Things to do around Chengdu

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi there!

It looks like another fellow cow-orker and I will need to go to Chengdu in a few days to take care of some stuff at work. We’ll be there for about a week (including one weekend). I understand that there are dopers who have travelled extensively in China. Are there any recommendations on what should we do there if there is time? A few colleagues have mentioned the obligatory trip to check out the pandas, but what else should we not miss? Any other advice?

I can read Chinese, and I can speak some basic Mandarin. Hopefully, that’s enough to avoid getting completely lost.

Thanks in advance!

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Hey Waffle Decider, I spent a couple of weeks in Chengdu in 2005. Nice enough place if horribly polluted.

I took two trips from the city and a few in the city - and flew to Tibet and back in between.

I’ve included links to my travelogue below for your interest.

Hung out in the city center, which was nice enough in a Chinese big city style. The owner of the guesthouse kept trying to get us to go to the Sichuan opera but I declined, having once sat through three hours of Cantonese opera and never wanting to be reminded.

We also went for hotpot.

I went to the obligatory Panda breeding center and have to say, it’s well worth the visit. Very interesting, and the babies are absurdly cute.

Visited a huge taoist temple.

In the city I took a trip to see the Tibetan quarter, resulting in a rather uncomfortable lunch there being eyed suspiciously by some monks.

I also went to the Leshan Buddha, which is also a great trip. The motherfucking Buddha is motherfucking HUGE!

On our return to Chengdu from Tibet, we had a little run-in with some triads. Then I got sick from some burritos.

I read a bit of Chinese and speak almost no Mandarin, and I did just fine.

Not sure where you’re planning to stay, but I stayed in Sim’s Cozy Guesthouse, which I am happy to say without qualification the best traveller’s hostel I’ve ever stayed in, anywhere in the world. From the website I see that the original owners, Sim and Maki, have sold it and the name has changed, but if it’s anything like it was when I was there, I can’t recommend it highly enough. In fact we enjoyed the hostel so much that we kinda got lured into just hanging out. Great food too.

Enjoy!

One question: have you been to China before?

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Thanks for the comments and the links to the travelogue, jjimm. I’ll take a closer look tonight after work.

For all practical purposes, I’d say I’ve never been to China before. Technically, I’ve been there a couple times when I was little. However, we never went anywhere beyond Guangzhou, and I don’t remember much anyway, so I don’t think that counts.

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OK, so in that case I’ll just say that while I absolutely love China, it can be a little bit of a headfuck when you first arrive. Not a huge one - nowhere near as much as India - but it’s crazy busy and generally kind of falling apart, and there’s a fair amount of visible poverty. People drive like assholes and spit everywhere.

Look out for yourself and you’ll be fine - by that I don’t mean there’s much crime at all - it’s really safe - but there may be things you would expect to be moderated in the west that just aren’t in China - for common example a hole in the sidewalk with a 20’ drop inside it, with no barrier or signs or anything, or bamboo scaffolding sticking out at eye level. Keep your eyes open and be a little more alert for random hazards than you would at home.

Generally Chinese people, in my experience, are amazingly friendly, generous and charming - as individuals. However, mob mentality is really common, and huge crowds of people can behave in really quite idiotic ways. I stay out of crowds in China. Rush hour on the Shanghai subway… I still shudder when I think about it.

The good new is that anywhere other than Guangzhou is going to be a huge improvement (I can say this because I’ve never been to Shenyang or Chongqing). I suspect you’re going to have a blast.

5

Cheng?

Someone had to do it! :slight_smile:

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Probably my favorite city on the mainland. I was there in 2005 and 2010.

I stayed for a couple of weeks at the LazyBones hostel, which is in a great location near the new subway line. There is an excellent Sichuan snacks restaurant just across the street. Even if you don’t stay there, go to the restaurant anyway! It’s at LuoMaShi station.

The Wenshu Temple is a great place to relax for some tea and peanuts. I spent a couple of hours there chatting with an old PLA vet from the civil war. Very nice atmosphere.

Renmin/People’s Park is nice area to go for a walk. There is the usual kind of group dancing and some more interesting dancing by individuals to western music, as well as men writing in Chinese on the cement with water.

Spend a couple of hours at the Sichuan Museum. If you stay at Lazybones or Mix Hostel, they do a free bike tour every week (Wednesday?) that stops at the museum.

Go for a walk around Sichuan University and hang out with students on the lawn then watch some ping pong and basketball matches.

Chengdu is also famous for its "la mei"s 辣妹, thought to be a result of the regions spicy cuisine.

