Chunxi Road - Chengdu

In all big cities of the world, I have visited many swanky shopping havens like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, New York's 5th Avenue, London's Mayfair and Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Here they have Chunxi Road in Chengdu which lines all the big designer names like Prada, GUCCI, Valentino, Dior and etc. I never bought anything there because I cannot afford, so I just did window shopping and look-see & touch.

1. I always prefer to book my hotels right beside or above their subway trains, to save time and money. I took a train to Chunxi road, just 2 stops away.

2. I was the BIGGEST IDIOT in Chengdu to discover out that Chunxi Road was just located 2 blocks behind my hotel. Call me stupid to take a big round in the underground train to reach there. I could have walked there in 10 minutes.

3. We learn along our lives and make mistakes, so it is alright to hit the wall sometimes. I was amazed to see all the big shopping streets when I thought Chengdu was all about Panda Farms and Ancient Villages.

4. Their boulevards are so wide and huge with no cars! A real haven for shoppers.

5. It was Winter, so the skies turned dark at 4.00pm.

6. The Christmas decorations in Chengdu was average but the holiday mood was there at Wangfujing.

It was chilly and cold, so I became naughty again.

 

7. I spent more time admiring at the exterior of the shops than inside.

8. This lovely area was so colourful and brightly lighted up!

9. That was the 2nd Christmas tree I spotted.

10. I met Tony Leung at the basement of the train station on my way home. 

My hand was itchy again.

World Largest Building In Chengdu

I was extremely impressed and amazed at the speed of China's development everywhere at their modern airports, high speed trains, tallest buildings and now, the "Biggest Building In The World". They had a void period of "Cultural Revolution" yet they have overtaken so many countries today.

1. Most of the buildings in Chengdu are lighted up at night with full scaled LED technology screens where they will have colourful patterns dancing its way on the whole building. Suddenly they could flash out live advertisements or even brief TV news on the whole building. My jaws just dropped in disbelief. I have not seen such buildings in Shanghai at all.

2. On our first night in Chengdu, we took their subway train to look for the World's Biggest Building which was opened very recently. It was drizzling lightly and we walked like crazy due to the GPS inaccuracy.

 3. There are several entrances but we entered through the Global Mall.

 4. This is the artist's impression showing how this giant building looked like from above. It has all the convenience to pamper all the families, business associates and tourists. They have hotel, shopping mall, Water Theme Park, Private Beach, Convention Centres and blah blah blah.

You can google HERE

 

 5. The entrance is so high class and nice with all the shiny walls and polished marble flooring!

 6. The ceiling is so high and brightly lit with impressive decors to welcome shoppers.

 7. It was slightly warmer inside, so I flashed my jacket open to show that I wore 3 layers!

 8. All the big brands are there!

9. Every country I visited, I must try their McD and visit their 7-Elevens as a ritual habit. The mall looked empty because I waited for everyone to get out of my camera's range.

10. I behaved like kids again and posed SK's signature "Running Away" 

from loan sharks style.

 11. I know I am naughty. You are just the same!

 12. They used London as their Christmas promotions. Well, I plan to visit London in 2014 and need to pass the hat around to you all. Thanks!

 13. My darling got herself happily lost in the maze.

 14. The patterns of their marble flooring everywhere made my eyes dizzy.

  

15. We were hungry after playing & fooling around so much. We tried our first spicy meal at their Sichuan's Steamboat restaurant which was crowded. The misty air inside was spicy and stung my eyes to cry.

 

 16. Oh My Goodness! My soup was red and spicy hot with their killer peppers!!! My mouth was spitting out flames of FIRE!!!! Arghh!!!

 

 17. My smarter honey chose their herbal soup. Look at their huge vegies and the leaves that looked like IKEA's potted plant.

Luodai Ancient Village - Chengdu

I am always very interested to visit very quaint and ancient towns in China to observe their historical landmarks and architectural buildings.

I always planned my trips ahead by 6-12 months and had to study the places of their attractions. I thought Chengdu was only about Pandas and Hot Flaming Spicy Sichuan Food. I was taken by surprise that they have Mount Emei, Ancient Hakka Villages and a modern city bigger than Bangkok or Singapore.

1. We took a public bus transport from downtown Chengdu and visited this Luodai Ancient Village which has a Hakka community of over 23,000 people. It was a very cold morning at 3 degrees C and the bus took us less than 2 hours to reach this village, 20 km away.

2. This Hakka Village is the nearest to Chengdu and many voted it as the "Best Hakka Town" in China. It was built during the reign of Emperor Linchan during the Three Kingdoms Period - 1,800 years ago.

 3. My wife is always very supportive and followed me everywhere no matter how boring or smelly those places could be. In return, I would follow her to climb all the mountains she fancied, even if I had to drag my fat ass and corpse up the hills. Wakakakaka

 4. There were several clan houses in this village with individual ancient stages for their festive opera shows. This one has a museum too.

5. I entered their museum and was attracted to this old bridal chamber bed which was used during the Qing Dynasty. My immediate thoughts was Blogger SK's lavish traditional wedding and revealing his bride's veil on that Red Chamber Bed!

6. This wall with Dragon's motifs is definitely very old and beautiful.

 

7. Many old buildings have become commercialized but that doesn't matter to me. They need to survive and run businesses too. I did not post all the small shops selling food, snacks and souvenirs as they may take up 50 photos.

8. This is another old stage for operas. There were only 3 performers but no audience. I had goose bumps and walked away quickly.

9. The streets are narrow with local tourists walking on the real ancient slabs of granite rocks. China is so huge with the highest population in the world, therefore their locals are always visiting & discovering all their different provinces. It may take them a lifetime to cover all.

