You know what's more exciting than Chengdu? (Well, before I get to Chengdu), as soon as we got out of the apartment we realised OMG it snowed last night!!! There were snow all over the ground, on trees, roof tops, OMG!!! Snow!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy and excited!!! The taxi driver had to be extra cautious and reminding us that hopefully the plane won't be delayed. Nothing beats snow now! I don't care now because I saw snow~!!!!!
Our flight is at 8.30am in the morning and so we had to be there at least by 7am. The taxi ride to the airport was exciting because I can see white snow everywhere, but also because it's so slippery and wet on the road. Beijing Capital Airport, always busy and always noisy. When we finally boarded onto our plane, then we realised, ahhh, snow isn't the best thing for airports and planes. Ever since we got onto the plane, we only see the flight attendants walking around but never showing any signs of preparing for takeoff. The captain of the crew started saying the usual welcome stuff. The flight attendants are still walking around without doing much and not demonstrating any life-saving techniques just in case if anything happens. We waited for a while till it's passed our departure time. The captain suddenly announced that the takeoff will be delayed because there were too much ice all over the runway and over the plane, so we must wait for the ice to be cleaned/scraped off before any takeoffs. We waited and waited, until the captain announced again that we are still in the line waiting and will not be able to provide us with any fixed time for takeoff.
Suddenly the leader of the flight attendants also made an announcement, that due to the uncertainty with the waiting times, they will be serving us our breakfast first. She announced that on the menu today we will have hot food which helps to make us feel warmer in a cold winter morning like this. I was telling Anson, that if we're serving food now, that means we'll be here waiting for AGES. Why? Because usually food is served at least half an hour after flying steadily in the air and it'll take ages for the servings of drink - food - drink. If we're getting served food now, then that means we'll be on the ground for a long time. There it comes, the so called 'hot food'. I usually like airplane food, coz they're prepared in little portions and easy to consume. But this time.... I'm so amused and sad at the same time about the food. At first we saw this bowl of salad, which looks ok, very Chinese style. Then we saw this container covered by tin foil, with a sticker 'VG' on the foil. Anson was laughing and saying, 'haha, it better not mean 'Vegetables'. We opened it, and guess what?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA it was a bowl of BOILED VEGETABLES!!!! A chunk of potato, a chunk of taro and a chunk of corn. It's SOOOOOO HILARIOUS!!! We seriously hated the food, but because it's too funny so just let it go. LOL!
Finally at 10.30am, our plane took off. It was such a boring long wait. There is no entertainment on the plane, nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to play with. But oh well, I'm just glad we're not in a rush for something emergent, natural disaster is unavoidable right?! As soon as we landed in Chengdu Airport, the announcement said that anyone flying with Chengdu Airline will be able to ride the free shuttles outside the airport to their destinations for FREE! Woohooo!!! Such an awesome service! We hopped onto a shuttle and set off to our hotel for the next few days, Homes Inn on Zengfu Road. Homes Inn is the biggest chain inn style accommodation providers in China, there are nearly 700 branches around the country. It offers cheap and standard quality accommodations to travellers and the best thing is that Homes Inn is always situated at very convenient locations (either close to near-central hub areas, or near transport ports). After leaving our luggage in Homes Inn asked the front desk what's a good place to go for traditional Chengdu food. The frontdesk staff recommended us this place called, 'Wide and Narrow Alleys宽窄巷子'.
宽窄巷子 is one of the most famous places in Chengdu and it has became the top destinations for many tourists and local people. These two alley ways are remains from the Qing Dynasty and it still pretty much presents the ancient feelings of the past. There are a lot of restaurants (fancy restaurants) and shops here, many of the shop owners are famous and rich people. There are poets, businesmen, foreigners and many more. Most of the shops kept the ancient designs and decorations and put in extra efforts trying to preserve these specialties.
