Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Our group trip was to the Sichuan Province capital of Chengdu. As part of the program's practical learning aspect, we incorporate travel into our learning. Here's a few things I've learned:

- Chengdu is much more polluted.
- Sichuan accent is terribly difficult to understand. They're like the Cajuns of China :)
- One must always eat a pepper from skinny end to fat end. The fat end is spicier and so you can work up your taste buds to the SUPER hot stuff.

Tuesday, March 17

We cruised by the Giant Seated Buddha at Leshan Mountain.



Then we grabbed lunch at a Sichuan restaurant... for all you food lovers out there, get a look at this fish!



In the afternoon, we drove to E'Mei Shan or E'Mei mountain.



E'Mei Shan is a holy Buddhist mountain. We spent the afternoon at a temple and then a nunnery. Met some really kind old people, unfortunately the dialect is so impossible, that we had serious trouble communicating with any of the locals. Picture taking is a universal language. Our new friends were often happy to oblige.



I got in loads of trouble for taking this picture... apparently there's no photography in the temple... Whoops, my b! My secret to China, I pretend not to understand what they're saying when it doesn't behoove me to...



In case you needed to be persuaded from joining a Buddhist convent... here's one reason not to become a Buddhist nun (it's the bald one on the lower left):



The mountain was beautiful. The flowers are in bloom and it all makes for a beautiful back drop.



Very far from anything remotely Irish, we celebrated our Saint Patty's day that evening by taking a dip in the hot springs, which in reality is just a series of jacuzzis. I'm terribly sorry to report that there are no pictures. It's probably for the best, because I forgot my bathing suit and was forced to buy one on site. Needless to say, Chinese bathing suits are wholly unattractive, and I came out in a one-peice that was perhaps a size too small with an attached skirt that made me look like Minnie-flippin-Mouse. While I was nothing short of a riot, I'm glad there's no photo evidence that such a hideous get up ever existed.

Wednesday, March 18

CUTE ASIAN BABY!!!



Wednesday morning we drove to the other side of the mountain and embarked on the most brutal hike of my life. My calves are still screaming at me. It was a very neat park though, because a local buddhist tribe still inhabits the mountain. You can see in the background of this picture, they're growing tea.



Here, Elle and I sat to take a rest after all the climbing and we seemed to attract attention in our big sunglasses. We were soon swarmed by a group of girls who insisted on taking pictures with us and posing as if we were best friends.



We ate a vegetarian lunch at this cool mountain top restaurant. There was no warning for the incendiary pepper I ate. Sichuan cuisine is famous for spiciness, but the particular pepper ranks among the hottest in the world and I unknowningly took a chomp right out of the fat end. I swear I didn't taste anything for at least 48 hours.



From there, we headed to meet the monkeys. Here's a group shot of us in the Monkey Ecological Area... it's unreal how close they get to you. At first, the reaction is "Aww! A cute little monkey!" This adoration quickly fades into... "So that's how they gave us AIDS!" It's perhaps not that drastic, but the little buggers are dirty. ((I don't know if you can tell but his hair is literally matted in pooh!)


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So I see this cool little pagoda/gazebo thing. 'Wow, what a great photo op!' I think. I start traipsing off onto this plank bridge. All of the sudden, I hear Chinese people shouting behind me. Too late. I turn around and some hostile looking monkeys are making a b-line straight for me. What was supposed to be a nice picturesque shot, turned into a still-frame of me, besieged with horror. My glasses unfortunately cover the fear in my eyes, but you might be able to tell I'm screaming at this point. One of the suckers grabs hold of my jacket, (yes it's tied around my waist kindergarten style!) and I took off running so fast that he was literally shaken off. I quit monkey land shortly after that...



From there we began our decent down the most gorgeous part of the mountain to Wu Xian Gang.





Thursday, March 19

We went to the Panda Research Center in Chengdu. They're famous for their captivity breeding of the endangered species. Quite lazy animals, but definitely worth saving. In the afternoon, we mostly just walked around the city. We did manage to squeeze in massages :) It was quite a nice trip. Minus the monkeys.



Panda says WHAT?!



Elle and I boarded a plane late that night for Hangzhou, which is about an hour south of Shanghai. We were supposed to venture into some autonomous Tibetan regions, but the area is closed to foreigners right now due to political instability. The bus station refused to sell us tickets to the areas we wanted to go. The reasons for not allowing us to go are two-fold: 1) they do not want us serving as psuedo-journalists. 2) it is very unsafe to travel to those areas. There is much concern that a radical might hurt foreigners to gain more international attention. For us, it was a simple answer... fly home early to safety. We made a pit stop in Hangzhou for some sight-seeing.