Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 9

Day 11 - 27th Dec 2012

Set of 17 xiao chi dishes

Ahh...last day in Chengdu today. So we ended up sleeping until 10 plus, skipping the hotel breakfast. I woke up at around 10 plus and went to have a nice shower. My friend still nuaing on bed...kekeke...I had the roasted chestnuts which we bough last night. It was 500g and i ate half of it for breakfast...eat until abit scared...(came back liao..don't want to eat again for the time being...hahaha). After nuaing for the whole morning, we checked out at 1.30pm and went out for lunch. We went to Lai Tang Yuan and ordered a set of 17 items (small serving of each item) for RMB$40 each person. The set consists of rabbit meat, dumplings, dan dan noodles, fish, tang yuan, duck and etc. There were alot of people eating there as well as those taking away..good business there....The xiao chi are not bad, but some of them are quite ma la...i like the zhong shui jiao (dumpling with a red sauce..sweet one). The tang yuan also nice...After eating, we went to take the metro to head down to Wen Shu Temple.

Wen Shu Fang

After coming out from the metro, we walked a short distance to the entrance. The ticket booth was a small small window in the wall, where u can only see the hands of the staff. Then i bought the tickets (RMB$5 each) and we went in to explore explore. It was very big too (like Qing Yang Gong) but there were a few places in Wen Shu Temple that were not open to public. There was a bigger temple inside too for devotees to chant and pray. There were also alot of meaningful wordings displayed around the temple, there even have a room to let troubled person to pour out their troubles. We walked until around 4 plus, then as it was about time to get back. Then we slowly made our way back to Chun Xi Road. We walked around as it was still early for dinner, went shopping for jackets...After shopping around, we went to Long Chaoshou restaurant for dinner. It was having 4 levels, the first level is like a food court place and they were selling all their xiao chi separately. On the 2nd level, it's more like restaurant class and they were selling their set meals. So we headed up to their 2nd level as the 1st level was packed with people and cannot see any empty seats around. We ordered a set of 16 items for RMB$58 each..There were some dishes different from Lai Tang Yuan, but still like the zhong shui jiao best (there was more meat here, compared to Lai Tang Yuan..but still nice..). After eating dinner, we walked back to the hotel to take a cab down to the airport. When we boarded the cab, the cab driver was trying to get us to pay RMB$90 for the journey as he said still got don't know what road taxes/charges but we knew that the journey actually would only cost around RMB$60. But our luggage were all loaded up in the cab...haiz...so we went ahead with it...After a long ride, we finally reached the airport. It looked empty when you entered, not many people around there. We walked and shopped abit to see what else we can buy..bought some fruits back too..hahaha..
Then it was flight back to Singapore....and which ended my trip to Si Chuan... ^-^

