First visit for me to Chengdu, home of the Panda, earthquakes, and spicy Sechuan food. Flew from Shanghai and the flight was 3 hours, almost due west, which shows you how big the country is. Had the usual wait for the aircraft both ends. Chinese domestic flights don’t seem to count an hour as even being a delay! In fairness they do have a lot of variable weather to contend with, in one region or another, and that can have a knock on effect. The weather during my trip was great, yet it was snowing in Beijing!
Went to attend an industrial show. I was impressed with the organisation at the vast, 7-halled Exhibition Centre, but not quite so impressed with the Chengdu taxi drivers. The one at the airport claimed not to know where our hotel was, which turned out to be on the main road some 10 minutes away! I suspect it was too short a trip for him having been in the airport taxi queue. Another driver, coming back from the show, told us he had no petrol so we had to get out the cab whilst he went into a petrol station as, apparently, the rules don’t allow us to be on board when refuelling – a bit like the Jumbo we went back in!
The fabulously spicy food lived up to its reputation – delicious! I was also impressed with the very avant guarde architecture I saw in Chengdu. Lots of curves and overhangs on some very big buildings. Another taxi driver told us there were 30 million people inChengdu and 9,000 taxis. I can certainly say there were a lot of taxis but the official population is around 11 million.
No time for the pandas and the other sights this time, but no doubt I will be back.
Please send us your comments: