ThisIsVlad

This was my last full day in China 😞. I had done pretty much everything on this trip independently (except for hiking the Great Wall), but today I signed up for a tour just to make life easier.

One of the things that Sichuan (and China in general) is most well know for is pandas! Chengdu has a large panda research facility where they have tons of pandas that are kept here for breeding and conservation purposes. It was so cool to wander around and look at them. They had everything from full grown pandas to little baby pandas under a foot long! So cute!

The second stop on the tour was to go see the Leshan giant buddha. This Buddha is absolutely massive… 233 feet tall! It’s so big that a person can fit on just one of the Buddha’s smallest toes. It was quite a sight! But, this part of the tour was a little bit of a rip off. We were initially told we would be able to hike up to the top of the Buddha and get up close to it, but once we got there they said that we could only choose to either see it from a distance or do the hike, but not both. We ended up getting back from the tour like 2 hours early, so it was a bit lame.

That night, I went out to go meet two people from Ireland who i had met on the tour (Ciaran and Eleine) to get some drinks at this cool bar called Revolucion. But, as usual, nothing is easy here. At first, they weren’t able to find the bar as they were dropped off on the wrong side of the little strip of bars. They texted me the name of the bar that they were at, but when i looked it up on google, it said it should be across the river. After a long walk, I found it.. but it was the wrong bar… just another bar with the same name. After getting more bad directions, it took like almost an hour to finally find them. Why is nothing easy here 😭?! Anyways, we finally went to Revolucion and it was awesome! The place had great cocktails and a fun atmosphere… great way to end off the trip!

My next day in Chengdu, I went to a different teahouse and just chilled there for most of the afternoon. Afterwards, i went to this popular area called Jinli Street. People wander about here buying all sorts of various snacks. Lots of skewers as you see everywhere else in China, but also large trays filled with bowls of brains or lots of rabbit skulls.

That night, i went out to eat at a restaurant near my hostel. I got a dish that was fish in this spicy broth. It was so good! The fish was incredibly tender and crazy flavorful. I didnt realize when i ordered it, but it also has tofu in there… and surprisingly, the tofu was almost the best part. It was incredibly silky and practically melted into the broth when you tried to pick it up, thus absorbing a ton of the flavor.

As i was about to leave the restaurant, i heard all this yelling at the door. All of a sudden this massive fight breaks out and comes tumbling into the restaurant. It was absolutely nuts. Like 10-15 people all swinging punches and brawling like crazy. People were being thrown against the counter, which caused dishes and other things to fly all over and crash on to the floor. People were screaming, and tearing apart people’s clothes. Some were grabbing the little plastic chairs and smashing them over peoples’ heads. Girls and other people on the periphery who were trying to pull the fight apart would get sucked into the vortex. It was completely fucking crazy. Finally the fight ended and a bunch of people took off, leaving some others standing there with ripped shirts and blood and bruises. One of the crazy things was that pretty much nobody inside the restaurant reacted. The people who worked at the restaurant didn’t do anything to try and stop the brawl. Other diners just went about their eating. It was as if this insane melee was no big deal. So odd.

That night, i asked the guy working in my hostel for a dinner recommendation. He said that i should try some “stacks”. “Stacks”? I asked him to say it again… a few times. What the hell are stacks? He says that they are great because you can try a bunch of different things. Maybe he was saying “snacks”?

I go to the restaurant he recommended. There are a bunch of low tables and everyone is sitting on tiny chairs. I squeeze in on a chair, and sit at a super awkward angle, with my legs not really fitting under the table. Shockingly, they bring me an english menu. I look at it and.. umm… everything is a bit weird. Rabbit skulls, various intestines, etc. Uh-oh. It’s too late for me to bolt at this point though, so i try to find at least something that is palatable. I see “rabbit belly” on the menu. I know I like pork belly, maybe it’s similar, so I decide to order that. The helpful server comes up to me and uses an app to type “You will need to take the sticks of incense now”. Uhhhh… what??

He motions for me to follow him, and we walk to the back of the restaurant where there are zillions of little skewers in buckets. He gestures for me to grab some. Oh. Things are making more sense now. There is a popular thing here, sort of like hot pot, called Chuan Chuan, where you take all these small skewers and then they are cooked in a small pot and you eat them. I guess the guy at my hostel was saying “sticks” and not “stacks” or “snacks”. I look at the skewers, and am a little terrified. All the skewers are weird organs. There are none that look like just normal regular meat. Back home, i do eat liver and would possibly be down to eat more weird stuff if i at least knew what it was, but i have no clue what all these things are. It’s a bunch of sticks with all sorts of odd lumps and squiggles on them. The guy has been watching me and waiting the whole time. Meanwhile, i am pacing back and forth, trying to decide what, if anything, is recognizable enough to eat. I feel like at this point, i *have to* get something at least, so i warily pick a handful of skewers, hand them to the guy, and go sit back down.

