Chengdu

Chengdu belongs to the pandas, and 21 million people just live there. The city has engraved being the ‘panda town’ so hard that even the public bins and the metro overhead handles are shaped like panda heads. It’s a wonderfully green city (or, as green as possible in a city this size), with vines growing artfully around pylons, highway struts, and lots of trees along the river. Approved!

We arrived after a quick 4hr bullet train and checked in at our hostel. In every new location we mill about a bit trying to find our accom, as every hostel appears to have three names, none of which are ever on the building. Once installed at Local Tea/Poshpackers/Aloha Hostel, Chelsea settled in the common area to finish her newsletter, and immediately made friends with a couple of excellent Finns, Lotte and Ivan. That evening the four of us had imported Beerlaos (the champion beer!) and went for a spicy Sichuan dinner that had us sweating.

Next morning, we got up at 6am to beat the heat at the Panda Research Base, and still stood in a 30min queue of salivating domestic tourists to enter. Chinese people looooooove pandas. Jack Black is a national hero because of his voiceover role in Kung Fu Panda, even though his voice obviously doesn’t even feature in the Chinese version. The amount and variety of panda products available for purchase across the city is mindboggling. Panda hats, backpacks, toys, bottle openers, keychains, ice creams, sweets, jigsaws, walking sticks. If you can slap a panda face on it, you can sell it here.

The highlight of the Panda Base was actually the red pandas, who aren't related to giant pandas and are clearly made of sterner stuff. They were out and about, tumbling and eating and just generally being the coolest animal ever (Chelsea’s opinion). Their Latin name translates as ‘fiery red shining cat’, and that about sums up their appeal. We did see plenty of giant pandas too, early enough to be demolishing their bamboo rations before turning into snoozy lumps around 9am. At 36° it was almost double what they’re typically used to in the Himalayan foothills. They were therefore tucked into their airconned indoor ‘panda pavilions’ while we streamed with sweat outside.

Our hostel offered a ‘Dumpling Making Party’in the evening, which we joined along with our new Finnish friends. Chelsea’s momo-making is a source of regular anxiety in our normal lives as her efforts inevitably fall apart in the pan, so this was not just a party: it was a research mission. We fashioned some extremely goofy looking dumplings, and then they were magicked away to be steamed, so Chelsea’s goal of discovering the secret to potstickers continues. We were also entertained (unintentionally) by a posh Cambridge student who had been fired from his teaching placement in Hong Kong, which he insisted on calling 'Hongers' 🤢

Chengdu is the nearest we will get to Tibet, which we have sadly decided not to visit on this trip (9 days there would have cost about 7% of our annual budget) 🫠, and consequently has a vibrant ‘Little Lhasa’. We spent an evening in the area around the Wuhou Temple grounds, filling up on delicious, local, veggie street food. These included: a noodle wrap, griddle hot tofu, nutty nougat, berry tea, lightly sugared dough balls, and fried spicy potatoes (Dan is in heaven).

We continue to fascinate the local children, eliciting plenty of shy requests for photos (which we don’t mind at all), and also a lot of covert filming and photography. Just ask! We suppose in a country of constant surveillance no one would think it rude to blatantly film a stranger 📽️

It’s still mad hot, and this morning we thought we’d make our way sedately to the train station for our next stop, only to get caught short on time and end up racing through Chengdu East station. Public sprinting through crowds of slow tourists in 40° heat, 20kgs bags strapped front and back, through airport-style security, is not a repeatable experience. Needless to say, we missed our train anyway by about 1 minute 🥵

But, we persevere. Next, the largest city on earth!Read more