Tag Archives: ChengDu

Asia, China

ChengDu (V) WenShu Temple / Further Plans

Just a quick note so you won’t declare me dead: Today was a lush day in ChengDu. Just in the evening I had a brief visit to WenShu Temple, which is actually just a 10 minute walk from my hotel, but into the other direction, where also Payam’s hostel is.

I won’t be able to do a long update tonight as we are sitting here over one or the other beer and plan out the next days, but let me give you a quick heads-up and outlook on our future plans, as in the future the updates here might be a bit more infrequent:
Continue reading ChengDu (V) WenShu Temple / Further Plans →

Asia, China

ChengDu (IV) Eventually…we start to become friends!

With a lot of investment on both ChengDu’s and my side the two of us came to agree that there are indeed nice places in ChengDu! Lonely Planet will require an update as will some tourist maps. But lucky as I was (or: as ChengDu was ;)) I passed by some park-like grounds in the taxi, which had brought me from the airport to the hotel. And the map I got in my hotel, an all-Chinese map, not actually really well suitable for touristic purposes, had in about the area where I saw these greens out of the taxi window indeed chartered two parks and some pagodas. These areas were my goal today. And I just took a deep breath after I noticed that I selected no less than 27 picture to be published today, record for a single day report! Continue reading ChengDu (IV) Eventually…we start to become friends! →

Asia, China

ChengDu (III) Back we are…

Let me just briefly state: I am back in the city I like least so far: ChengDu. I could lie and say I wanted to give it a second chance to convince me of its beauties. But as a matter of fact: I am here merely to meet with Payan, the German I had met before in Lhasa (see Future Plans in Lhasa (IV)). He returned here first and expected me to pass through as I had written him. When learning he is here I interrupted my original plan to move directly on to KunMing. Continue reading ChengDu (III) Back we are… →

Asia, China

ChengDu (I) Get me out of here

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ChengDu (成都)

This city sucks…I am glad that I could make CITS give me a flight to Macau for tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon already. I knew I dislike this city as soon as I was walking back towards my hotel after the bus dropped me off some 100km after my street. Construction works…grrr….looks like they get a subway. Good. But why do they move the bus stops several streets away? The air unbreathably hot and thick, typical Chinese industrial continental climate. No big sights anyway, that I knew upfront from Lonely Planet, which mentions two or three times places where it is OK hanging out entire afternoons (foremost the tea houses in People’s Park). For tourists and backpackers ChengDu seems to be mostly a transportation hub only. I originally planned to come here with the thought in mind to carry further on to China’s south. Now with the changed plan of squeezing Taiwan in I only want to get outta it. And CITS made it after some back and forth (didn’t accept my credit card, but luckily Bank of China’s ATM did). The only good thing about ChengDu: They have some Starbucks. Continue reading ChengDu (I) Get me out of here →

Asia, China

Tibet-QingHai Railway

A train you don’t take to get from A to B…there are a lot faster ways to get out of Lhasa. The term “scenic train” probably fits it best. And contrary to my believe it is also quite full on the way back from Lhasa. But certainly full of tourists. And so it happened that our compartment of 4 soft sleepers was shared by an Austrian lady, a Malaysian couple, and me, which made communication in English perfect. All Malaysians I ever met have perfect, nearly native English knowledge. If of Chinese origin, like this couple, then also native Chinese knowledge, which certainly comes in handy when trying to understand train announcements or talking to the train officials. Continue reading Tibet-QingHai Railway →