembered me (I had just looked around for about five minutes and hadn't bought anything) or if we all look alike.
There was a spectacular lightning storm in the morning, and a heavy gray cloud made the morning almost as dark as night. It was a good morning to stay in.
The weather had lightened somewhat by midmorning, when I had my first Chinese lesson. My teacher is a young women who uses the English name of May - since May is her favorite month. She has taught Chinese part time for the two years while she is studying graphic design at the university.
Most of the first lesson was on pronunciation - tones and vowel sounds. I learned just a few phrases at the very end - "I am an American" and "Mandarin language". She also gave me a book - "Chinese made Easier", which has two CD's - one on pronunciation and the other on the lessons. In the next two days (what are rainy days for?) I went through the first 20 of the 32 pronunciation lessons. The trouble is that after a while everything starts sounding alike. I can manage the tones by themselves, and some of the sounds by themselves (x is a sh sound, but with the tongue behind the lower teeth instead of the upper), but putting it all together is a tonguetwister of major proportions. The pronunciation appendices don't help much by telling me that the "ch" is "voiceless aspirated palat-alveolar affricate" and that the "ang" vowel is "low central unrounded voiced velar nasal". I think I'm better off just listening to the tapes and trying to imitate them the best I can.
Lesson 1 in the book was much more satisfying than the pronunciation exercises. I can now say hello, good-bye, "I am not a teacher", and "Miss Lu is a student." The Chinese is given in both the pinyan and the characters; I'm trying to learn both at the same time. I have another book of characters I'm studying. I keep looking at the characters on signs and trying to read them; frustration at being illiterate is a great incentive for studying.
Friday evening Mark and I went out to eat with Jane and her husband Jerome, who is Mark's colleague. The restaurant wasn't that far away from the hotel, but what with the traffic and the rain, it took us close to an hour. It gave us a chance to get acquainted - I had never met Jerome before, and Mark had not met Jane. We ate at "The Vegetarian Lifestyle" restaurant, which is on the fourth floor of a large shopping center. It specializes in vegetarian versions of traditional Chinese dishes. One of our selections was "cashew chicken", with the "chicken" out of tofu. It was quite good, but I was more interested in vegetables that look and taste like vegetables. Our best dish was mushrooms with long skinny stems in a teriyaki sauce. We also had mixed vegetables, including slices of pumpkin, and a spicy green bean dish. The restaurant was clean and pleasant, and even has good bathrooms - I wouldn't mind eating there again.
After dinner we drove to the Waterfront to meet Bessy; Mark had arranged for us to have a night-time viewing of our apartment to see if the lighting is adequate. We drove into the basement parking area which is under all six of the Waterfront highrises, then took the elevator from the basement to the 29th floor. Except for the kitchen, the lighting seemed adequate, so we told Bessy that we would like to start the moving in process.
The Chinese National Holiday is October 1. Many of the schools and businesses were in session the last weekend in September so that they could be off the entire week of Sept 29 - October 5. When Bessy told us that she would be off, but that her colleague Anthony would handle our moving in on October 1, we were a little skeptical that we'd be able to keep to this schedule.
Since Mark was working on Saturday, Jane picked me up to go to Carrefour, a French department/grocery store, to pick up some provisions for the apartment. Jane's driver, Yuan, speaks beautiful English, and was a great help to us. When Jane couldn't find envelopes in the store, she called him on her cell phone so he could talk to the store clerk and tell her what she needed. I bought some toilet paper, Listerine (two priorities with Mark), detergent, soap, sponges, kleenex and shampoo. The brands were for the most part unfamiliar, as was the arrangement of goods, but check-out procedures are about the same. Stores have started charging for plastic bags; I bought a cloth Carrefour bag instead, and will plan to bring my own bags in the future.
On Sunday morning it had finally stopped raining. Jane picked me up again, and we went to Jinli Street to look around. We didn't buy any street food, but we had a good look at some of the shops. Neither one of us was interested in buying anything just yet. A clerk in the silk shop said she remembered me (from my July visit.) I don't know whether she really remembered me (I had just looked around for about five minutes and hadn't bought anything) or if we all look alike.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
September 24: Food and Friends
Although hotel life is getting to be a bit old for us, it has been a good way to meet people. I just found out that Robyn and Peter, whom we have been talking to regularly, will be living across the hall from us at the Waterfront. It always helps to have neighbors we know and like. We've also gotten to know two contracters who are here living in the hotel indefinitely. Colin is British, though he has spent most of his career working in Houston. He has a wry British sense of humor; he delights in seeing the irony of situations. Calvin is Chinese, with excellent English. He's the one who recommended the laundry to us. On Monday evening, he invited Mark and me to join him for supper at a nearby restaurant which has been nicknamed "The $5 Restaurant". After a hour of talking and snacking at the Horizon Club, we weren't all that hungry, but we managed to put away most of three dishes: barbeque pork ribs, a dish that seemed sort of like mushrooms but was some kind of sea creature, and green beans. The green beans were heavily coated with a mixture of small brown balls, which I think were a mixture of beef and peppers. This kind of Sechuan pepper isn't overly hot, but it numbs your lips. All of the dishes were highly seasoned - I think they were designed to be eaten with copious amounts of rice. Calvin treated us, and we thanked him, knowing that we'll be treating him at a later date. The Chinese generally don't go Dutch treat.
