Chengdu

­Having arrived at the station in Chendgu, the most Westerly point I will reach in China, I found it easy to find a taxi which could get me relatively close to my next accommodation  Sim’s Cosy Garden Hostel which, although I’ve only stayed in three hostels, was my favourite by quite a way.

Seeing as I had arrived quite late in the day I decided just to have a wander round the local streets to try and find some food for the evening and not too far from the hostel I found a tiny kitchen which smelt amazing. From what I could gather you just had to point at the meat you wanted (chicken in my case) and she would knock up this incredible looking sauce and mix the meat into it with the only variation being how much of a certain spice she put into it. She showed me a heaped teaspoon of the unidentified spice which I agreed to at which point she, and the customer behind me, laughed. Not a good sign. On the way back to the hostel I picked up a corn on the cob and a pineapple stick. Out of the three items I had returned with it was no surprise the only successful one was the pineapple stick. The corn was unpleasant but the real failure was the chicken I was so looking forward to as it, bones and all, had been hacked up into pieces so not only was my first and only mouthful pure bone, but the unidentified spice also blew my head off! If I was the lady at the kitchen id have laughed too.

On my first full day in Chengdu I headed to Tianfu Square which is dominated by a huge statue of Chairman Mao. Although it’s an impressive square including the statue, many modern shops and a fountain display timed to music, there is no getting away from the fact that my first port of call was the Chengdu Science and Technology Museum on the north side of the square. Nerd. By this stage in the trip I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t get to see in any Chinese factories like I had hoped so instead had to settle for this. It was actually quite entertaining as the Chinese aren’t too fussed by safety and are quite happy to create meter long lightning bolts and give kids real knifes so they can test out the technology of stab proof vests.

China has 20 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world and, although I haven’t seen the list, I am sure Chengdu has to be high up there! The city’s inhabitants must not know what the sun looks like as there is a constant thick smog around the city to such an extreme that you can only ever see a few building down the street at a time. Ive noticed locals walking around the cities ive been to so far in medical face masks but never really seen the point until now.

Statue of Chairman Mao camouflaged by smog

After this I headed south towards the Tibetan Quarter, following the success of Xian’s Muslim Quarter, which delivered my favourite street in China so far – Jinli Street. It was another cramped and busy lane filled with stall and shops but, although it had only recently been built, was in the style of some of the centuries old temples I had seen. Still gutted at my own failings in Beijing to eat some kind of obscure creature I thought this may be the place to redeem myself, but some sort of meat on a stick was the best I could find. Surrounding Jinli Street were dozens of shops selling hundreds of big and small gold Buddhas, various monk robes and other Tibetan artefacts.

Jinli Street

In the evening I had booked myself onto a tour to see the Sichuan Opera. I realise at this point that it seems the only things ive paid for have been a science museum and the opera which sounds incredibly lame, but I can assure you that Chinese Opera is nothing like normal opera! It included fire breathing, magic, an amazing hand puppeteer and a guy making the weirdest noises I’ve ever heard anything make claiming he was his own instrument! It was an excellent evening which the whole tour group enjoyed. Shame I was the entire tour group.

The next day I was up early to see Chengdu’s biggest attraction – the Panda Research and Breeding Centre. Once again I made up the entire tour group on my own but this was fine as it meant I had the guide to myself. This turned out to be irrelevant seeing as the English speaking/panda expert guide turned out to be the barman from the hotel whose entire knowledge of the centre was “Pandas have wow wow then make baby”. Other than the guide, the centre was excellent and yes pandas are indeed cute, but the highlight for me was just watching the laziest animal I’ve ever witnessed! I actually saw one panda realise he was too far away from his food to reach it with his arm, so rather than get up and walk he reluctantly rolled on his back and over his face to the nearest bamboo.

A panda deciding that its easier to roll towards food than walk

Having returned to the city, in a bus far too big to transport one tourist, I visited the Wenshu temple which is the biggest active Buddhist temple in Chengdu. There’s no need for details as it was like every other temple so far – quiet and humbling yet hard to breathe because of their overwhelming need to burn incense.

The evening I spent in the hostel enjoying a hardly adventurous sweet and sour chicken with rice served to me by my panda guide. The hostel, among loads of other facilities, had a huge collection of fake DVDs they allowed their guest to browse so I freely borrowed a couple before realising my laptop doesn’t have a CD Drive. Sod it. Unfortunately this would not be my biggest issue of the night.

The hostel's amazing smoking area. The one guy I saw use it looked suitable embarrassed

Before continuing I would like to point out that being 22 I am in fact capable of talking to girls and have been in a relationship with one for almost four years, but upon returning to my room to find I was alone with a 17 year old Japanese one I immediately went back to being 12 years old at my first school disco! Even though I had chosen a mixed dorm and the possibility of having to share a room with a girl was always a possibility, some sort of panic ensued. She spoke no English, was just wearing pyjamas and was standing in front of my bed doing her hair, how was I meant to get to my bed without getting suspiciously close to her! Instead I just chose to investigate the curtains on the other side of the room until she moved. Ten minutes later I reached my bed. I must do better next time.

The following morning I was up early as I had to be at the train station at 9am to catch my next train. I had planned to head straight for Shanghai from Chengdu but couldn’t deal with the 32 hour train journey so instead opted to break it up by stopping in Nanjing for a night which was a much more bearable 25 hours. Due to the length of the journey I chose to downgrade from my usual “soft sleeper” class to “hard sleeper” which turns out to be perfectly fine and saved me half the price. The only downside was I had to share my compartment with more people who all fancied a good stare at a Westerner.