China – Chengdu (Pandas and Vivian!)
Wow! Pandas and Vivian!! I definitely need to spend more time in Changdu. The pandas are so cute/dangerous and there are a ton of things to do here. Vivian made sure that I saw the best of Chengdu within my very short visit! This is home of the hot pot and Sichuan cuisine. Sichuan Peppers in everything!! Vivian and her husband – thank you for taking time to visit!! Pomegranate, walnuts, chestnuts, grapes are in season. Yum!!
Kuan Alley (Wide), Zhai Alley (Narrow), and Jinli Alley: Great night out w/ Vivian and her husband. We saw the famous Face changing (subgenre of Sichuan opera) (~1/2 dozen different masks), a famous calligrapher, and drank the famous Chengdu green tea. Jon should be touring Asia, each region has it’s own famous tea, and he would really appreciate the regional differences. There is a specific temperature and brew time for different teas. The CNN article on Chengdu green tea reminded me of the ear cleaning stalls that are set up around the alley. Because of the ear cleaning stalls, I looked up ear wax – I know this is kind of gross, but it is interesting gentic trait.
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding: Jared, my cousin, would love it here, when he was little he use to carry his toy panda bear everywhere. I think it would be cool to work here during the summer and make Panda Bread – I wonder if it would look good on my resume for culinary school – just kidding! Vivian has much better pictures of the panda bears. I will repost after I have access to google drive. The red pandas are very cute as well. There are some interesting facts about Pandas on display. I think the most interesting is that they eat ~60 different bamboo species and they eat ~50% of the day (because there nutrient absorption rate is very inefficient compared to other herbivores).
- The Red Panda does look like Master Shifu in KungFu Panda. Po, well, he looks like a Giant Panda.
Misc pictures of Chengdu: Vivian took me to the restaurant that invented Mapo doufu. It is very good, the peanuts are fresh and there is no celery in the dish (American version of Chinese dishes seem to add celery to everything – although, when I was in Tibet, they add celery to this dish as well). Uber is everywhere (although I can’t download the app because it is on the google play store for android). I saw this advertisement on American sweets and thought it was funny – I haven’t had popcorn mixed in my ice cream in American yet.
Chinese Paper Cutting: One of the oldest folk arts in China. Beautiful!
Vivian, Thank you for taking the time to visit and show me the best that Chengdu has to offer in my brief time there! Thank you for the cultural and food references. I really enjoyed both! Thank your husband for being our chauffeur. We will see you in America when you come to visit.
Vivian is right, it takes about 2x the time to plan a vacation. I will have to ask Meg how much time she spends. I use to spend that much time as well, but then there are other factors involved – depth vs breath, pre-vacation planning time, vacation time, etc.. Hey that vacation solver would sure come in handy!
Farewell Chengdu!!