Places visited:
1. Wen Shu Temple

Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 7

Day 8 - 24th Dec 2012

Baby Giant Panda

Today was the last of the tour package and it is Christmas's eve....we woke up early and left out luggage outside the hotel room. Went down to have our breakfast and we left to begin our tour for today..Going to see Pandas in Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base...Cute cute pandas...hohohoho....We reached the place early, and we took the battery car up to the panda nursery. There is a little small panda inside, sleeping soundly...cute cute....After this, we went to the next area, to see more pandas...Luckily we were the first group to arrive to see the pandas, so we had more time to take photos of the pandas. There were 2 pandas sitting on the tree, eating their bamboo. One of the pandas was hanging on the tree for a while, it can't get over to the other side..so cute..There were another 3 more at the bottom playing with each other too. Everyone was busy taking photos of the pandas and enjoying looking at them.After some time, the tour guides chased us to go another area, but the pandas were not released out for breakfast yet. So the tour guides brought to another area further up, where there were 2 pandas sitting there, eating their breakfast. So funny, they can eat until they just lie down and continue eating the bamboos.hohoho....After some time there, we walked back to the previous enclosure. Then the pandas came out, 1 by 1...they walked towards to the bamboos to eat..they just sat there and started to eat...After spending some time watching the pandas, we walked to a pond, where there were alot of fishes and you can feed them...the tour guide went and got some fish food and started to feed the fishes..even the swans came over to snatch food with the fishes. After feeding the fishes, we took the battery car and went back to the entrance, where we shopped for some souvenirs. My friend got a super cute polar bear wearing panda costume stuffed toy from the shop...(super cute!!Kidnap it home..it is the cutest one in the shop..even those shops in Chun xi road also not so cute..hohoho...). After shopping, we went off to the next stop - Tianmai Jewellery (Jade Museum). When we were there, the lady introduced us how jade is being found and she brought us to a room and in there, she continued to chat with us. She suddenly called out to a young man and asked him whether he wants to introduce himself. He looked kind of blur but still came and introduce himself..Then one of our group members asked him whether he was from Hong Kong and he said he is and asked us whether we understand Cantonese. We said yes and he started to speak in Cantonese. I don't understand all what he said...but roughly he was telling us that he actually was a teacher in HK and he just came over to help out cos his brother was in US for some other meetings. Then he told us that he is still learning on jade and how he got to believe that jades can help to ward off evil after he got an accident a few years back. He even showed us his own big jade. Then he told about how young people should be filial to parents, etc etc...(He can't stop talking...hohoho...). Finally he told his staff to bring out some jades to let us see..he even told us if we cannot take off after wearing, we can bring back free of charge but if only we like it and is only own buying...hohohoho...After this, we went for lunch. It was our upgraded lunch in the whole package - Mushroom Hotpot.

Mushroom Hotpot Lunch

We reached the place, the staff started the hotpot.First of, they let us drink the soup without all the mushrooms. After that, they put in all types of mushrooms in. There was a side dish, pancake type..Quite nice...but is only 1 piece each. The tour guide told us that the staffs will come in and sings during customers are eating..but there was none for us when we were there.. After eating, we set off to the next stop - Dibao Silk. When we arrived, the tour guide passed us to a lady. She was a trainee from Malaysia, who had came here for internship. She was quite cute and she was mixing mandarin,hokkien and cantonese when she is doing the introduction..she basically told us what to look out for when choosing silk. There are different generations of the silks, now is on 5th generation.And she also told us which can buy or cannot buy from the place.hahaha....After spending some time in buying silk bedsheets home, we made our way to Chun Xi Road, which is Chengdu's shopping place (it is like our Orchard Road). It is the last stop of the whole package too. When we arrived, we said goodbye to all the other tour members and the tour guide and leader escorted us to our hotel to check in. After checking in, we went up to our room to rest for a while. Next we went down to explore Chun Xi Road and find food for our dinner. We had korean BBQ for dinner for that night and my friend bought a super big bubble tea for supper...hahhaa...

To be cont'd.....

Places visited:
1. Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base
2. Tianmai Jewellery
3. Dibao Silk
4. Chun Xi Road

Hotel Stayed:
Haiyatt Hotel

Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 4

Day 5 - 21st Dec 2012

Rice in Bamboo

Today woke up early again...got ready and put our luggage outside our room and went for breakfast. Simple dishes for breakfast, there was a bowl of soya too which doesn't taste like it. I can't find my battery pack...sad..don't know where it went to (until now, also cannot find it). After breakfast, we boarded our bus to set off our journey. First stop, we were going to Highland Bee Farm. There, the guide brought us to a room, where the staff started to introduce to their honey products..i almost fell asleep there (due to sleepless nights from the previous days).....he let us tried their honey jelly too, which is the best of all. And after the introduction, he led us to another room where they are selling their products there...Mi and my friend just walked out and went to toilet. Hahahaha....don't want to get cheated again...So we just went up to the bus to wait for the others. After that, we traveled back down the mountain (it's a long journey ride down) and went to China's bamboo City where we had our lunch there. Along the way, the tour guide told us about the bamboo city and bamboo was being used in making pictures....The dishes for our lunch were quite slow in serving...in fact when they had served until the 4th or 5th dishes, everyone was already full. But there were still some more dishes being served, which we didn't even touch. There was a dish quite nice from this meal, which is the bamboo rice. They had cooked the rice in bamboo...too bad only 1 serving for each..if 2nd serving of rice is asked, they only give white rice.  The tour guides gave us cold drinks and beers to drink too....as the ban is lifted (not allowed to drink cold drinks/beers while staying at high altitude). After lunch, we started our tour in the bamboo city.