On Tuesday, Mark invited me to join him for lunch at the $2.50 restaurant, which is basically an employee cafeteria in the basement of his building. I would have never found it on my own; we had to walk through the parking garage. It doesn't accept money; Mark had to buy a ticket that's good for 20 meals, to be eaten by October 31. Since there is a one week holiday coming up, he felt he needed help reaching twenty times. It's very basic but a lot of food: one menu per day, no variations. We had a cafeteria tray with a large pile of white rice, tofu and duck (mostly bone and skin), cooked cabbage, narrow green onions (chives?) with tiny pieces of port, and a light soup with a few piece of tomato floating in the bottom. the only choice was whether to have tea or lemon-water. It wasn't bad, and it was certainly filling. However, Friday's meal has port tripe as the entree, so I can see why Mark may not want to eat there every day. (Most of the people in his office go to somewhat pricier places.)
It rained most of Tuesday and Wednesday - lots of thunder and lightning Wednesday a.m. Marya, whom I had known when we lived in Cairns, has been here since April. She picked me up for coffee this morning. It was no longer raining heavily, but some of the streets were still flooded and traffic was bad. There were still lots of people out on their motorbikes and bicycles, most of them wearing nearly identical hooded ponchos mostly in navy, red, or yellow. Some of them had a large variation with a see-through panel in front; this was spread over their legs and the front of their vehicle.
We had tea at the Bookworm, and cafe/bookstore that caters to Westerners. We both had tea, which came in tall glass mugs with flowers and dates floating on top. Marya had the "yin enhancer" and I had the "harmonizer". This is where the weekly craft group meets, so I got to meet many of the women as they came in, but Marya had to leave to do other errands, so we didn't stay.
This afternoon [Wednesday] I was picked up by Shirley, a Maxxelli relocation agent, who took me to the Bank of China to open an account. Shirley filled out all the paperwork for me, but I still had to sign my name on about 8 pieces of paper and input my 6-number code about as many times. All this for an account of 90 yuan - about $15. I can put dollars in the account, but then I can only take them out as dollars. If I want to use my card at the ATM or to make purchases, I need to first change my dollars to yuan, then deposit them.
I took advantage of having a car at our disposal to stop by the laundry to pick up our clothes. The woman at the laundry looked flustered and told me "tomorrow" - one of the few Chinese words I recognize. But I saw all of our shirts hanging up, so I pointed to them. She then agreed, took then off the hangers, and put them in a plastic bag. Shirley came in to help. The woman at the laundry told her that if I called first, they could deliver (for me it was easier to be there in person than to call). Also, I should bring my own plastic bags from now on since they have to pay for bags.
We also visited global doctors, which has two multi-lingual general practitioners and can expedite care from Chinese-speaking specialists. Shirley then took me to a pharmacy near the Waterfront, but she said that pharmacies here have mostly Chinese medicine. The glass display cases were filled with boxes with Chinese writing only - and I don't think any of them are the equivalent of Western drugs. There were some containers of dried flowers and leaves that looked a lot like the things I saw floating in my tea at the Bookworm.
The weather had cleared up; it was actually somewhat sunny when I got back to the hotel.
In talking with other expats, we were lucky that our landlord supplied most of the furniture. People who came through earlier were told to pick their furniture from "Home Essentials", which had catalogs of various types of furniture. There was trouble with delivery. Marya said that none of the furniture delivered matched what she had chosen, and it was poorly made. Jane had the furniture delivered, but it was taken away when Home Essentials lost the contract. She had a bed from the landlord and a little patio table and chairs she bought herself, but she has been without any other furniture for two weeks. There is an allowance for buying furniture and linens, but no one is allowed to exceed the limit set for any one item. One man complained that the company trusts him to make multi-million dollar decisions, but he was not allowed to get the linens he wanted because the total packeage exceeded the allowance by about $25 - the time wasted in shopping around is not factored in. This problem and others are primarily caused by having an office that is growing so quickly in a new environment that it hasn't figured out logical procedures. Finding English-speaking drivers is another such problem; there isn't a pool of expat drivers because it is a new profession for Chengdu.
On Tuesday, Mark invited me to join him for lunch at the $2.50 restaurant, which is basically an employee cafeteria in the basement of his building. I would have never found it on my own; we had to walk through the parking garage. It doesn't accept money; Mark had to buy a ticket that's good for 20 meals, to be eaten by October 31. Since there is a one week holiday coming up, he felt he needed help reaching twenty times. It's very basic but a lot of food: one menu per day, no variations. We had a cafeteria tray with a large pile of white rice, tofu and duck (mostly bone and skin), cooked cabbage, narrow green onions (chives?) with tiny pieces of port, and a light soup with a few piece of tomato floating in the bottom. the only choice was whether to have tea or lemon-water. It wasn't bad, and it was certainly filling. However, Friday's meal has port tripe as the entree, so I can see why Mark may not want to eat there every day. (Most of the people in his office go to somewhat pricier places.)
It rained most of Tuesday and Wednesday - lots of thunder and lightning Wednesday a.m. Marya, whom I had known when we lived in Cairns, has been here since April. She picked me up for coffee this morning. It was no longer raining heavily, but some of the streets were still flooded and traffic was bad. There were still lots of people out on their motorbikes and bicycles, most of them wearing nearly identical hooded ponchos mostly in navy, red, or yellow. Some of them had a large variation with a see-through panel in front; this was spread over their legs and the front of their vehicle.
We had tea at the Bookworm, and cafe/bookstore that caters to Westerners. We both had tea, which came in tall glass mugs with flowers and dates floating on top. Marya had the "yin enhancer" and I had the "harmonizer". This is where the weekly craft group meets, so I got to meet many of the women as they came in, but Marya had to leave to do other errands, so we didn't stay.
This afternoon [Wednesday] I was picked up by Shirley, a Maxxelli relocation agent, who took me to the Bank of China to open an account. Shirley filled out all the paperwork for me, but I still had to sign my name on about 8 pieces of paper and input my 6-number code about as many times. All this for an account of 90 yuan - about $15. I can put dollars in the account, but then I can only take them out as dollars. If I want to use my card at the ATM or to make purchases, I need to first change my dollars to yuan, then deposit them.
