Do Chengdu! (but not Songpan)

The easiest way to get to Western Sichuan is to go through Chengdu, which is the capital of the province. We read that this is the place to indulge in good food, stock up on gear or specialty foods before heading towards the "final frontier". More importantly, Chengdu is home to the Giant Panda Research Base!

The purpose of the centre is to help with panda conservation and education. The enclosures are large and the panda's seem to be well taken care of. They definitely get well fed and the time to go is in the morning between 9am to 10am for their feeding time. Each panda eats about 40kg of bamboo per day only absorbing 17% of the nutrients from their food! It was pretty entertaining and fascinating to watch them grab a bamboo branch, without looking, remove the outer hard husk, take a bite, remove the next husk, take two bites, remove the next husk, take the last two bites, reach down and grab the next bamboo branch. See video here. They just lean back and eat like a fat man at a buffet.

and then they pass out!

We were both surprised at how much we enjoyed the centre and highly recommend it to anyone going through Chengdu.

I've been asked a few times about the food we're eating. I'll have to do a dedicated food post for China; there's just too much! But I have to mention the "flower pepper". When we lived in Montreal, Tom was obsessed with this one Chinese restaurant he and the McGill crew went to regularly. He was convinced they put some drug in the food because of the numbing feeling you'd get when eating the eggplant dish. I ate their once and I don't remember having that feeling so I made fun of him assuming something was physiologically wrong with him...turns out I was wrong. The famous Sichuan pepper is called the flower pepper and it actually has an anesthetic property to it and it makes your mouth and lips tingle! Our first night in Chengdu we went to a hotpot restaurant recommended by our hostel. What an experience! In Sichuan they serve hot pots with two different broths: white (not spicy, fish broth) and red (spicy!).

The red broth was filled with the flower peppers and chilli peppers. Tom decided to scoop out the peppers to try to stop the broth from getting spicier as it boiled at our table. This isn't even half the amount, shown in the photo!

It was the best food experience we've had yet!

Between Chengdu and Langmusi, we stopped in Songpan for a day. If you can avoid it, don't bother staying here regardless of what Lonely Planet says. We also unfortunately stayed at an unpleseant hostel. The owner was so insincere that it actually inspired me to write my first review on TripAdvisor - don't stay at the Old House Inn by the way. We did go on one hike which we found by just walking straight up a hill behind town. The scenery was nice but definitely not worth a dedicated trip here.

The most interesting thing that happened was on our bus ride from Langmusi to Songpan. About 30mins away from Songpan one of the tires on our bus blew but the driver was able to continue driving (buses have double sets of tires in the rear). So about 5kms from Songpan, the driver pulled over at a tire shop where we all got out of the bus and watched the show for the next two hours! (why he didn't just drop all the passengers off and then go back?).

Here's how the tire changing unfolded: First we had to wait for the mechanics to get their stuff together (not sure how but this took about 30 mins). Then a mechanic removed 7 out of the 8 lug nuts but stripped the 8th nut. The mechanic then attempted to weld a spare nut on and then tried to unscrew it; that obviously didn't work. He tried this a few times. Then the bus driver got in there and decided to try his hand at welding, because the mechanic was probably not doing it correctly. Except the bus driver tried to use the welder to melt the remainder of the lug nut. He welded and then bashed the hell out of the thing with a crowbar until he realized that did not work either (another 30mins wasted). FINALLY some older mechanic guy dragged an oxy-propane torch out from the back of the garage!!!! We then watched the mechanic successfully cut the rest of the lug nut off the mangled stud. They were then able to remove the flat tire, put a new one on and tighthen the remaining 7 lug nuts; good enough. We finally all got back on the bus for the final 5 km drive into Songpan. Gotta love the unexpected bus failures in a country where you don't speak or understand the language. We, and a dozen other passengers, found this to be pretty damn entertaining to watch though!

I should also note that the welding and oxy-propane torch using was all done without a mask or eye protection and while smoking cigarettes at the same time.

Onwards to Western Sichuan!

Click here for more photos.