Accidentally finding the largest building in the world. Yelp reviews for local hot pot give me an address that led to the taxi driver letting me out in a sparsely populated suburban parking lot next to a huge building. I thought it was some kind of mistake, but the driver insisted. I walked closer, andRead more
Ci Qi Kou The Porcelain Village Situated on a tributary to the Jialing River west of Chongqing, this historic neighborhood has become, like many ‘old towns’ in China, packed with shops and restaurants and is packed with shoppers and sightseers day and night. Almost a square mile in size, the area is filled with buildingsRead more
Day Trip to Dazu Signed up for the wrong tour. I thought I was going to some park with a gorge and waterfalls. Turned out to be to the UNESCO World Heritage site (two sites, actually) in Dazu. We stopped in some small tourist setup, Some “antique” old-town style buildings. Read more
Good morning, Chongqing! The view from the hotel: A little smoggy out. Turns out the hotel is in a pretty neat commerce district. A lot of shoppers…. …. and a lot of food. About 100 people were lined up to get these spicy noodles. Not bad! Spicy lambRead more
Starting the day with a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. Local noodle dish and some eggs. The hotel is located near the old town in on the Southwest shore of Lake Erhai, in a revitalized area. A lot of indie businesses, art shops, bars, restaurants, and boutique hotels. This map outlines what attractions andRead more
Day Two Plan: With the weather seeming pleasant, so I was looking forward to heading to Mount Emei, the highest of the 4 sacred Buddhist mountains of China. Once there, I would explore the giant gold elephant-styled temple, and probably come back with an amazing pics like this one to the right (not my pic). Meanwhile, I would enjoyRead more
Day One Plan Head to the Panda Base and walk around take photos. The weather is very hot and humid and certainly pandas will be just hanging in the shade, but it’s a very nice park and near the hotel. After that, food and shopping in Chengdu’s Jinli Ancient Street. First meal in china: SichuanRead more
Chengdu Panda Rescue Base For my last day in China, I head to the panda park with Jing. Fuzzy panda butt Watching pandas eat is highly enjoyable. When they aren’t eating, they are sleeping Red Pandas are always doing something cute, that isRead more
Out for a stole one day in Chengdu, I came upon an art class in session Near Jing’s apartment, this businessman claims to do it all: bike repair, locksmith, welding, mechanical work, etc. This guy sells water. It’s amazing how packed the the streets are with small businesses in China. Walmart andRead more
The Fuqin Comprehensive Market is located in the northwest side of Chengdu. Often referred to as a “Open Air Market,” or more frequently, a “Wet Market” it features both wet and dry goods from all around the region. A handful of butchers sell out of the market. Not theRead more
We visit the Lian Hua Xiaoqu Open Air Market, which I featured on Scenes from a Public Market. Often called Wet Markets recently, these are more commonly referred to around the world as “Open Air Markets.” This particular one, open daily, is a mix of wet and dry goods, much of which comes from Sichuanese farmers,Read more
Most of the week I went for walks, not even bothering to bring my SLR. Many of these photos are from a pocket camera. I did a lot of eating. Not much to show here as far as adventures. Just daily life in Chengdu, China. The first morning back in Chengdu, we head to theRead more
Jing and I meet up for lunch at the food court in her shop’s mall. A light pork soup. A favorite of mine: fried pork and scallions. Very delicious. This dish has to be one of the best I have had in china. I had it once last year and it was great, but this timeRead more
Jing and I head out for an early lunch of beef noodles. My tomato soup with beef and corn. Some really hearty prime rib beef needles with some unknown things in it. Pandas Jing and I went to the Panda Park. We fist headed to see the babies, but I caught a glace of thisRead more
We walked down the road in late afternoon, passing by a few villages along the way. The sun is low, but enough light to get some decent shots… the issue is… in the mountains here sun is hot when you are in it, but the shade is ice cold. So, walking around in the day,Read more
The next morning we check out the map of the national park and realize so far we have seen roughly 25% of the must-see sights along the forked valley. We decide to grab a bus and skip past the area we saw yesterday. I’m starting to feel better. I don’t know the nameRead more
Joni and I are companions on the “10” hour bus ride to Jiuzhaigou Valley in the Tibetan Plateau, just 424km north of Chengdu. The bus is far from comfortable. No AC, no heat. Windows don’t really open. No restroom. Barely any brakes. The driver is intent on never stopping… but since the bus would breakRead more
Jing snagged VIP tickets for the Chengdu Panda Rescue Base and Joni and I headed there early. Lucky for us, the place was not at all busy, and the shooting conditions were fantastic. Butterfly looks like a leaf. We head to the nursery building first to see the newborns. We then stopRead more
Over the next few days, I hang out in Chengdu, visiting Jing’s shop and wandering the streets by day. At night I meet Jing and we grab a bite to eat. There are a lot of pictures of food with few other scenes in between. I wasn’t eating one meal after another. This is overRead more
Jing takes me to a place for some Sichuan food and it was eye-opening. I guess I kind of was not getting the real Sichuan experience while there. This beef soup didn’t avoid the fat, it embraces it. Thin fatty strips of beef just dissolved as I slurped it down, and those chillies brought theRead more