So our original plan after the first few days in Chengdu and the trip to the panda reserve was to go to Jiuzhaiguo valley. This is a national park in northern Sichuan in a very Tibetan area. It's supposed to very beautiful and a must see. The park has been closed for the last 14 months or so since a big earthquake in 2017 damaged the roads and facilities and only recently reopened. With the reopening they were severely restricting the number of visitors but we had scored a reservation. It sounded perfect. Our plan was to spend a few days up there hiking and horse trekking. Unfortunately a few days after we arrived in China the park was closed due to severe flooding with reports that it would likely stay closed for at least a month. I looked into other activities both in the Jiuzhaiguo area and elsewhere in the mountains of western Sichuan. Ultimately though it was clear that everywhere was experiencing heavy rains, road washouts, and floods and given that we only had about 4 days to work with it just seemed like the chance of not getting where we wanted to go or even worse getting stranded for a few days and not making it back to Chengdu for our flight to Yunnan was too high. So we decided to just stay in Chengdu and explore Chengdu for a few more days. I'm really glad we did as Chengdu is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do.
Once we decided to stay in Chengdu I had reserved us a room at the Ren He Spring hotel. It was just down the street from the apartment we had rented for our first three days. Its a true 5 star hotel but the reason I wanted it was it looked like it had a great pool. The plan was for us to pack up and walk the 1/2 mile or so from our apartment and then check in to the hotel. Unfortunately it was raining when we left and we hadn't even made it out of our little alley when the skies really opened up. We quickly ducked into a little mahjong parlor at the end of our alley when they invited us in out of the rain. Then Syd and I headed out into the downpour to try to scare up some taxis. The plan was to get a couple of taxis to take us the short distance to the hotel. Taxis ended up being hard to find and most didn't want to go to the hotel. We found one but he kicked us out rather than drive down the little alley. Finally we decided that Syd and I would walk all the way to our hotel without luggage and check in and then ask the hotel to help us get the luggage and the rest of the family back to the hotel. We showed up at the hotel looking like drowned rats but they were very gracious. After we got checked in the bellhop checked out the hotel van and drove the half mile back to the mahjong parlor and we loaded everyone up and came back to the hotel. Sometimes its great to be able to afford a 5 star hotel and the services they offer. Although truthfully the suite with two bathrooms we rented cost about as much as a regular room at the Day's Inn in Capitol Hill back home. After we checked in we just went to the local mall for a late lunch/dinner. Then we hung out enjoying the hotel and its health club.
The next morning we got up and had a great breakfast at the Ren He. So good the kids were talking the rest of the day about how much they were looking forward to the next morning. Anyway, we decided to head down to People's park in order to experience urban life in Chengdu. The park has beautiful gardens including a bonsai garden and koi ponds. It also has one of the oldest and biggest tea houses in Chengdu. As I mentioned before tea houses are a big deal in Chengdu. Many are just little neighborhood places but this one is famous. It covers an area probably almost as big as a football field. In addition to getting tea and snacks you can also indulge in some other Chengdu traditions. One of the weirder ones is strolling ear cleaners who offer to clean the wax out of your ears while you relax drinking tea. I watched some of them working and although their tools looked a bit weird and probably weren't cleaned between clients they seemed like they knew what they were doing. So I signed up. He pulled a truly horrifying wax plug out of my right ear and my hearing is the best its every been.
After we finished our tea we walked over to broad and narrow alleys. These are two old alleys that have been renovated and are now stuffed with little stores, restaurants, tea house, snack stands and galleries. They are for the most part pedestrian only unless you are unfortunate enough to live there in which case you are allowed to try and drive your car through the hordes of pedestrians. We spent a little time snacking and shopping. The best snack is this rice ball that they throw against the top of their cart making a booming sound like a drum and causing the rice ball to fly through the air and land on a ramp coated in ground peanuts. It then rolls down the ramp collecting peanuts and ends up in a little basket. Based on an exhibit we saw the next day at the Chengdu museum this snack has been a local tradition for at least 100 years.
That evening we headed over to Shufenyayun opera house for a performance. It wasn't really a Sichuan opera performance as that can be hours long and probably torture for us as none of us would be able to understand the singing. Instead it has some short opera scenes along with shadow puppets, acrobats, a comedy sketch and demonstations of three famous aspects of Sichuan opera: Face changing, costume changing, and fire breathing. Face changing was demonstrated in the movie "King of Masks." The performers wear multiple cloth masks depicting different characters. In the blink of an eye they can pull one mask away revealing another and thus changing character. Costume changing is similar but involves the whole costume being pulled away revealing another underneath. Fire breathing is sort of self-explanatory. The show also allowed people to practice with puppets or dress in costume before the show. You can have tea and snacks or even dinner while watching the show. Oh yeah, you could get your ears cleaned here too.
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