After arriving at the provincial capital of Sichuan, Chengdu 成都, we started to make our way into the northern bus station of Chengdu called the Chadianzi Bus station 茶店子客运站. We need to purchase tickets to our next destination, the UNESCO World Heritage Site listed Jiuzhaigou 九寨沟, which leaves very soon.
Unfortunately, at the bus station, I found out that the tickets have been sold out for the last trip of the day. Disappointed, we then purchased tickets for the next morning’s trip. Satisfied, we grabbed some lunch at the bus station first since it was already way past lunch time. The food was just so so and nothing interesting. It was just a bus station after all. We then made haste to our hostel for the night. Unfotunately, it seems that our taxi driver doesn’t seem to know where it was. We showed the driver a map of the location but he couldn’t find the hostel itself. While we were in the general area of the hostel, we kept going round and round until we gave up and asked the driver to let us out. We’ll have to find it ourselves.
It turns out that the hostel just moved to their new location and it doesn’t have a sign outside to tell everyone where they are. Actually they had one, it’s just that it was so tiny anyone could have missed it. One thing I learned from Chinese maps, they are never shown to scale. Anyway, we checked in a left our bags at our rooms. I then realized that I made an error in our purchase of tickets. Instead of the morning trip, we should have just purchased the last trip of the day. This would give us time to explore more of Chengdu in the morning. Unfortunately, we can’t change the tickets on the phone since there needs to be a fee for doing so. So we head back to Chadianzi Bus Station again to change our bus tickets. This time was took the bus, it was a long trip to the bus station but we managed to get there. We were so proud of ourselves.
We took a bus back to the city proper and got off at the People’s Park. I have read about the park and how beautiful and relaxing it was. There is a nominal entrance fee to the park. But immediately upon entry you will notice how different this park is. While there were a lot of people at the park. However, it was sufficiently large enough to handle all the people walking around. There were trees all around and lots of flowers of course. I immediately noticed the pretty peach blossoms 桃花 and cherry blossoms 樱花 in the trees. I’ve seen pictures of these flowers in books and on the web. I normally associate these plants with Japan, but I never thought I would see them here.
There were ponds where park strollers would sit by and enjoy each other’s company. There was a pond big enough to accomodate a small boat for visitors to row through. The willow trees 柳树 in the park really give off that Chinese atmosphere I used to see in photos. I’m really happy to see them now. They really make a pretty picture.
It is really wonderful just walking in the park. It is said that Chengdu is one of the most relaxing cities in China. I couldn’t agree more. This is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of cities like Chongqing and Shenzhen. Yet, it is sufficiently modern enough for normal city folk to be at ease in. Along the paths of the park, we saw groups of couples dancing. There were also people gathered around people playing Chinese Chess. If you are in a musical mood, you can enjoy some music with a practicing band.
If karaoke is your thing. They even have what I would call “mobile karaoke”. Peddlers would approach you and ask if you want to have some karaoke. They have a speaker and a karaoke system on wheels where you can sing to your heart’s content. The video is played on a portable dvd player. It is really amusing to see all this and realize how different it is from the other parts of China I have seen. Finally after several days of traveling in China, I can relax for a while.
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