On July 6th we rode a high speed train from Yangshuo to Chengdu. It was a nearly 9 hour ride but it went fast. At this point we are experts on riding the high speed trains in China. You go through the checkpoint at the door of the train station 30 minutes before your train. You have to show your passport and ticket and they make sure the names match while also xraying your bags. The volume of bags precludes any close inspection of the contents and I doubt they find many things that could be a problem. If you set off the metal detectors as almost everyone does you get a quick pat down. Then you buy some snacks and sit down near the turnstiles for the platform. At 10 minutes before departure they announce the train, open the turnstiles, and everyone rushes through. Then you quickly find your car and your seat and get settled. We ate lunch and snacks while watching the landscape go by at 250km/hr for the next 8 or 9 hours. We gradually climbed up out of tropical Yangshuo to temperate Chengdu. I think Chengdu is normally a few degrees cooler and drier but its been raining for a month straight in Chengdu so its much wetter and a bit cooler than usual.
For our first three nights in Chengdu we were staying in an apartment I found online. Its close to several tourist sites and in a great neighborhood but even our van driver couldn't find it. Ultimately the owners met us on the main road and led us down a narrow dark, twisting alley to a dark multistory apartment building. I was starting to dread what we might find but it turns out it was a beautiful clean 2 bedroom apartment with a private back garden. It reminded Margaret of apartments in the West Village of NYC. Back garden even had a washing machine so we could do laundry. And the road outside the apartment complex is lined with tea houses and restaurants of all sorts. Based on the stares I'm pretty sure there haven't been too many white guys living in the area.
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