In Chengdu

I'm back in China!!! The journey was completely uneventful (apart from spilling my beer on the Swedish model sitting next to me and leaving my camera on the plane), but the views were spectacular. There wasn't a cloud above Australia! I had only an hour to change planes in Hong Kong, but that wasn't a problem. On the flight to Chengdu I sat next to a 4-year old Chinese girl and told her, in my best Chinese, that I was "an Englishman". She didn't understand me.

I met Sha and her parents at the airport. I like Chengdu airport. There wasn't any queuing at all to go through international customs. In fact, the official didn't speak any English and so he just looked at me, stamped my passport and let me through. We then took a taxi into the city. Chinese driving has not improved.

In brief, Chengdu is a large, noisy, smelly city. The smog is thick - you can taste the smog with everything you eat.

Argh, I've just been plunged into darkness. Sha has taken the room key because I've just been phoned by a "hooker" and Sha doesn't trust me not to open the door to anyone.

Chengdu has a large smelly river (the Fu Nan river) which we walked along for a while. However, of course, the greatest thing here is the food!! Sichuan food is wonderful -- it's certainly spicy. I've just eaten a Sichuan pepper. We should be up in the mountains tomorrow. We went to the photo shop today and I had great fun trying on all the clothes that I'll be photographed in. The first shirt that I put on had Sha and her mum laughing out loud. Apparently I looked just like Shakespeare.

We also went to an amazing temple. On the bus I made some friends with the locals. I even gave them my email address. I've no idea whether I'll hear from them again, but they were very friendly. Sha and her mum kept laughing at me.

I read the wrong book. There are apparently four great classical books in Chinese literature. I've read the "Journey to the West", but this city (and the temple that we went to) is where the "Three Kingdoms" story was set. There were lots of statues of fierce looking warriors. Apparently one roared so loudly that the enemy turned and fled. All the signs stated something like "Dong Yun (216 AD) son of Dong He, one of the four outstanding administrators then. Upright and principled, he dissuaded King Liu Shan from having more concubines. His statue was made in 1672."

There were also lots of exotic looking birds flying again!

After seeing the temple we headed off down an old street that had lots of traditional Sichuan snacks. My mouth is still burning!

I do have heaps of photos, but I forgot to bring the cable attaching my camera to the computer. So in the evening I used my other camera, but the photos are not so exciting!

Sha and I head off on our photography trip tomorrow!