I took advantage of having a car at our disposal to stop by the laundry to pick up our clothes. The woman at the laundry looked flustered and told me "tomorrow" - one of the few Chinese words I recognize. But I saw all of our shirts hanging up, so I pointed to them. She then agreed, took then off the hangers, and put them in a plastic bag. Shirley came in to help. The woman at the laundry told her that if I called first, they could deliver (for me it was easier to be there in person than to call). Also, I should bring my own plastic bags from now on since they have to pay for bags.
We also visited global doctors, which has two multi-lingual general practitioners and can expedite care from Chinese-speaking specialists. Shirley then took me to a pharmacy near the Waterfront, but she said that pharmacies here have mostly Chinese medicine. The glass display cases were filled with boxes with Chinese writing only - and I don't think any of them are the equivalent of Western drugs. There were some containers of dried flowers and leaves that looked a lot like the things I saw floating in my tea at the Bookworm.
The weather had cleared up; it was actually somewhat sunny when I got back to the hotel.
In talking with other expats, we were lucky that our landlord supplied most of the furniture. People who came through earlier were told to pick their furniture from "Home Essentials", which had catalogs of various types of furniture. There was trouble with delivery. Marya said that none of the furniture delivered matched what she had chosen, and it was poorly made. Jane had the furniture delivered, but it was taken away when Home Essentials lost the contract. She had a bed from the landlord and a little patio table and chairs she bought herself, but she has been without any other furniture for two weeks. There is an allowance for buying furniture and linens, but no one is allowed to exceed the limit set for any one item. One man complained that the company trusts him to make multi-million dollar decisions, but he was not allowed to get the linens he wanted because the total packeage exceeded the allowance by about $25 - the time wasted in shopping around is not factored in. This problem and others are primarily caused by having an office that is growing so quickly in a new environment that it hasn't figured out logical procedures. Finding English-speaking drivers is another such problem; there isn't a pool of expat drivers because it is a new profession for Chengdu.
Monday, September 22, 2008
September 22, 2008
Yesterday afternoon Mark and I walked over to the area behind our new apartment complex, the Waterfront, to see what shops are there. There are several other large apartment complexes as well, so shopping is not as plentiful as it could be. The older complexes – those with 5-6 stories, have shops on the ground floor. The street immediately behind the Waterfront has several restaurants, a fruit and vegetable store, and a convenience store. In one small shop we saw a man who had various pastries for sale. Mark asked him how much – about 16¢ each – so he got one for each of us. It was about the size of a Hot Pocket with greens, at least some of them onions, inside. It was quite good and filling.
Mark was on the look for a barber shop since his hair is getting rather long. We passed several – most of them appear to be unisex. The young man standing in front of one of them had spiked hair, so I teased Mark about getting a similar “do”. (The previous day, we had seen a man having his hair cut with an electric hair-cutter while sitting on a bench along the river; that would have been another “first” for Mark.)
We saw a couple of shops selling padded winter coats. They looked like down coats, but we suspect that they are cotton-filled; we saw another shop where a woman was making cotton batting. She was wearing a face mask to protect herself from the flying cotton.
Most of the sidewalks in this area are fairly broad. In one area we saw a large poodle with a fresh clipping, and its ears, head poof, and tail dyed bright blue, pink and yellow – cotton candy colors. As we walked by the shop, there were two more dogs in there being groomed. We’ve seen quite a few dogs, most of them small and unleashed. Most of them appear to have been well socialized – they trail behind their owners without barking at anything, but we saw one that ran away from his owner. He crossed the street on his own – it was two-lane one-way and the cars were going fairly fast. Fortunately, a man on a motorbike stopped and held him until his owner could get there. The owner bowed to the man on the motorbike in thanks, then picked up his dog, which he proceeded to scold like a young child.
Most of the motor bikes we’ve seen are quite small, and at least half of them are being ridden by women, who may have on a dainty dress or dress pants, their feet in high-heels resting demurely on the floor in front of them. Not a single Hell’s Angel in sight.
On Monday I had two main tasks to accomplish: 1) take our clothes to the laundry and 2) inspect our apartment. The laundry was on the other side of the river. Although my map of Chengdu does not give the smaller roads, I was able to see the area from the Horizon Club and see that the shortest path was through an alley. I balked at walking through the streets carrying a black plastic bag of dirty clothes, but I was able to fit most of them into a large cloth bag. The bridge is right across the street from the Shangri-La, but there was no way I was going to get across without the aid of a map. I walked to the corner, crossing the main small tributary on the way. The bridge has low walls of pink granite, into which are dragons or scene from China’s past – quite nicely down. I took a closer look at the park on the other side, and realized that it is a park commemorating the river works of the 1990s.
Although the corner has a light on it, the traffic turning right does not stop, so I was unsure how I was going to get across. There were no other pedestrians crossing at this point, so I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to manage it. Then a very short older woman (probably about my age!) walked up slowly with a slight limp. I must have really looked lost, since the woman took my arm and walked me across the street. She released her hold only when we neared to curb. I thanked her – thanks is one of the few words I know yet.
The rest of the way to the laundry was easy. In the alley I walked by a man stirring a large pot of ginger root in water and a woman cutting up meat, probably for the adjacent restaurants, but I didn’t feel uneasy walking that route. We managed quite well at the laundry without any language. The younger woman wrote down something descriptive for each shirt and pair of pants, but lumped the underwear. It still wasn’t cheap – about $21 for a load of laundry with 10 shirts – but at the hotel it would have been over $6 per shirt. I’m looking forward to having my own washing machine again.
