Sichuan Province

After I finished at City College I traveled to Sichuan Province, south and southwest of the province I am in, Shaanxi, on a 13-day trip. Sichuan is noted for hot spicy food. The province is big and mountainous, and is where the devastating earthquake occurred last year in May. I actually went right through the town that suffered the most damage. It is still a disaster area with piles of rubble everywhere, even though they are busy rebuilding and cleaning up. The town is in a very narrow valley with a rushing river flowing through. I could see parts of the old highway that was covered with huge boulders. The road maintenance has to be tremendous with constant rock and mudslides. They are reinforcing the sides of the road with wire mesh in some sections, but much more needs to be done since there were still a lot of rocks on the road. I was traveling from the north of the province to the middle; it was supposed to be a 7 hour trip, but it took 10 hours because there was an accident on a narrow strip and everyone had to wait until the cars were cleared – one man, in fact, had to be cut free with hand tools from his vehicle.

I started out by flying to Jiuzhaigou, a beautiful national reserve in the mountains. I could have been in the west of the US. The temperature was between 95 and 100 when I left Xi’an, so it was a pleasure to land on a plateau with a temperature in the 50’s. I spent a day and a half in the park where it was a bit warmer, low 70’s. It is run very efficiently with buses carrying passengers throughout the park with many stops. It is a mountainous wetland area with many lakes and streams and boardwalks throughout. The many waterfalls are not so big at the moment, but nonetheless, impressive. The Chinese tourists were mostly by the waterfalls, but as soon as I walked further on, there were few people. I walked and walked next to the lakes and streams admiring the colors of the water ranging from shades of green to deep blue to turquoise. I was very tempted to take a dip. The flowers were lovely and at first I tried to refrain from taking pictures, but eventually after taking many pictures of lakes and mountains, I could not resist the flowers. The best part was getting out in the wilderness away from urban China. Within the park there are several Tibetan settlements, very tourist orientated.

It only got better when I took a bus to Songpan, a town high in the mountains at 2800 meters. Tibetans live there, as do Chinese, many of which are Muslims. The breads were delicious, tasting like real bread. Emma has a restaurant and she makes sure she gets business by meeting the buses and being helpful. Her English was excellent. I ate a very strange burrito, really a pancake with vegetables, but it was good and fresh tasting, but no hot sauce. The best item I had at Emma’s, however, was yak yogurt and a banana yak yogurt shake. The thick sour yogurt tasted like yogurt, not like the watered down sweetened yogurt that one buys in most of China.

The main reason that I had gone to Songpan was to go on a horse trek, so I decided to go on a three-day trek into the mountains. We were four foreigners, an American couple living in Singapore, and a young Israeli, and four Tibetan guides. We started out in the morning and rode up and down beautiful green mountains, crossing numerous streams. It was cloudy with light rain on the first day, but no rain after that, the valleys we rode through were very narrow with rapid streams coming down the mountains. There were prosperous-looking Tibetan villages with lots of construction going on – apparently they get financial support from the government. The first floor has stonewalls and is for the animals. The extended family lives on the second and third floors that are made of wood. The huge timber beams used for construction are often carved in a decorative manner at the ends. One woman said that 40 people would live in her house. We saw goats, yaks, and pigs. There were small summer huts high up on mountainsides where people tended animals. Our destination on the second day was Ice Mountain. We could see the snow-covered mountain early in the day as we rode towards it, but by the time we got close, it was enveloped in clouds. It was cold there, so we put on yak-lined coats, while the guides drank. We walked down mountainsides giving the horses a break several times, which meant I was able to take flower pictures.

We camped at the same site for the two nights in two-man tents while the guides slept under a tarp. It got cold at night but we were given enough covers to keep warm. The food was hot with red pepper, mostly vegetable stews, with good bread. Breakfast the first day was a potato and pumpkin stew with hot pepper, the second day, cabbage.

In one small town I visited a Tibetan monastery where most of the monks were young boys. I walked into the temple and sat down to listen to chanting. As they caught sight of me they would nudge their neighbor and wave. Sweet kids.

After three days, it was nice getting off the horses. I was a bit saddle sore and my legs were also sore from hiking down the mountains, but the trip was definitely a highlight.

After wearing the same clothes for three days, it was wonderful getting back to the guesthouse where there was hot water and a clean bed.

From there I headed south on a bus through the mountains. More to follow.

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

After the horse trek and Songpan, I headed south on a bus through the mountains stopping first at Dujiangyan where there is an ancient irrigation system on the Min River from 256 BC. I met a lovely Chinese American couple that lives in California, Steve and Luping, and was traveling extensively in China. We rode the bus together from Songpan. Dujiangyan is laid back and lovely with restaurants and teahouses by the side of the river, but they do not want foreigners staying there. We were turned away at several hotels, but finally one hotel was willing to use Luping’s Chinese ID to register for the rooms. The irrigation system is in a huge park and is extensive. The river is forced to divide, one section for irrigation that was dug out, and the other for flood control. The water level is carefully controlled with a dam to adjust the water flow. It was very well planned and is still used today.

The next and final stop was Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, is huge, about 10,000,000 people. It’s hot there, but because of haze and pollution, one never sees the sun and that helps to make it cooler. There are numerous parks and teahouses in the parks and by the river so it has a relaxed atmosphere. People enjoy spending time at the teahouses chatting and playing games. I went to several temples and monasteries and ate excellent vegetarian food at vegetarian restaurants at the monasteries. One place I had “meatballs” that were wonderful with mushrooms. Once could order various “meats”, all made of tofu and vegetables.

I walked in parks and visited several historical sites. I met up with Steve and Luping again and visited the new provincial museum that is very impressive. I spent most of my time looking at the handcrafts of Sichuan and the minority ethnic group exhibits that include others besides Tibetans. I also visited several areas with up market restaurants.

A highlight was the Panda Research Center where pandas are raised. I saw the typical black and white pandas, but also red pandas that look more like raccoons. Artificial insemination is used as the means of reproduction. It was great fun watching young pandas play. There was an excellent movie showing the life cycle of the panda that look like hairless mice when they are born. Before the earthquake, there was also a research center in the mountains.

An excursion was to Leshan to see the biggest Buddha in the world (71 meters high) carved out of the side of a mountain. I thought it was ugly, but people certainly were there to see it; I refused to join the long lines of people lining up to walk from the head down to the feet. There were other huge Buddhas, all carved out of mountains. After being there, I really do not care if I ever see another Buddha!

It was a 15-hour train ride to return to Xi’an so that I could apply for a tourist visa since my work visa was expiring. Chinese really know how to do train travel. They bring huge plastic bags of food: various beverages, cardboard buckets that contain all the ingredients for making instant noodle soup, foods in plastic bags that can be squeezed out, fresh fruit, sunflower seeds, crackers, cookies, packaged cakes and buns. They always bring more than they could possibly eat. Hot water for tea or for making soup is always available on trains. Train personnel walk through selling food, beverages and snacks, and fruit. This time there was an annoying woman with a harsh rasping voice who kept coming through selling a toy that she demonstrated each time.

The visa police at the Xi’an police station enjoyed being mean. Each time I returned, a total of three times, the policeman thought of a new requirement. After the third attempt I realized it was not going to happen, so that was when I decided to fly to Hong Kong for my visa. It was easy; all I had to do was fill out a paper and pay my money. I also enjoyed a taste of the west in Hong Kong. It’s a beautiful modern expensive city with great tourist sights.