Chengdu: A City of Spice

Traveling to Chengdu took us back through Hefei. Although China is filled with cheap youth Hostels Hefei, the capital of Anhui province doesn't have a single one. I suppose we could have looked for something cheap but most websites are in Chinese and don't offer an English option. Katie and I took this as an opportunity to splurge!

We shared a room at the Holiday Inn Express, it was almost like being in America.

As Katie and I enjoyed our time relaxing in our expensive hotel room (there were five channels in English!), I happened to mention that our flight to Chengdu would be my 38th flight. She looked at me like I was crazy. She proceeded to explain to me that no sane person counts their flights. I maintain this is normal. I mean, can anyone answer they question, why not count your flights?

Following my 38th flight we were in Chengdu!

Chengdu felt like spring, we got out of the airplane and for the first time in a long time had to take off a layer. Chengdu was were Katie and I were to reunite with our friends Lex and Katelyn, who we would be traveling with for the next four weeks.

Growing up I had never been to an airport as I had never flown. Sometimes my Dad would take business trips but he always drove himself and left the car in long-term parking. So from childhood I have romanticized airports, in my mind they have a mythical quality. Waiting for Lex and Katelyn after our flight landed I felt like I was in a movie, anxiously anticipating our friends before going out on an epic adventure.

Like most places on our trip we were in Chengdu for only a couple days, giving us little time to explore the great city.

The first thing that stuck me upon getting to Chengdu was the temperature (in the 50s Fahrenheit) and the different types of food. For instance there was numerous types of exotic fruit being sold on the street; pineapple, durian, and things I don't know the English names to. Then in restaurants there was spicy food spicier then I had ever tasted.

Looking back, Chengdu was probably our most "active" city during our trip, most likely because it was our first and we were so excited. For this reason I have trouble saying in good conscious what my favorite city was, how do you compare a city where you had food poisoning (I'll get to that later) to a city where you reunited with your friends? Ahh, but I digress. 

Largest Mao Zedong statue in the world.

 A common theme to our trip was seeing many of "the world's largest" this was our first one and we didn't even know it was the world's largest until after we found it!

Here my friend Lex is buying a ticket to Wenshu Temple.

Outside Wenshu Temple I tried my hand at darts, look what I won!

When planning for this trip one of the things I was most excited about was getting to see some of the ethnic minorities that live in China. As my Chinese "homebase" is the north and dominated by Han Chinese I saw this trip as an amazing opportunity for learning. Our days in Chengdu was my first taste of this learning.