I met Bessy, our young relocation expert, to go through the apartment at the Waterfront. While none of the furniture is stuff I would have chosen myself, it is sufficiently comfortable and practical. It is a step more austere than Danish Modern – a lot of blonde veneer rectangles – but I think it will look more homey once we have our pictures and our things here. There are a few things we want changed – primarily more light in the kitchen and bathrooms – but it’s all relatively minor. We’re hoping we may be able to move in by the end of the week. October 1 is the National Holiday, and everything shuts down for a week, including Mark’s office, so I’d rather be in our new apartment, where we have things to do, than in the hotel. If we had been here longer, it would have been a good time to take a trip outside the city, but it looks like it will be a few weeks yet before we have a driver.
I walked to the Waterfront and back by myself and feel fairly comfortable crossing the one major road on the way. Walking is a good way to get to know the city and to get a feel for the people who live here.
Mark was on the look for a barber shop since his hair is getting rather long. We passed several – most of them appear to be unisex. The young man standing in front of one of them had spiked hair, so I teased Mark about getting a similar “do”. (The previous day, we had seen a man having his hair cut with an electric hair-cutter while sitting on a bench along the river; that would have been another “first” for Mark.)
We saw a couple of shops selling padded winter coats. They looked like down coats, but we suspect that they are cotton-filled; we saw another shop where a woman was making cotton batting. She was wearing a face mask to protect herself from the flying cotton.
Most of the sidewalks in this area are fairly broad. In one area we saw a large poodle with a fresh clipping, and its ears, head poof, and tail dyed bright blue, pink and yellow – cotton candy colors. As we walked by the shop, there were two more dogs in there being groomed. We’ve seen quite a few dogs, most of them small and unleashed. Most of them appear to have been well socialized – they trail behind their owners without barking at anything, but we saw one that ran away from his owner. He crossed the street on his own – it was two-lane one-way and the cars were going fairly fast. Fortunately, a man on a motorbike stopped and held him until his owner could get there. The owner bowed to the man on the motorbike in thanks, then picked up his dog, which he proceeded to scold like a young child.
Most of the motor bikes we’ve seen are quite small, and at least half of them are being ridden by women, who may have on a dainty dress or dress pants, their feet in high-heels resting demurely on the floor in front of them. Not a single Hell’s Angel in sight.
On Monday I had two main tasks to accomplish: 1) take our clothes to the laundry and 2) inspect our apartment. The laundry was on the other side of the river. Although my map of Chengdu does not give the smaller roads, I was able to see the area from the Horizon Club and see that the shortest path was through an alley. I balked at walking through the streets carrying a black plastic bag of dirty clothes, but I was able to fit most of them into a large cloth bag. The bridge is right across the street from the Shangri-La, but there was no way I was going to get across without the aid of a map. I walked to the corner, crossing the main small tributary on the way. The bridge has low walls of pink granite, into which are dragons or scene from China’s past – quite nicely down. I took a closer look at the park on the other side, and realized that it is a park commemorating the river works of the 1990s.
Although the corner has a light on it, the traffic turning right does not stop, so I was unsure how I was going to get across. There were no other pedestrians crossing at this point, so I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to manage it. Then a very short older woman (probably about my age!) walked up slowly with a slight limp. I must have really looked lost, since the woman took my arm and walked me across the street. She released her hold only when we neared to curb. I thanked her – thanks is one of the few words I know yet.
The rest of the way to the laundry was easy. In the alley I walked by a man stirring a large pot of ginger root in water and a woman cutting up meat, probably for the adjacent restaurants, but I didn’t feel uneasy walking that route. We managed quite well at the laundry without any language. The younger woman wrote down something descriptive for each shirt and pair of pants, but lumped the underwear. It still wasn’t cheap – about $21 for a load of laundry with 10 shirts – but at the hotel it would have been over $6 per shirt. I’m looking forward to having my own washing machine again.
I met Bessy, our young relocation expert, to go through the apartment at the Waterfront. While none of the furniture is stuff I would have chosen myself, it is sufficiently comfortable and practical. It is a step more austere than Danish Modern – a lot of blonde veneer rectangles – but I think it will look more homey once we have our pictures and our things here. There are a few things we want changed – primarily more light in the kitchen and bathrooms – but it’s all relatively minor. We’re hoping we may be able to move in by the end of the week. October 1 is the National Holiday, and everything shuts down for a week, including Mark’s office, so I’d rather be in our new apartment, where we have things to do, than in the hotel. If we had been here longer, it would have been a good time to take a trip outside the city, but it looks like it will be a few weeks yet before we have a driver.
I walked to the Waterfront and back by myself and feel fairly comfortable crossing the one major road on the way. Walking is a good way to get to know the city and to get a feel for the people who live here.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
September 21, 2008: First week in Chengdu
September 19
Our flight to Chengdu from Denver from blessedly uneventful. We arrived in Chengdu just before 10:30pm, apparently the last plane in for the night. The airport staff seemed ready to get us through in a hurry. By the time Mark and I finished filling out the immigration forms (flight no., passport no., visa no., are we here for business or to “settle down”?), there were two men hovering over us urging us to pass through immigration. We picked up our bags – some of the only few remaining – and were ushered through “Nothing to Declare”. Our suitcases were sent through an x-ray machine, but evidently we had nothing to interest customs. A driver met us in the main part of the airport, and drove us smoothly through the nearly empty streets of the city to the Shangri-La Hotel.
The next morning [September 17] Mark and I walked over to his new office. He’s on the 26th floor, which is mainly cubicles, but he has a corner one with windows on two sides. We were there long enough for me to watch the students from a school walk out to a field and arrange themselves into lines so even that even the diagonals were straight! Further to the west is a huge construction site, when the concrete base has just been laid. Two sides of the construction site are lined with two-story temporary barracks, white with blue roofs, for housing the construction workers.
