I have fallen in love. With China. It's a crazy country but I still can't help but love it. We spent a week in Chengdu in the spicy Sichuan province with a side trip to Emei. That was my first train ride in China. The train was of course over filled with a large crew of men who smoked the entire trip. I'm glad it was only a couple hour ride - I was able to escape the train squatties. Chengdu was an amazing city - I loved it! I would love to live there except the city rarely sees the sun. It has a nice path along the river and great food. And of course...pandas. They were super cute and I think KT took as many pictures of the pandas as she did of Everest!
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| Chengdu Panda |
In Chengdu, we found a map that had 'church' labeled on it. So we decided to check it out on Saturday night while we were in that area. There happened to be a service when we arrived...all in Chinese of course! It was a Christian church that was built by Canadian missionaries many years ago. It was PACKED. We managed to squeeze in the back pew and figured out they were preaching on the Martha and Mary passage. I couldn't understand a word but it was neat. Instead, I spent the time praying for these people in the church. The church was conveniently located directly beside the city's police station.
People's Park. Very entertaining! This is where a bunch of locals hang out to watch different performances: singing, dancing, dramatic singing, drumming, and any strange combination of those! KT and I also took part in some aerobics which many of the older folk enjoyed. It was hilarious. We got stuck behind this man who knew how to shake his hips. After aerobics we went to a tea house which was filled with families just hanging out, drinking tea on a Saturday afternoon, playing cards, doing cross-stitch, fishing in the pond, kids chasing each other, a man going around cleaning people's ears, you know... the usual tea house activities!
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| KT keeping up with the man in front of her |
We found a great little restaurant that had a menu in English. We ate there so many times that the ladies knew us... the girls who did not eat meat or soy sauce. Otherwize, KT and I would brave new places that didnt have an English menu nor pictures. That was always tricky, especially when KT doesnt eat meat and I dont eat wheat! But we were able to explain with broken Chinese words what we could NOT eat and then we were left for a surprise as to what they would serve us! One time, we got a spicy soup filled with goodies including animal innards - apparently animal insides arent considered meat! It feels good to be able to know a tiny bit of Chinese - enough to get food that doesnt have gluten in it!
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| Mystery goods in a bowl of hot chilies |
After a week in Sichuan, we hopped on a train to Xi'an in the Shaanxi province. The train ride was comfortable and the 15 hours went by quickly. Next post will be about Xi'an!
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