 

10. We entered another Clan House along the narrow alleys and I tried to cheer my wife up. I put up my own Sichuan Mask Changing show to entertain her! I was good and she clapped!

11. Everything is cheap there and I tried almost every small bites available. 

12. The ancient staircase was so unique and I spent 5 minutes gazing it. I imagined the brothel ladies were upstairs waving their silk scarves to lure some Chinese scholars to have tea.

13. Many female folks played mahjong tile games in back lanes!

The men played Chinese Chess in other back lanes. What a sight to behold.

 

14. This is an old pagoda and a rickshaw puller stood in the cold, waiting for clients.

 

15. I spent almost 3 hours in this tiny village looking up and down at their old walls of Chinese architecture.

  

16. This small unique restaurant hung all the dried and waxed goose, pork, buffaloes & even rabbits with stuffed intestines being strung across the ceiling above the patron's head.

 

 17. I was taken aback to see couples playing table tennis and danced merrily in the cold weather! In China, you could often see young & old ladies doing cha-cha, line dances and hip hop numbers along the boulevards in Chengdu, Beijing or even Shanghai.

 18. I walked into every back lane to smell and observe their lifestyles. Here, a seamstress was doing a good business!

19. This is the famous traditional oval shaped houses of the Hakka clans but I discovered that it was a newly built building. At least I got to see the interiors which was interesting.

 

 20. This village still maintains its laid back lifestyles with small vendors selling their wares.

21. I was shocked to see this huge furry pet for sale. Guess what animal it was?

A Hamster! Are you not shocked, Wenn?

Pilgrimage Hike To Mount Emei - Sichuan, China

It is a known fact that there are 4 sacred Buddhist mountains in China with recorded history dating back to few thousand years ago. It has been my wife's "Bucket List's" wishes to climb all the 4 and even if I refused, she would go alone on her own! So I had to push myself hard to tag along too. So far we have scaled the Mount Hua in Xian, Mount Jiuhua in Anhui Province and Mount Emei in Sichuan. We will cover Mount Wutai and Mount Putuo someday.

 

1. My friend recommended that we should stay at Happy Hotel at the bottom of Mount Emei which received 'fantastic' rating reviews online for such a small budget hotel. I realised this family run hotel provided very caring and warm service to advise us so much about the mountains besides lending us some shoe braces to wear. The lady boss also packed home made mantou buns & boiled eggs for us. She was just like a mother to me! I liked that!

The temperature was like -2 Degrees Celsius and I was frozen like ice! The room was freezing but we slept well with the electric warm blanket. Other 5 star hotels could be warmer but they didn't receive good ratings like Happy Hotel.

 

2. The next morning we took a 2 hour bus ride from the main road up to Mount Emei. Halfway, we stopped at small shop arcades to use their "Signature Toilets" which do not have doors! This one looked bearable to me. I have seen several which the partitions were just 2 feet and the men all shared a common drain to drop their poohs! At every hour. the worker would use a hose to flush all the feces down the drain!! The men could smoke and just chit chat with each other while squatting down. So fun to shit together in China! Oh My Gawd! Bluek!

 

3. We reached the bus terminal at the foot of snowy Mount Emei to start hiking up. We had to rent their iron spoke braces to clamp beneath our shoe soles to hike on the ice steps and snow. It costs 20 Remenbi rental with 80 Remenbi deposit.

 

4. Off I went up the steps and it was so bloody cold below the clouds. It was like -10 degrees with white thick snow everywhere! Many idiot people did not rent the protective shoe braces and fell down. Some brainless ladies wore high heels to look pretty & walked up. They also fell flat many times like clowns. Aiyo it was so bloody dangerous! Never die before la.

5. Some rich sohai fellas hired the workers to carry them up and down. Oh man, it was such a long journey and it's no joke!!! The hike was some 2 km to reach the Cable Car's station midway and another 2 km hike at the top station to reach the summit!!! It was thick ice and snow all the way.

 

6. I love my wife the most in this world and would obediently walk behind to make sure that she was alright. Actually I was also panting so hard like a sick dog behind as I could not breathe the thin air! Muahahahaha

 

7. We reached some small cottages halfway. As usual I must pretend to take photos so that I could rest my aching legs and bones otherwise the other CB folks would laugh at me. Even the 80 year old grandmas had better stamina than me. No kidding!

 

8. Finally we reached the Cable Car Station which shortened our hike other wise it would be another 10 km of walk.

  

9. It was all white, snowy, frosty and blurred my photos. 

Hey my camera was brand new and good one leh. So kiasu me.

10. We reached above the clouds! Look at the sun!! It was so bright, hot and still cold. It was such a confusing temperature! Everyone had to wear sunglasses to reduce the white glare of the snow.

 11. Look at the Snowman and I.

12. Look at the lovely view with clear visibility. Most people did not have the chance to see such clear skies above the clouds. I think the heavens look like this! Has anyone been to heavens & back?

 13. The snow covered the roofs of the temples below. It was a pretty sight to behold. The plateaus are there too.

14. Look at my fingers! I was pointing at the Mountains of Tibet! Can you see Tibet?

15. This is the closer view of the Mountains of Tibet. Beautiful isn't it?? Hello??

 

16. I reached the summit finally! Hooray! Look at the heavenly clouds below!

17. The final steps to reach the Golden Summit's Temple at the top.

18. There are many huge heavenly elephants lining the steps up. The Bodhisattva rides on these elephants.

 

19. I was overjoyed and happy at last.

 

20. The Golden Summit Temple with the statue of Samantabhadra Bodisattva who rides on the heavenly elephants. 

The 10 heads above signifies the 10 vows she has made.

  

21. We left our hand prints behind.