宽窄巷子 really reminds me of Nanluoguxiang in Beijing, my favourite place! A place with both ancient and modern architecture and designs, a perfect fusion, a perfect place for a relaxed weekend. A lot of the shops here are tea shops, why? Chengdu peopole are famous for living a slow and relaxed life, they're very different to Chinese from other provinces (like Shanghai). So a lot of the adults will enjoy the afternoon with a cup of tea and some nuts, and chat all day long. It's such a relaxed and easy way of living! There are many many many tea shops in Chengdu, that sells only tea but nothing else. It's so easy to just find a tea shop, sit down and spend the rest of the afternoon to relax and let our minds wonder.
Every shop here have their own decorations and uniqueness. I saw many that still preserved the ancient paintings and stones. Some of the big doors were shut tight and locked, then I saw the plate on the side war, 'Private Residence'. Wow, these houses and land must be worth millions now!! 宽窄巷子is not only famous in Chengdu, but also in China and also a top destination for a lot of visitors from other countries. To be able to own a house like this in 宽窄巷子, they must be either really rich and lucky that bought the property when it's on sale, or they're more likely to be related to the royal family in Chinese Dynasties.
We continued our walk into 宽窄巷子 and let our nose sniff for food, haha, at least I was sniffing for some good food. The mums suddenly called out to me and Anson and directed us to this really ancient looking building. This is a 'food place', why don't I call it a restaurant? I don't know if I can actually call it a restaurant, it's outdoor, even the food was made outdoor. Well, most of the food are premade already and kept warm. Mum and Anson went to order food and I just hear mum saying things like 'I want 4 of this, 2 of that, and 3 of this, and also that, and also this, and that and this and that and this'. I was soooooo shocked at how much was ordering, lol!! But I guess there are four of us and one of us is Anson.... 'the beast'.
This is such an awesome place! They sell traditional Chengdu style food and all in average small portions, so it's quite easy for people to share and try everything. We ordered skewers (and they're very spicy just like any other Sichuan food), lamp soup, pork soup, spicy cold noodles, dandan noodles (most typical Chengdu food), steam mince with vegies, sweet dessert that I don't even know the name of and so on. The soups are my favourite! Fresh baby vegies in very rich soup, mmm, warm and tasty, it doesn't matter if it's outdoor anymore, I think this outdoor environment made the soup extra tasty and warm!!
After finishing a very satisfying lunch (especially after the 'lovely' airplane meal in the morning) we are all happily and slowly walking down the alley again. Not too far from where we walked from we started hearing some sounds, as if someone's hitting the drum 3 times in a roll, doom doom doom, then again, doom doom doom. We saw this crowd of people surrounding the entrance of a restaurant and that's where the noises are from. It's called '三大炮', meaning 'three big cannons'. It's a very traditional and famous sweets in Chengdu. The chef will pull and make three round balls from a sticky rice doughs and smash it against the drum. Then the three balls will bounce back into the tray of grinded peanuts behind the drum. The waitress will scoop up the three balls, add in some sweet and sour sauce and this is called '三大炮'. The mums and Anson were quite interested in this snack but I was a little put off with the peanuts.
At the end of the Wide Alley we made a turn to the left and walked for a few hundred metres. Then it's a rather similar but much narrower street, haha, way to easy to guess the name of this street huh? Must be the Narrow Alley, LOL. The overall style and feelings are very similar in both Wide and Narrow Alleys. But in the Narrow Alley there's more arts and decorations around. The paintings/sculptures on the walls are very very interesting, they're a combination of 2D and 3D effects, black and white, demonstrating the olden days of Chengdu lifestyle. 
It's never hard to find three giant corporate brands in China in terms of food and beverages: McD, KFC and Starbucks. I found my favourite cafe, Starbucks, here, in the most famous street for traditional Chengdu lifestyle, lol, what a joke. I remember reading the story about the opening and closing down of Starbucks inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, crazy huh? It's actually not that hard to find foreign products imported in China anymore. I remember seeing (the photo above) NZ ice creams on sale, and after walking up and 'investigatin' the poster, it's actually Tip Top imported into China! We also bought a bottle of Polish beer after Anson got really excited to see something that he really really liked and missed. mmmm such a relaxing life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guess what?! I'm preparing to leaving Beijing very soon....and start my travelling again. So I guess my blog won't be updated for a long time =P
See you back in Auckland~!
