Day 2 of China, June 22 - Beijing to Chengdu

We had a relatively good night sleep, woke up a lot but kept dozing back off. We went to breakfast at 6:00 a.m. when the breakfast opened. There was every kind of food that anybody could want. We ate breakfast outside and had some eggs to order, bacon, toast, juice, coffee and fruit. We chatted with another American who was in from Washington State. He was going to Mongolia for a month for a mining project. I did make my first purchase this morning. I am sure it was one of the more overpriced things that I'll buy since it was from an artisan at the hotel and we did not even bargain, but it was one of those things that I would have regretted if I did not see another one like it. We left the hotel at 7:00 a.m. on the shuttle to the airport.

We managed to make our way through check in with Air China and find the way to our gate. We waited for the bus to come which delivered us to the plane. The plane ride was very comfortable and the service was excellent. Our OCDF guide met us at the airport. Her name is Lily and she is wonderful - very lively and absolutely passionate about her province of Chengdu. We met our driver, Mr. Lei (not sure of spelling - pronounced Lay) and took off. Chengdu is far larger than we expected and Lily confirmed that when she told us that it has 12 million people - it's the largest city in western china and is also the biggest pork producing area in China. We went to lunch at a lovely restaurant and Lily ordered for us - we're in Sichuan province - known for spicy food. We had delicious Sichuan chicken with peanuts and also a really great pork dish.

After lunch we were driven to the hotel - Dynasty hotel. It's really nice. We had seen a beautiful square on the way to the hotel that is filled with fountains which Lily says they turn out at night. On the other side of the square was a great big statue of Chairman Mao. We decided to walk back there from the hotel. We have to tell you that crossing the street here is an adventure all in itself! Fortunately there is someone who seems be sort of directing traffic and we just went with the crowd when it seemed relatively safe. The throngs of bicycles and electric mopeds amidst the cars and buses is just the most amazing sight - and not a helmet to be seen. We took photos of the Chairman Mao statue and the square. It was unbelieveably hot. We saw a McDonalds and a Starbucks next to each other and on the next corner a Cartier store. David found some irony in the Cartier store being so close to the Mao statue! We stopped at a small grocery store to buy water - we were just in awe of how many things could be for sale and we had no clue what they were - one really cannot explain it.

We went back to the hotel and Lily and the driver picked us up at 4:30 p.m. Lily first took us to a brocade cultural center. It was fascinating and I wish we could remember all the details of all that we were told about how long it took to make a minimal length of brocade and how many thousands of threads were being used - I think on one piece it was 10,000 threads of just the red thread of the background. Apparently, this art of making the brocade is being lost and so there is an effort to have apprentices learn this art - the looms were unbelievable - made of bamboo. It takes years for the apprentices to learn how to do this. It taks so long to make a length of fabric with these intricate patterns that nobody could really afford to buy this handmade brocade anymore. We also saw the most amazing embroidery one could ever possibly imagine. I am going to attach a photo of a panda scene with pandas and forests. That whole picture is completely embroidered! A lot of the embroidery was the front and the back and the framed pieces could be rotated from front to back - the "backs" could not be told from the fronts. One huge embroidery piece had one image on the front and when you turned to the back there was a completely different scene - again, it's almost impossible to describe.

We left there and went to the People's Park which is a very large park where a lot of people gather. Lily said that a lot of older retired people go to hang out there and there were groups of people everywhere, people playing chess games although with large round disc like chess pieces. In one area music was playing and people were just freely dancing. A man motioned for us to dance too so I thought what the heck, and started dancing with this group of people - it was fun. We saw people doing karaoke and lots of young people and their young children - including lots of young girl babies. Lily said that in the cities, girls are actually favored because they are less worry for the parents and they don't have to worry about them costing them money when they grow up. One young couple we saw over and over again taking photos of their little girl. We offered to take a photo of the three of them together which they were thrilled about and then they gave me the baby to hold - and they took a photo of me holding her with their camera. We went to see the Renmin Tea House in the park which apparently is the oldest tea house -there were a bunch of men there cleaning people's ears - I kid you not. Since their ear-cleaning implements looked rather like sharp spears, we declined to have our ears cleaned. We walked around a lake and saw beautiful lotus blossoms and koi.

After the park we went to dinner at another restaurant picked by Lily on "restaurant street" The area is actually all new buildings but built with the facades of original Chinese style. Dinner was excellent. Lily ordered for us and we had some sort of spicy noodles, a crispy beef dish that was super, a pork with Chinese lettuce which I can't describe but it was super, another green vegetable dish, rice and they gave us a massive bowl of a soup that is a clearish broth with a spinach type leaf in it but we were full and we found the soup a bit bland. We took a walk down the street and back after dinner and then we were taken to the Opera house for the Sichuan variety show.

It was so good and we were particularly amazed by the changing faces act where one second the performer has one face and literally within seconds without a clue how they do it, they have a new face and they would change faces multiple times - excellent.

It was a great night and the end of a super day and another day closer to Indigo. Seeing all these children and babies here just makes us desparate to have her in our arms.