Mark and I were each given cell phones – Nokia 6300s. A colleague of Mark’s was able to switch them so that the menu is now in English rather than Chinese, but the instruction book was completely in Chinese. We were later able to download a 56-page English version, which I have yet to read. I can receive calls, but have yet to master anything else. Even after I’m proficient, we still won’t be able to use our phones to call outside of China. We’re going to investigate using the internet (Skype.com) to make our international calls. Other people who have been here longer have managed to do so.
The walk through our new apartment was postponed until Monday. Language lessons will begin that week as well, and we will start interviewing drivers. At this time, there are no candidates who speak English, so the interview will be either challenging or useless, possibly both.
Since there was nothing I could do to help get our apartment ready, I worked a bit on some old projects, did some reading, and studied a bit of Chinese. Our room has an internet connection and universal plugs so I’ve been able to plug in my computer. I discovered that the marble-topped bathtub also had its own remote and LCD TV screen embedded in the wall – I have yet to try it out. The hotel gym has a large pool, tennis courts, a spa, and a large exercise room. It has its own marble-floored reception area; my somewhat crumpled T-shirt and shorts seemed somewhat out of place. I tried out the bicycle and the treadmill – the only machines I know how to operate. After a man finished using another treadmill, I had the exercise area to myself.
Breakfasts and “happy hour” at the Horizon Club proved to be good times to meet other people with Mark’s company and learn of their experiences. We were invited to join another couple, Robyn and Peter, in attending a dinner arranged by the Chengdu International Women’s group at Selut, a Spanish restaurant. We enjoyed talking with the other people there, though we are still a bit too jet-lagged to do evenings well.
September 21
On Saturday Mark and I decided it was time to start exploring Chengdu by foot – to take advantage of our days without a driver or a home to take care of. We set off shortly after 9:00a.m. with a map and a Chinese phrasebook. It was foggy/hazy enough that we didn’t bring along hats or sunglasses.
The Shangri-La Hotel is separated from the Jinjiang River by Binjiang Road, which was busy enough on a Saturday morning that we decided to walk to the corner and cross with the light. We had to cross over a major tributary, which had a narrow park running alongside it. There was a large fountain near the corner. We saw two wedding parties being photographed in this park.
Crossing streets in Chengdu is an art form, even if there is a traffic light. Turning vehicles do not consider that lights apply to them. If there are no pedestrians immediately before them, vehicles going straight may try to go anyway. Some of the larger intersections have traffic aides (mostly women) who try to discourage cars and pedestrians from going against the lights. Bicycles and motorcycles both consider themselves as pedestrians. (If you don’t like the way they drive, stay off the sidewalk.) The only thing that keeps things from being utter chaos is that everyone is going slow and trying to look out for everyone else. If you stay with other people, move slowly, and don’t make any sudden moves, chances are that you will be able to get across without mishap.
Across the street is a large pavilion which includes a diorama and pictures documenting the Jinjiang River renovation project (1993-8), which was dedicated to cleaning up the river and creating river walks and parks alongside the rivers. Prior to 1993, the rivers had been basically open sewers, but they are much cleaner now.
Half a block to the east is the luxurious Bridge Restaurant, which is on a bridge spanning the Jinjiang River. There is a narrow pedestrian walkway on either side of the restaurant. On the other side is a street with outdoor restaurants.
Our first destination was locating a laundry, for which we had been given a card (all in Chinese) and a general direction. Having clothes laundered at the hotel costs almost as much as buying new ones, so we were looking for a cheaper alternative for the near future. We walked east past several restaurants, then into an alley and through a kampung [village compound] area that may house the people working at the restaurants. Mark noted that although the area appeared to be traditional, it was newly built. The walls were concrete with fake bricks drawn on them. The people sitting outside in the alley were aware of us, but did not seem threatened or threatening.
By the time we exited onto the main street, we had run out of our verbal directions. We showed the card to a guard in a booth, who pointed us first south, then west. The street running parallel to the river but one block away was mainly a commercial one, with small shops specializing in cloth bags, but we found the laundry tucked neatly in among the others. It looked clean and relatively modern. We had no language whatsoever, but we showed the business card to the woman there, who smiled back at us, and we picked up another business card. We can either find someone to help us call the laundry (which will pick up and deliver), or else I can haul the clothes over there myself.
We decided to walk along the south side of the river bank going west (and slightly north). It was still hazy and a good temperature for walking in short sleeves, but it was humid enough to be sticky. Occasionally the river walk would widen out to accommodate a small tea garden. At each bridge we had to negotiate ourselves across another busy street, but other than that the walk was very pleasant. We passed one five-story building that was shaped like an ocean liner, complete with decks on the upper stories. I’m not sure whether it was a nightclub or apartments or a combination.
Most of the street names were given only in Chinese characters, but fortunately our map had the names in both English and Chinese, so we were able to find a match. We passed Wuhouci Street, which would have taken us to Jinli Street, the small tourist street we had seen with Bessy and Amy on our house-hunting trip. We then came to Baihuatan Park. It has gated entrances, but they are open and it is free to enter. There are curved shaded paths leading to pagodas, tea gardens, fountains, or open spaces. While there is plenty of greenery, all areas open for walking are either concrete or stone tile.
