This time around, for our trip to Chengdu, we would be traveling on our own. My colleague PH was the organiser for this trip, and she was going with her cousin, PE. AL and I merely tagged along. We booked our own flights to Chengdu ... and then joined a local tour to Huang Long and Jiuzhaigou. It was a different experience, but nonetheless an interesting trip.
Our flight, D7 320 took off from KLIA 2 at approximately 9.35 a.m. It was an A330-300 aircraft, which had 9 seats in a row. The seats came in 3 rows of 3s. I was seated on the aisle. It suited me fine as I liked being able to get to the loo whenever I wanted to. 2 petite fair-skinned Chinese girls were seated beside me. AL was seated across the aisle from me, and we could still chit chat throughout the flight. Our short flight to Chengdu was about 4 hours and 15 minutes.
We landed at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (成都双流国际机场) at about 1.30 p.m. And it took only a short while to get past the immigration checks.
Chengdu is the capital city of Sichuan province, also the home of the giant pandas. We saw these panda figurines at the baggage claim area at the airport.
We exited the airport, in search of a taxi. Unlike here in Malaysia, we need not purchase taxi coupons. Just join in the queue at the taxi stand at the far end of the airport. We did not wait for long before it was our turn - only that we could not fit in our 4 pieces of luggage into the boot of the taxi! Nearly half of the boot was taken up by a cylindrical gas tank.
We were still adjusting our luggage to fit into the car boot when the driver got impatient. He got out and bellowed at us. He then slammed the boot shut and climbed back into the driver's seat. My luggage was still in my hand and it looked like I had to hold it on my lap now. We scrambled into the car, and he sped off and drove recklessly throughout the way to the hotel. What a nasty man!
We were still adjusting our luggage to fit into the car boot when the driver got impatient. He got out and bellowed at us. He then slammed the boot shut and climbed back into the driver's seat. My luggage was still in my hand and it looked like I had to hold it on my lap now. We scrambled into the car, and he sped off and drove recklessly throughout the way to the hotel. What a nasty man!
It was unfortunate that we encountered such a bad-tempered taxi driver as soon as we landed. He did not even drop us off at our hotel. We were dropped off at about 2 blocks away, claiming that he could there was no drop off point nearer to our hotel. We did not want to argue, so we got off the car and dragged our luggage as we walked to our hotel. Our taxi fare cost RMB57.00.
We stayed at Quan Ji Hotel (全季酒店) - it translates to be All Seasons Hotel, but its official name in English is in fact, JI Hotel. The hotel is right at the city centre, located opposite a popular mall called Wang Fu Jing (王府井). The lobby of our hotel is on the 18th floor.
View of Jin Jiang District (锦江区), Chengdu
Check-in was a breeze and we went to our rooms to dump our bags.
The lobby
This was a 4-star hotel .... and we were glad that the room was comfortable and clean. It was quite spacious, and there was complimentary drinks-making facilities, and free wi-fi. We quickly went out after that. The weather was pleasant ... about 19 - 23 degrees; I could walk about in just a t-shirt.
Wang Fu Jing
This is a departmental store, which we did visit ...
Inside Wang Fu Jing
We were attracted by this brand of bags called COMICO. They are fully made of leather, and its designs are quite trendy, except that they are very expensive. A bag costs an average of RMB2000.
Cuties inside Wang Fu Jing
The trip to Kuanzhai Ancient Street took less than 10 minutes, but cost us RMB25.00 - which was a cutthroat price, in fact. We did not have a choice as we had no other means of getting to there. Once we reached there, we decided to go for a meal. was so hungry by now, so we went inside small local eatery and had ...
Spicy and numbing fiery broth, pungent and tangy flavour and springy glass noodles
The wheat noodles tasted alright - not too springy; the broth tasted mildly of beef flavour
The dumpling skin was thick, the minced pork filling minimal; overall tasted alright
Each bowl cost RMB7.00. The food wasn't exceptionally good, but it was acceptable to our palate.
Walking towards KuanZhai Alley, 2 alleys reflecting Ming and Qing Dynasty architecture
"Kuan" means wide, and "Zhai" means narrow. All along the 2 streets, vendors were selling all sorts of things ...
Kuan Alley signpost
These are hair clips called 豆芽发夹 or the beansprout hair clip is the most popular item now. RMB5.00 for 2 pieces.
We took our time and browsed leisurely at the silversmith's, candy stores, souvenir stores .... but of course, the food caught my attention.
Snacks for sale!
In fact, all along the street, the food items sold were the same.
We went into this eatery to try some local snacks. We wrote our orders and had to pay first before food was served to us. Each item was RMB10.00.
A local eatery
伤心凉粉 (Shang xin liang fen) or Sad Cold Noodles
Why sad? Is it because it is so spicy that it will make one sob upon eating? Lol. The plain cold noodle is tasteless on its own .... it's not very springy actually. The flavour comes from the robust and pungent and tangy chilli oil, dried chilli flakes and the chopped fresh chillies.
韩包子 (Han Baozi)
These are essentially mini steamed buns with meat filling; not much of filling in these buns, though,
三大炮 (San Da Pao or 3 Big Cannons)
Glutinous rice is pinched from a container and then bounced towards a huge tray of ground soy and sesame powder. The glutinous rice balls made booming sounds as they are thrown, thus the name. The rice balls are doused in a sweet, sugary syrup and served in threes. It reminds me of our local mochi. I liked this snack.
水晶凉糕 or Shui Jing Liang Gao
Cold jelly-like cake served in sweet dark sugar syrup; not bad and I liked this too.
We downed our snack with a glass of snow pear drink (雪梨汁) each. The drink wasn't nice. There were more snacks sold along the street ....
Rabbit heads in chilli oil ....
Looked pretty scary .... none of us wanted to try these ....
锅魁 or Guo Kui
These are some sort of biscuits .... we bought one piece; each of us took a bite and threw the rest away as we found it too pungent with the flavour of Sichuan peppercorn
Pineapple Honey Rice Pudding ...
Beef and lamb skewers, RMB10.00 each
Upon ordering, the vendor dipped the cooked skewers into a sauce, and then grilled them on the fire before brushing chilli and cumin powder on the them. We tried one skewer of beef and lamb each .... which we found the meat to be tender and flavourful. Not bad :))
Upon ordering, the vendor dipped the cooked skewers into a sauce, and then grilled them on the fire before brushing chilli and cumin powder on the them. We tried one skewer of beef and lamb each .... which we found the meat to be tender and flavourful. Not bad :))
At about 10.00 p.m., we took a taxi back to our hotel. It cost us only RMB10.00.
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