Holders made of Bamboo

The tour guide introduced us to the local guide of bamboo city and she led us around their exhibit to see their masterpieces. The master (don't remember the name..still alive...) is a great person and he even have classes to teach people how to do this art (people from around the world actually comes and learn the art from him). After showing us the products made from bamboo, we were led to a room where there is a demo - step by step how a picture is being done by using bamboo. It was very amazing, and it really really takes up a lot of patience. There is a master piece - a picture of Guan Yin. It will go invisible if you are seeing straight from the front. But if you turn the picture to slightly sideway, the picture of Guan Yin will appear before you (It is called 'The Invisible Guan Yin') and it is made from bamboo! They even have colored bamboo, there is a piece of art - where it has 99 tigers in it. It is made by using colored bamboo. There is another art piece where ancient kings & queens faces (total of 100 kings & queens) are created in it. They even made a calendar, wireless keyboard and mouse from bamboo, very interesting. Amazingly the feel on the keyboard feels good...hohohoho...After spending some time for bamboo products shopping, we set out for our next stop - Leshan Buddha.

LeShan Giant Buddha

We arrived at the ferry jetty, our tour guide went to the ticket counter to help us to get our tickets. Then we made our way down to the boat. And we are required to wear a super orange colored life jackets. We also waited for some time, cos our boat was not full yet. We waited for at least 10 or 15 mins, finally our boat left the port. It was first started by a monk called Haitong, but the construction took too long to complete. He died before it was completed, the Buddha was later completed by his disciples. The whole place looks like a giant sleeping Buddha and where Leshan Buddha is, the 'heart' of the sleeping Buddha. And so, the boat set off and arrived in front of Leshan Buddha. We were told that we only have 7 or 8 minutes to take the photo of the Buddha. They even provide service to help you take professional photos. After that, the boat brought us back to the port and that's it (Tour ended...hohoho..). Then we made our way to our new hotel in Jiajiang - Venie Hotel. Ohh...there were some of the tour members who went for body massage when the rest went back to the hotel. So dinner was set at around 7.45pm. We didn't went for the massage, so we were brought to the hotel first. We arrived at around 6 plus, then we went up to check out our room. The room was slightly better than the previous ones and there is heater in the room (too strong...hahaha..). Anyway the room was facing the main road (too much noise by cars), so we requested to change room. Our tour leader changed the room with us, which is not facing the main road. My friend went to the toilet and then followed by mi. We both thought the toilet had a smell after that (she thought it was me and i thought it was her..hahaha). Anyway after settled our stuffs in our room, we went down to the lobby for internet. Dinnertime....we finally had dinner without wearing our outer jackets. Heater was strong enough to keep our food warm. After dinner, we wanted to go the mall opposite the hotel but we need to cross a super big road with no traffic lights and there were alot of big trucks passing. It was very dark and it started to rain. So we gave up the idea and went back to our room, by then there was a super strong stench coming from the toilet. My friend still went in to take a shower...with the smelly stench...hohoho..I tried to call the housekeeper to come and take a look after her shower, the housekeeper just washed the drainholes with water and sprayed some air fresher. After the housekeeper left, i went to smell the toilet. Gosh!! It's a mixture of smelly drain smell and air fresher...wanted to faintz....So i went to look for our tour guide and request for a change of room again. Luckily the hotel has available room to change for us. So we moved from 1 end to the other end, and we went to check out the toilet, whether got stench. There was none, for start. Don't know why, the stench started to come later by the night...Sianz sia....we needed to stay in this hotel for 2 nights and we got a smelly toilet....But luckily the stench in the 3rd room is not so heavy than the previous room..so just bear with it and tuned in for the night....My friend complained too hot to sleep cos the heater was too strong, causing the room too warm for her to sleep well...But for me, i finally slept (really feel like i am sleeping) after 4 days of no proper sleep (think craving for sleep by this time)..hahaha....

To be cont'd.....

Places visited:
1. China's Bamboo City
2. LeShan Giant Buddha

Hotel Stayed:
Jiajiang Venie Hotel