Eventually they bring me my food. Oh god. So, “rabbit belly” actually turns out to be rabbit stomachs. I have a whole bowl full of them. *Ten*. They bring my skewers. Fuck. I cant believe i need to eat this. I don’t want to eat this. The only normal part of my meal is some potatoes. Everything else is questionable. I start eating. Honestly, this meal felt like i was on one of those reality shows where they make you eat scary stuff. I would take a bite, choke it down, and wash it down with beer. I am devouring rabbit stomachs, one after another. I eat the skewers, for each one wondering wtf i am eating. What are these tubes?! What is this weird lumpy thing? What the hell am i chewing on? It was some sheer willpower to get through it all. I ate 9 out of 10 rabbit stomachs. It was rough.

Afterwards, I went to a brewery called the Beer Nest. This place had a lot of Chinese craft beers from various breweries. It was nice to try out Asian beers other than the typical Lagers you see everywhere. I got a sour, a milk stout, and a Hefeweizen made w/ Sichuan peppercorns.

I spent today just wandering about Chengdu. My first stop was People’s park, a beautiful chill park in the heart of the city. They have a very popular teahouse in the park. Tea is a social experience here, and people come to the teahouse, order a big pot of tea, and just spend the day hanging out, slowly drinking their tea, and chatting. It was a great atmosphere, and i just sat back and people watched for hours while enjoying my tea. Lots of people here were playing various card games, Mahjong, etc. One of the really bizarre things here is that there are people who walk around cleaning people’s ears. They have these long metal rods that they dig around in someone’s ears with, and then rub the rods making this weird chiming sound. Not sure if they are trying to vibrate the gunk out of people’s ears or what… yuck.

Walking around the park afterwards, i stumbled upon this area with all these old people dancing. It was fascinating watching all these people, everyone probably 60+ years old, all slowly dancing in the park. There was one couple, both of whom looked 85+, where the wife clearly looked partially paralyzed, yet the husband was still slowly hobbling around with her, including her in the dancing. It was so sweet, and sad, and uplifting, and depressing, and heartwarming all at the same time.

After, i went to go see the Wengshu temple. This is a beautiful series of temples that are still in use, so you see monks in yellow robes walking about. The whole area is in a very scenic beautiful park inside the city. I have always really loved the juxtaposition of old and new… it’s really cool to see these quiet, peaceful, tranquil settings inside a modern high tech bustling city… or seeing 1,000 year old temples with gleaming skyscrapers in the background. As i wandered around this beautiful area, i passed this old man who was shuffling along. He had some kind of speaker with him that was playing music. Normally, i would prefer silence, but somehow this mellow music fit the scene just right. It was a beautiful moment there with the soothing music playing, the tranquil scenery of lush gardens and beautiful temples all around me, and the sun slowly setting in the background. Just then, the old man rips this insanely massively loud fart. Um. Well, it *was* a nice moment until then.

One of the things Chengdu is famous for is hot pot. To be honest, I’ve never been too crazy about hot pot. I dont know if I’ve just been going to the wrong places or if I’m ordering the wrong things, but I just have never been that blown away. But, being here, I knew I had to give it a go. I went to a place recommended in the guidebook, but of course, as always, confusion ensued when I got there and asked if this was the right place. It turns out that the restaurant changed ownership. Oh well.

I sit down and they put a menu in front of me with a zillion things in it. It’s not in English and there are no photos. Oh god… Am I going to have to translate this thing line by line? Luckily, the server was extremely helpful and patient with me. I asked her, via the app, to recommend some stuff, and we went back and forth, with her asking me questions and us both translating. At one point she asks “do you eat your own organs?”, lol. Clearly these translation apps are not so perfect, heh.

Eventually, my hot pot arrives. There is an inner circle with some mild broth and an outer circle that is loaded with chilis and bright red hot oil. They also give you a bowl where they make a dipping sauce for you with garlic, herbs, and oil. You cook things in the broth first, and then dip into the sauce after. She ordered me some pieces of meat, some super thin slices of beef (that came on a plate of dry ice), some tofu, and some greens.

She had asked me if I was ok with spicy and I had said yes. When I tried it though, it really wasn’t that hot… Maybe just a little spicy. I assumed that she had probably made it more mild for my Western taste. What I didn’t realize though, was that since the hot pot is over a flame, as the broth slowly boils off, it becomes more and more concentrated and spicy. After a little while, it was crazy hot!! Now, I can handle food that is pretty damn spicy, but holy shit, I literally had tears gushing from my eyes, I was sweating bullets, and my tongue was on fire. It was *intense*. In the end, I did like the hot pot for sure… though I still wouldn’t say that it is something I am super crazy about.

What’s interesting is that there are *so* many hot pot places here. Chengdu actually had the highest concentration of restaurants in the entire world! Yet, you walk the streets and it is Sichuan restaurant after Sichuan restaurant after hot pot after hot pot. Back home there would be a burger spot followed by burritos followed by Italian followed by Thai etc etc… Yet here there are zillions of restaurants and they all serve almost the same thing. How do they compete? How do they differentiate from each other?