After my visit to the pandas, the monestary, and the park, I went to a Sichuan Opera show in the evening. I was not expecting that I would like it, since I didn't like the Beijing opera show I saw all that much (sorry, Wei), but this show was amazing. There was singing, an erdu solo, a comedy routine with fire and a balancing act, a face and costum changing skit, and a hand shadow show. It really was amazing. I think tickets would be $200 on broadway or in vegas.
The following day I went to see the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. Now despite the fact that this is a world heritage site located 40 miles from Chengdu. And despite the fact that this is one of the worlds great engineering achievements, there were no tours there from the hostel, so I had to take a cab to the long distance bus, to another cab.
The site was very pretty with great chinese gardens near the irrigation site (and lots of brides and grooms taking photos) but I really needed a guide for the actually site, to explain what was built and how it was built and was has changed since 200 BC when the river was first split in 3. The town is also lovely with mountains in the background and bars along the river. There was a little bit of rubble around the town do to the earthquake, but mostly it still looked good. I think the town (600,000 people) is worth exploring some more.
Some final thoughts on chengdu. After 1 day of sun, I had 3 days of grey, and the polution is bad when the sun is not out. While xian had lots of moble phone shops, Chengdu was selling furnature, air conditioning, and other such appliances. I also saw a Porche dealership. The contrast between poor and rich in china is very stark.
I also find it interesting the the smoke shops (all over the place since everyone seems to smoke in this country) also sells the local wine. All 2 brands of it....
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