We crossed over a pedestrian bridge that led us out of the park onto the north side of the river. Here we had a choice to make – to continue westward along the Jinjiang River, or to go north along a smaller tributary. The river and its tributaries form almost a rectangle around the central area of Chengdu (with the help of a few locks). We don’t know whether the river walk extends the whole way, but someday we’ll try it. There was also a broad, pleasant street before us, Qintai Road, which we will want to explore sometime. For this trip, we decided to head west toward Dufu cottage, the home of a famous 8th century poet and one of Chengdu’s most famous sites. The railing of the bridge crossing the tributary was decorated with small, whimsical statues – a pig, a rat, a snake, a dragon, a rabbit – perhaps the symbols for the years?
Just shortly to the east, we came to the entrance of the large Wenhua Park. We first went through a children’s amusement park, complete with merry-go-round, bumper cars, various carnival games, and three potting wheels where kids could try their hands at making pots. In a large open area square further on we saw perhaps eight young kids roller blading. A young man was teaching several of them to skate backwards. A map indicated that the northern half of the park has two larger lakes. One of them has a small island which houses a famous tea garden.
After exiting Wenhua Park, we crossed the First Ring Road going west along Qinghua Road. After we crossed a small tributary, we came to an area with lots of small stalls selling old coins, jade, brass statues, pottery, and other old and not so old curios. As we went further back, there was an area where the vendors each had their wares spread out on small blankets. There were young women carrying food to the vendors in some of the booths, but other than that we saw now commerce going on. (The only other Westerner we saw on the entire trip was a map on a bicycle with a toddler girl on the back – at one of the intersections a good while back.) On our way back to Qinghau Road, we walked along an almost deserted pedestrian street which was lined with shops containing slightly more upscale versions of the same merchandise. Two shops had the large, quartz-lined lava tubes from Brazil that Mark and I had seen the week before at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. We found a sign written on a wall giving the history of the area in Chinese and English. It is called the Art Curio area, and has been judged as one of the top two or three such areas in China. The problem for us (other than that we were on foot and had a long way to go) was that we would have needed a buyers’ guide to tell us what we were buying and what to look for (and look out for).
At this point we had come to the corner of a large green space (on the map) with “Dufu Thatched Cottage” shown in the middle. We had no idea which road to take to actually get to the cottage. We opted for a road going SSW, which took us past a grandiose building under construction – perhaps an exhibition hall. We crossed into the park area over a small, new (and very clean) bridge; the stream flowing underneath had neatly manicured banks for as far as we could see. No cars were allowed beyond this point, but there were small open-air tourist buses, each with about eight seats, which passed occasionally. It looked as if the park had had a complete makeover. We came to what we think was the south entrance (there was a large map, but no “you are here” indication”. We could have paid 60 yuan apiece to see Dufu’s cottage and other sites – more if we wanted an English guide - but we figured we’d leave this tour until another time, when we had more physical and mental energy for it. Instead we went into the large Huanhuaxi Park to the south. Mark checked out the public bathrooms, which were pristine. It was as if every square inch of the park had been manicured. There were scattered tea houses and open areas with fountains or statues. We stopped at last at a kiosk, where I bought a bottle of orange drink and Mark got an unidentified ice cream on a stick. We pointed for what we wanted, and the woman held out fingers to tell us the price of 6 yuan (slightly less than a dollar). The refreshments helped revive us, but we were still somewhat dehydrated. When we passed a tea garden, we decided to go in and have some tea. We realized after we sat down that we didn’t even know the word for tea. Our waitress came back with a sheet which had three choices in Chinese and English – two types of tea (10 yuan apiece), and wine. We both opted for the first tea.
Our tea came in lidded bowl about 4” in diameter. The waitress poured in water from a thermos, which she then left with us. The tea included white flowers (jasmine?) which floated on top. We each had two bowls; it didn’t have a great deal of taste, but it was refreshing. We noticed that the people around us had brought food, newspapers, or games. Several of the kids had balloons which had been purchased from one of the kiosks. The favorite one was a lion with accordion paper legs and cardboard feet that were sufficiently heavy that they would stay on the ground with the body floating above it.
On our way out, we got turned around (there was no sun nor identifying landmarks), so we exited the park at its southwestern corner (we had entered at the northeast and needed to go back there). We walked along the Second Ring Road, the most direct route, but definitely not the most pleasant – for half the way the sidewalk was blocked by a huge construction project, so we had to share a narrow walkway along the road with the occasional bicycle and motorcycle. We were relieved when we finally made it back to Qinghua Road and could begin walking east.
For the way back we took the river walk along the north side of the river. We left the river at a bend to take the more direct Jinli Road (a main street, not the little tourist area by the same name). I would not do this again; the main shops along this part of the road were car mechanics and the air quality was noticeably poorer than on the rest of our trip.
The north side was more crowded than the south had been, perhaps because it was later in the day. There were more streets to cross, and the occasional tea garden to pass, on in particular very large and crowded. Shortly after this, we came to an area where most of the benches were taken up by older people playing cards and other games. In general, the younger people ignored us completely, but the older ones tended to stare. One woman gave me a big smile, and I returned it.
It was almost four when we got back to the Shangri-La Hotel, and we were exhausted. We showered, then made a meal out of the hors d’ouevres at the Horizon Club – I didn’t feel up to going out. I had a couple of blisters on the sides of my heels (I’ll be wearing sandals for a few days), and we’ve both got aching muscles, but we both feel good about the trip. We don’t have to be dependent on cars and drivers to explore the city.
.
Our flight to Chengdu from Denver from blessedly uneventful. We arrived in Chengdu just before 10:30pm, apparently the last plane in for the night. The airport staff seemed ready to get us through in a hurry. By the time Mark and I finished filling out the immigration forms (flight no., passport no., visa no., are we here for business or to “settle down”?), there were two men hovering over us urging us to pass through immigration. We picked up our bags – some of the only few remaining – and were ushered through “Nothing to Declare”. Our suitcases were sent through an x-ray machine, but evidently we had nothing to interest customs. A driver met us in the main part of the airport, and drove us smoothly through the nearly empty streets of the city to the Shangri-La Hotel.
