Xi'an was not our cup to tea. We saw the terracotta-army and it was very impressive. Xi'an is for the rest a quiet depressing city. To make it simple: Xi'an feels like a Chinese version of Brussel. Traffic jam all day long, dark streets, shopping malls and fastfoodrestaurants. Almost no parks in the city and no blue sky because of the pollution. No need to tell you that we were glad to leave this city.
We took the nighttrain to Chengdu in a hard sleepers compartiment. As an explanation: you have to share a compartiment with 75 people. 1 toilet, 1 tap of hot water, rows of 3 beds above each other in beds made for little Chinese people. But it was fun!
Chengdu is a very pleasant city. Still no blue sky due to the pollution but beautiful parks and temples. In the parks you see people playing cards or Mahjong while they drink their tea, you see them dancing... it is a city that lives. Yesterday evening we even went to a karaokebar with Americans we met on the train. We even sang some Stromae, which they never heard of, shame on them :)
Seba tried the famous hot pot... it was a quick try. I never saw my husband becoming purple due to too hot food. You can't imagine how hot is was. It is out of our league.
Tomorrow we'll visit the pandapark and on Monday Dafu in Leshan (one of the biggest Bouddha in the world).
How are we doing? Good! Enjoying on the fullest and walking around with eyes wide open! Some thing we have learned by now: - 1 When you go to China you'll get asked for a photo together with them 2, 3 time a day. Why? No flippin idea - 2 People take photos without asking, sometimes in a subtle way, mostly they don't care if you see it or not. Why? See nr 1 - 3 Toilet paper goes in the trash bin next to the toilet. Sounds easy no? Try it for once to not throw the toilet paper in the toilet, you'll see how difficult it is. - 4 Don't think because a tourist center is marked in english, they'll speak the language or take the time to listen. Even when you take a translating app in hand. - 5 Scooters: everywhere, litteraly everywhere, traffic rules don't apply to them. Mostly on batteries by the way! And the most important part of a scooter (or anything else on wheels for that matter): the horn, any reason is good, they pass a corner, they want to pass you, they think your shirt is nice... - 6 Red lights and cops are more a suggestion then rule, the fastest and loudest horn wins. - 7 For a communistic land it's rather funny that it's impossible to pass a street without seeing a Starbucks, KFC or Pizza Hut and by preference next to each other!! The Holy American Trinity. - 8 The Chinese throw money at everything! Why? Because it's holy, because it might bring luck, because see 1 & 2
