Travel Day to Chengdu

Today was a repositioning day - basically moving to a new city. I left Guilin and boarded a flight taking me northwest to Chengdu. (This will be the furthest west I’ll go.) There was a group, a dozen or so people from California traveling under the watchful eye of a Chinese guide. It was fun to sit and chat it up with them and compare / contrast our experiences.

It looks like I’ll be clear of the hotter weather for the rest of my time in China thankfully. It was quite a relief to land in Chengdu at a pleasant 68°, and forecast only 73° tomorrow. I was definitely getting tired of just existing in puddles of my own sweat.

Chengdu is China’s 4th most populous city, and 6th by sheer size. But for comparison … it has 2.5 times more people than New York and is a whopping 18 times larger than New York by area!!! In a few weeks I’ll be in Chongqing - Chinas largest city - and it has 3.5 times more people than New York and is … 105 times bigger by area. 105x!!! 😳😳😳 Puts things a bit in perspective.

Chengdu is the Panda capital of China - everything, everywhere is Panda’s. Kind of cute.

I took a metro to Jioazi Park after I got settled. Really beautiful. There was a large green space with a playground and such and then this space age looking bridge that spanned the river. Hard to describe - you’ll just have to see the pics.

It AMAZES me that I’m in a city this large, with this many people and there is no trash, no homeless, no beggars, no tents, no urine smell (like what permeates New York in places), no one harassing anyone, no one making you feel uncomfortable. No other term but amazing.

What I miss: American TV (or in English)

Steps: 20,937
Miles: 8.58Read more