The next morning [September 17] Mark and I walked over to his new office. He’s on the 26th floor, which is mainly cubicles, but he has a corner one with windows on two sides. We were there long enough for me to watch the students from a school walk out to a field and arrange themselves into lines so even that even the diagonals were straight! Further to the west is a huge construction site, when the concrete base has just been laid. Two sides of the construction site are lined with two-story temporary barracks, white with blue roofs, for housing the construction workers.
Mark and I were each given cell phones – Nokia 6300s. A colleague of Mark’s was able to switch them so that the menu is now in English rather than Chinese, but the instruction book was completely in Chinese. We were later able to download a 56-page English version, which I have yet to read. I can receive calls, but have yet to master anything else. Even after I’m proficient, we still won’t be able to use our phones to call outside of China. We’re going to investigate using the internet (Skype.com) to make our international calls. Other people who have been here longer have managed to do so.
The walk through our new apartment was postponed until Monday. Language lessons will begin that week as well, and we will start interviewing drivers. At this time, there are no candidates who speak English, so the interview will be either challenging or useless, possibly both.
Since there was nothing I could do to help get our apartment ready, I worked a bit on some old projects, did some reading, and studied a bit of Chinese. Our room has an internet connection and universal plugs so I’ve been able to plug in my computer. I discovered that the marble-topped bathtub also had its own remote and LCD TV screen embedded in the wall – I have yet to try it out. The hotel gym has a large pool, tennis courts, a spa, and a large exercise room. It has its own marble-floored reception area; my somewhat crumpled T-shirt and shorts seemed somewhat out of place. I tried out the bicycle and the treadmill – the only machines I know how to operate. After a man finished using another treadmill, I had the exercise area to myself.
Breakfasts and “happy hour” at the Horizon Club proved to be good times to meet other people with Mark’s company and learn of their experiences. We were invited to join another couple, Robyn and Peter, in attending a dinner arranged by the Chengdu International Women’s group at Selut, a Spanish restaurant. We enjoyed talking with the other people there, though we are still a bit too jet-lagged to do evenings well.
September 21
On Saturday Mark and I decided it was time to start exploring Chengdu by foot – to take advantage of our days without a driver or a home to take care of. We set off shortly after 9:00a.m. with a map and a Chinese phrasebook. It was foggy/hazy enough that we didn’t bring along hats or sunglasses.
The Shangri-La Hotel is separated from the Jinjiang River by Binjiang Road, which was busy enough on a Saturday morning that we decided to walk to the corner and cross with the light. We had to cross over a major tributary, which had a narrow park running alongside it. There was a large fountain near the corner. We saw two wedding parties being photographed in this park.
Crossing streets in Chengdu is an art form, even if there is a traffic light. Turning vehicles do not consider that lights apply to them. If there are no pedestrians immediately before them, vehicles going straight may try to go anyway. Some of the larger intersections have traffic aides (mostly women) who try to discourage cars and pedestrians from going against the lights. Bicycles and motorcycles both consider themselves as pedestrians. (If you don’t like the way they drive, stay off the sidewalk.) The only thing that keeps things from being utter chaos is that everyone is going slow and trying to look out for everyone else. If you stay with other people, move slowly, and don’t make any sudden moves, chances are that you will be able to get across without mishap.
Across the street is a large pavilion which includes a diorama and pictures documenting the Jinjiang River renovation project (1993-8), which was dedicated to cleaning up the river and creating river walks and parks alongside the rivers. Prior to 1993, the rivers had been basically open sewers, but they are much cleaner now.
Half a block to the east is the luxurious Bridge Restaurant, which is on a bridge spanning the Jinjiang River. There is a narrow pedestrian walkway on either side of the restaurant. On the other side is a street with outdoor restaurants.
Our first destination was locating a laundry, for which we had been given a card (all in Chinese) and a general direction. Having clothes laundered at the hotel costs almost as much as buying new ones, so we were looking for a cheaper alternative for the near future. We walked east past several restaurants, then into an alley and through a kampung [village compound] area that may house the people working at the restaurants. Mark noted that although the area appeared to be traditional, it was newly built. The walls were concrete with fake bricks drawn on them. The people sitting outside in the alley were aware of us, but did not seem threatened or threatening.
By the time we exited onto the main street, we had run out of our verbal directions. We showed the card to a guard in a booth, who pointed us first south, then west. The street running parallel to the river but one block away was mainly a commercial one, with small shops specializing in cloth bags, but we found the laundry tucked neatly in among the others. It looked clean and relatively modern. We had no language whatsoever, but we showed the business card to the woman there, who smiled back at us, and we picked up another business card. We can either find someone to help us call the laundry (which will pick up and deliver), or else I can haul the clothes over there myself.
We decided to walk along the south side of the river bank going west (and slightly north). It was still hazy and a good temperature for walking in short sleeves, but it was humid enough to be sticky. Occasionally the river walk would widen out to accommodate a small tea garden. At each bridge we had to negotiate ourselves across another busy street, but other than that the walk was very pleasant. We passed one five-story building that was shaped like an ocean liner, complete with decks on the upper stories. I’m not sure whether it was a nightclub or apartments or a combination.
Most of the street names were given only in Chinese characters, but fortunately our map had the names in both English and Chinese, so we were able to find a match. We passed Wuhouci Street, which would have taken us to Jinli Street, the small tourist street we had seen with Bessy and Amy on our house-hunting trip. We then came to Baihuatan Park. It has gated entrances, but they are open and it is free to enter. There are curved shaded paths leading to pagodas, tea gardens, fountains, or open spaces. While there is plenty of greenery, all areas open for walking are either concrete or stone tile.