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It’s just occurred to me that as it’s a business trip, you’ll probably be in some fancy hotel. But also that your hosts will probably ‘entertain’ you the whole time you’re there.

They may have worked out an entire week-long itinerary of stuff you might not necessarily want to do. Big banquet dinners, karaoke, trips to ‘cultural’ shows from ‘happy minorities’ and the like.

Since you’re no doubt from the parent company you’ll probably be treated with deference, but I defer to people who have done more business in China than I have to work out how to handle that one to do your own thing, without causing grave offense.

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Yes, definitely go to the panda breeding center … amazing place. Also eat enough to hibernate on. You’re probably more used to it, but the food in most of China is almost unbearably oily and sweet, something like Panda Express or other Chinese fast food places in the U.S. In Chengdu it was marginally spicier and merely saturated in oil rather than floating in it.

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If that word means what I think it means… :stuck_out_tongue: Also thanks for the other suggestions. We’ll see if we can work some of that into our plan.

From what I’ve gathered from others who have done the same trip, there will be no elaborate banquets and such. My understanding is that, at least within this company, so many have done the trip that by now it has become not a big deal, at least not the way it used to be. While there are some planned ‘extra-curricular activities’, there will also be some free time leftover for us to explore on our own if we wish. We’ll see how that works out…

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Is there anything remaining from the Liu Bei/Three Kingdoms period?

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Probably the most dangerous thing that I have done in China is to cross the streets.

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) are everywhere, are almost silent, and the riders do not follow any traffic rules.

Always look both ways crossing streets, and even be cautious walking on the sidewalks as e-bike riders also use the sidewalks.

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I lived just south of Chengdu for a couple of years.

For context, Sichuan province is considered a good place to enjoy the “relaxed life.” It’s the sort of place where people while away the day drinking tea, playing mah-jong, enjoying delicious local food and generally taking in a slower pace of life than you’d find in China’s ultra competitive cities. I’ve heard more than one person say they’d love to retire in Sichuan, where life is simple and sweet.

Chengdu itself is a huge modern city, but it’s a bit of a gem in that it’s both very Chinese and somewhat relaxed (although you may not think so when you first arrive!), something that’s a rarity in China.

The tourist circuit is a genuinely good time and does give a reasonable introduction into the area. In one outing you can visit the WuHou shrine, which is related to the Three Kingdoms period, walk up Jingli Street. Jingli is a bit like Chinese Disneyland, but it’s a good time for a tourist trap and undeniably charming. The Tibetan quarter is a short walk from there, and there are a few good Tibetan restaurants and plenty of Tibetans walking around with heavy jewels in their hair and piles of jewelry.

The Qingyang temple is more laid back, and has one of the great tea shops. Buy some tea, melon seeds and a pack of cards and pass the day there. You can also go to a Sichuan Opera…it’s wise to skip the real thing and go straight for the tourist version that gives a taste of everything from shadow puppets to quick change artists. It’s good tacky fun. Renmin Park is known for its impromptu music and dancing, and it’s always fun to wander Sichuan University’s sprawling historic grounds.

At night, bar street (by Babi II) is a fun time- it’s packed full of beer gardens, some of them pretty picturesque. Babi II is a good place for Chinese style nightclubbing, as are the various nightclubs scattered around it. At night, sidewalk BBQ joints will pop up all over. This is how Chinese people while away their time, drinking weak beer and eating stick after stick of spicy grilled meat. Or, if you really want to experience local culture, get some people together and rent a karaoke room.

If you need a break from China, the Bookworm is an expat bookstore cafe that has events sometimes. Pete’s Tex-Mex is the unofficial Peace Corps headquarters, where you can find hung-over PCVs going gaga over filter coffee. Down the street, Panem in the local hipest French night club in town.

Sichuan has some of the best food in China- spicy and fresh (and yes, oily, but almost never sweet). Find some way to get someone who knows how to order take you to a good place (which may well be a sidewalk eatery) and eat a few good Sichuan feasts. Make sure to get the twice-cooked pork, fish-flavored eggplant, kung pao chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, deep friend string beans, spicy cucumber, spicy peanuts, mapo tofu, whole fish, pork with garlic shoots, shredded potatoes and seasonal pickled vegetables.Hot-pot is also a must-have at least once (try to go to one of the big chains- they can be quite an experience), as are the various street snacks (which can be conviently found on JinLi street if you are feeling less adventurous. Try to find the big pancake thing they turn into a burrito…mmmm.

Have fun!!! Now you’ve got me looking at prices for plane tickets, hahah.

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Wonderful. I love spicy food, and this sounds just like my kind of food!