I arrived in Sichuan by night considerably pleased with the (slightly) lower temperature of Western China. The train ride was pleasant as further it was going West, the less buildings/skyscrapers I would see until the landscape turn onto just blue sky, rice paddies and mountains.
The capital, Chengdu has a completely different feel from the cities of Eastern China. Finally, I’m able to use public transports, walk in the streets without spending my time avoiding bumping into thousand of Chinese passing by all day long.
I went the second night to a traditional mask changing show which was amazing. In the blink of an eye, the actors were wearing new masks and it seems to be a skill really difficult to acquire.
Spent a lot of time going around tasting the famous spicy Sichuan Food . Hotpot is one of them. You have basically a pool on your table divided between a spicy and a bit less spicy area where hot sauce is boiling then you order a lot of raw meat and order dishes you will leave into the pool according to your taste.
Sichuan province is as well famous for being the home of panda. It’s a tradition in China to give away panda to foreign allies/friendly countries as a sign of friendship. After spending a few hours watching them, I figure out they are really cute but the most lazzy animals I have encountered !
Looking for some nature, I took a 9 hours bus to the Mountains of Sichuan near Tibet to Jizhaigou National Park. Park was beautiful but while I escaped the city. I did not manage to escape the thousands of Chinese on a weekend away to the park (they even built an airport nearby). I spent a beautiful day hiking in the park in the company of an english speaking Chinese student who had interesting opinions about his country and politics.
I could really feel that this area was Tibet, the locals and buildings had nothing much in common with China. Pity that foreigners can’t travel to Tibet without special permits and “organized tours”/”governments minders”.