We crossed over a pedestrian bridge that led us out of the park onto the north side of the river. Here we had a choice to make – to continue westward along the Jinjiang River, or to go north along a smaller tributary. The river and its tributaries form almost a rectangle around the central area of Chengdu (with the help of a few locks). We don’t know whether the river walk extends the whole way, but someday we’ll try it. There was also a broad, pleasant street before us, Qintai Road, which we will want to explore sometime. For this trip, we decided to head west toward Dufu cottage, the home of a famous 8th century poet and one of Chengdu’s most famous sites. The railing of the bridge crossing the tributary was decorated with small, whimsical statues – a pig, a rat, a snake, a dragon, a rabbit – perhaps the symbols for the years?
Just shortly to the east, we came to the entrance of the large Wenhua Park. We first went through a children’s amusement park, complete with merry-go-round, bumper cars, various carnival games, and three potting wheels where kids could try their hands at making pots. In a large open area square further on we saw perhaps eight young kids roller blading. A young man was teaching several of them to skate backwards. A map indicated that the northern half of the park has two larger lakes. One of them has a small island which houses a famous tea garden.
After exiting Wenhua Park, we crossed the First Ring Road going west along Qinghua Road. After we crossed a small tributary, we came to an area with lots of small stalls selling old coins, jade, brass statues, pottery, and other old and not so old curios. As we went further back, there was an area where the vendors each had their wares spread out on small blankets. There were young women carrying food to the vendors in some of the booths, but other than that we saw now commerce going on. (The only other Westerner we saw on the entire trip was a map on a bicycle with a toddler girl on the back – at one of the intersections a good while back.) On our way back to Qinghau Road, we walked along an almost deserted pedestrian street which was lined with shops containing slightly more upscale versions of the same merchandise. Two shops had the large, quartz-lined lava tubes from Brazil that Mark and I had seen the week before at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. We found a sign written on a wall giving the history of the area in Chinese and English. It is called the Art Curio area, and has been judged as one of the top two or three such areas in China. The problem for us (other than that we were on foot and had a long way to go) was that we would have needed a buyers’ guide to tell us what we were buying and what to look for (and look out for).
At this point we had come to the corner of a large green space (on the map) with “Dufu Thatched Cottage” shown in the middle. We had no idea which road to take to actually get to the cottage. We opted for a road going SSW, which took us past a grandiose building under construction – perhaps an exhibition hall. We crossed into the park area over a small, new (and very clean) bridge; the stream flowing underneath had neatly manicured banks for as far as we could see. No cars were allowed beyond this point, but there were small open-air tourist buses, each with about eight seats, which passed occasionally. It looked as if the park had had a complete makeover. We came to what we think was the south entrance (there was a large map, but no “you are here” indication”. We could have paid 60 yuan apiece to see Dufu’s cottage and other sites – more if we wanted an English guide - but we figured we’d leave this tour until another time, when we had more physical and mental energy for it. Instead we went into the large Huanhuaxi Park to the south. Mark checked out the public bathrooms, which were pristine. It was as if every square inch of the park had been manicured. There were scattered tea houses and open areas with fountains or statues. We stopped at last at a kiosk, where I bought a bottle of orange drink and Mark got an unidentified ice cream on a stick. We pointed for what we wanted, and the woman held out fingers to tell us the price of 6 yuan (slightly less than a dollar). The refreshments helped revive us, but we were still somewhat dehydrated. When we passed a tea garden, we decided to go in and have some tea. We realized after we sat down that we didn’t even know the word for tea. Our waitress came back with a sheet which had three choices in Chinese and English – two types of tea (10 yuan apiece), and wine. We both opted for the first tea.
Our tea came in lidded bowl about 4” in diameter. The waitress poured in water from a thermos, which she then left with us. The tea included white flowers (jasmine?) which floated on top. We each had two bowls; it didn’t have a great deal of taste, but it was refreshing. We noticed that the people around us had brought food, newspapers, or games. Several of the kids had balloons which had been purchased from one of the kiosks. The favorite one was a lion with accordion paper legs and cardboard feet that were sufficiently heavy that they would stay on the ground with the body floating above it.
On our way out, we got turned around (there was no sun nor identifying landmarks), so we exited the park at its southwestern corner (we had entered at the northeast and needed to go back there). We walked along the Second Ring Road, the most direct route, but definitely not the most pleasant – for half the way the sidewalk was blocked by a huge construction project, so we had to share a narrow walkway along the road with the occasional bicycle and motorcycle. We were relieved when we finally made it back to Qinghua Road and could begin walking east.
For the way back we took the river walk along the north side of the river. We left the river at a bend to take the more direct Jinli Road (a main street, not the little tourist area by the same name). I would not do this again; the main shops along this part of the road were car mechanics and the air quality was noticeably poorer than on the rest of our trip.
The north side was more crowded than the south had been, perhaps because it was later in the day. There were more streets to cross, and the occasional tea garden to pass, on in particular very large and crowded. Shortly after this, we came to an area where most of the benches were taken up by older people playing cards and other games. In general, the younger people ignored us completely, but the older ones tended to stare. One woman gave me a big smile, and I returned it.
It was almost four when we got back to the Shangri-La Hotel, and we were exhausted. We showered, then made a meal out of the hors d’ouevres at the Horizon Club – I didn’t feel up to going out. I had a couple of blisters on the sides of my heels (I’ll be wearing sandals for a few days), and we’ve both got aching muscles, but we both feel good about the trip. We don’t have to be dependent on cars and drivers to explore the city.
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