We travelled to Chengdu from Nanjing. The train ride was over 35 hours in length and cost about 350 RMB each. This city is the main city of the Sichuan province. This is also the province devastated by the earthquakes.
Chengdu is quite a relaxed city in comparison. There is alot more greenery on the roads, many many parks where you can catch people doing Taiji and exercises in the morning. You can see dancing fans and umbrellas and this all goes on every morning.
The city boats the Panda reserve. Here for 30RMB you can see the pandas at play (or more likely sleep). Getting to the place is not easy, so here we did opt for doing the tour with the hostel.
There is the famous Chariman Mao statue, many a temple and garden to look at. 2 hours by bus (50RMB) there is the city of Leshan with the biggest budda in the world. Mt Emei which is close to Leshan and both can be done together. Both these places and more you can get to from Xinnamon bus station.
We loved going early in the morning to catch the morning Taiji, fan dances or just dances. We saw one amazing lady doing taiji with a sword! Man I want to do that!
For those wishing to extend their China Visa, if you are nearby, it is worth to do it in Leshan. I read many an article that the PSB in Leshan has a same day turn over. So if you apply by 10.30am your extension is ready by 16:00. Not bad - most cities have a 5 day wait. TIP- make sure your visa is extended from your original finish date and not from your application date which apparently had happend to many people.
Ciao for now.
