East Eats West

Panda bears and ancient bronze masks

Picture: Young pandas making eye-to-eye contact.

Chengdu is particularly famous for its panda breeding station about one hour out of town. The breeding station is like a big zoo and one can get really close to the pandas. For $50 one can become a panda supporter and as an instant reward one can hold a baby panda. I recommed visiting in the morning in order to see the pandas feast on bamboos and roam about. Another hour away from the town is the excavation of Xiangdui, an ancient civilisation that is famous for its very distinctive bronze masks with rhomboid or protruding eyes and geometrical structure. Unfortunately the artefacts on display are poorly presented and we were a bit disappointed.

For more pictures of super cute giant pandas, click here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/photos/sichuan_china/index.html

Easy China travel planning

China covers 9.6m sq km and borders 14 countries. For first time visitors this can be rather daunting. I personally find the China guidebook by Eyewitness Travels (by DK publishing) the most intriguing as it does not focus solely on hotels and restaurants only but features wonderful pictures, detailed maps,anecdotes with useful descriptions and its layout is very tempting. It is the best deal to get your appetite on China up. So if you are past the backpacking stage, try the Eyewitness Travels Books instead of the Lonely Planet and you will be amazed (the guide book transformed one of my China-sceptical friends into a China-lover, of sorts). And for detailed information on what other travelers have experienced I can highly recommend Tripadvisor.

Useful links for travel planning:

http://traveldk.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

Friendly Chinese service

Picture: The Wenju Mansion Hotel in Chengdu, home of the friendly staff.

While being in Chengdu we rarely saw western tourists as Chengdu is off the list usually of the more popular tourist routes (even though the silk route started here). A pleasant surprise, and probably a result of the rare western tourist, was that throughout our stay we only met friendly and totally dedicated Chinese staff: from the competent and English speaking staff at the Wen Ju Mansion to waiters at the hot pot restaurant to the Starbucks baristas. And probably the most surprising occurence was that all the taxi drivers brought us directly to our destination while using the taximeter. A big thank you to all staff in Chengdu!

PS: What still needs improvement in China are the public toilets (no doors) and the spitting (though it improved).