Chengdu (成都) - laid-back Pandas, quaint Taoist Mountains (青城山) and Ancient Flood Bypass (都江堰)
Posted On Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at at 9:54 PM by Alvin
Shaped like a giant bowl and located on the mid-western edge of China, Sichuan (四川) Province offered endless travelling opportunities. My sister, Paulette joined us for this trip and she left Sichuan with interesting memories (attacks by forest monkeys etc.) as well as sore limbs aplenty ! We landed in the laid-back provincial capital Chengdu (成都) and went to see the even more laid-back giant pandas at the Chengdu Panda Base (成都大熊貓繁育研究基地). Basically these black and white cuddlies did nothing all day other than eat bamboos and roll around looking cute - not even bothering to pose for us. We spent a good part of a day staring at them chilling-out, hanging off tree branches and munching away, that made us feel pretty laid-back too.
Chengdu had numerous temples and old quarters that kept us busy; it was worth our while to check out 錦里, 寬窄巷子, 武候祠, 青羊宮 and we strolled along the peaceful river of Jinjiang (錦江) after stuffing ourselves with the famous mouth-watering and ass-kicking spicy hot Sichuan dishes (川菜). The next few days, we ventured further afield about 50km from Chengdu, to the UNESCO sites of the Taoist Mountains (青城山) and the ancient flood controlling bypass (都江堰). What's the big deal about a few canals, one might ask; basically 2,500 years ago, this dude called Li (李冰) had the bright idea of constructing a bypass to manage the frequent floods (without the use of a water dam) as well as provide irrigation to the farmlands of Chengdu and the bypass had functioned and benefited the locals till today. The mountains of 青城山 were studded with quaint Taoist Temples of 上清宫, 老君閣 and the spooky caves of 天師洞, 朝陽洞. We spent two nights at the foot of 青城山 and felt energised by the cool fresh mountain air.
