Our trip to Chengdu

I am sorry that it took me so long to write another blog post. There were a few things which intervened with my plans the last weeks. The next blog post is already on its way! But first, have fun reading this one 😊

Chengdu reminds me of home. Last month I was homesick. Although life in China is awesome, I have to admit that I miss home a lot. I also miss being healthy again. I have had a fever and a cold (something like a superinfection). I will tell you more about the Chinese healthcare system later. I started to play in our university’s baseball team but had to cancel the first match because I was very sick.

But let’s start with Chengdu. Chengdu is a green city full of cars, skyscrapers and very complex looking green overpasses. It’s the city I have almost decided to study in. On the other side the cloudy weather almost feels depressing, just like in Germany sometimes. Autumn and winter are cold (about 8 degrees) here and I missed Zhuhai’s weather a lot.

One of the things I still hate the most is standing up very early in the morning. I can feel that my body’s functions are not ready to work yet. Sometimes it’s malfunctioning. It doesn’t matter how long I have slept. So, we stood up early on this beautiful Friday morning and prepared ourselves for our next trip to Chengdu.

I can’t deny the luck we had. My girlfriend and I were among the 30 students out of 90 who have been chosen to go on a cultural exploration weekend to the city of Chengdu for free! Our Chinese university paid about 350€ for every student, including the flights, hotel, tourist bus and guide and the delicious food. (By the way, the students weren’t chosen by coincidence.) Sadly, a lot of our friends didn’t have the chance to go with us.

The weather was cold in Chengdu and the air quality on this weekend was bad. So, imagine early in the morning looking out of your window, and discovering that it’s smoggy, foggy and raining all the time. “In our city 200 days out of 365 are like this”, the tourist guide told us in Chinese. She was telling us a lot of information all the time, plus in a difficult Chinese, and everyone, even the Chinese were bored by it.

The flight was surprisingly comfortable, and no problems occurred during the 2 ½ hours. I had a nice talk with my classmate and friend. I can’t sleep during flights whatsoever. We were served a meal and it was kind of OK. You know those flight meals. They are never great.

I hadn’t even realised that we were already in another part of the country, which even seemed to be more different than anything else I have seen till then (honestly said, first, it looked like a totally different country), and the bus already had arrived to pick us up. Because we only had a weekend to discover Chengdu, we had to move fast and see as much as we could. Our first destination was a small old village, which evidently was, in some way, reconstructed for tourists like you and me. Nevertheless, I recommend everybody to come here. Whenever I think about it, a warm feeling of excitement and adventure rushes through me. Don’t be afraid of reconstructed or even new built sights in China. A lot of westerners think that Chinese are destroying their own culture by tearing down all the ancient buildings in their country and rebuilding them. That is kind of incorrect. Chinese have a totally different view on this: Like it is said in Buddhism and Daoism, but most importantly in the Confucianism, material things are not as important as the non-material ideas, values etc. In a for a very long time capitalist shaped western culture we have obtained the idea of material things being more important to us than other values. Of course, “love” had always been a priority, but even the understanding of “love” started to vanish for some individuals in our society. China was, for a very long time indeed, shaped by the communist idea. There weren’t many things to buy or to obtain either. People call that a “Non-Material culture”. But with the capitalism on its rise, even China joined us on the way to a capitalist world.

Still, the idea of the culture and, for example, the ancient buildings itself continues to live on in the minds and hearts of every Chinese. The most important thing about these buildings is the idea of it. So why not tear this ugly thing down and build a new one, which exactly looks like the ancient one 500 years ago?! Or at least you can try to reconstruct it, so that it looks more beautiful. This is what happened to a lot of parts of the Great Wall. Chinese tourism totally differs from ours. But enough of it, let us continue! (If you want to know more about Chinese thinking and development, listen to Robert J. Shepherds lectures.)

During the trip we ate a lot of stuff. We went at least three times a day to a restaurant (the food got better and better with every restaurant), plus we ate a lot at all those markets and in the old villages we’ve visited. In the evening we even saw some Chinese dances and a kind of modern Sichuan/Beijing opera mix. After we were released to go explore the city on our own, we got on the metro and went to the city center with all the huge skyscrapers. Afterwards we treated ourselves with some milk bubble drinks.

The next day we went to see an apparently famous sight in China, although I hadn’t the least idea what it was. My girlfriend just found out that it is an UNESCO world heritage site. It seems to be a dam at a big river valley and there are a lot of temples on lush green hills everywhere around you, so it reminds me of a mystical place.

Whenever I visit tourist attractions in China, I am still surprised by the huge crowds of people.

Later in the afternoon we visited an old market in the city center and in the evening we had a terrific view from the highest television tower in Chengdu. It was awesome!

On our last day we saw what we all were waiting for: The Pandas. They are huge, fat and adorable. There were also some little red pandas which we weren’t expecting to see. Especially this kind of panda counts as endangered species. But here they are save and loved. It is definitely a good place for them to live and to breed. They live in a bamboo paradise. The Chinese adore them. They are even legends about Chinese generals riding on pandas into battle. All the pandas you see in the countless zoos in different parts of the world are actually coming from one place: Sichuan (Province in which Chengdu is located). And all of them still belong to the Chinese people. Pandas are used to improve diplomatic relations between China and other countries.

And now here are some pictures for you:

On our last evening in Chengdu we visited another old city village. There were a lot of red lanterns and beautiful Chinese style buildings. And again, I bought some souvenirs.

The flight back was awful for me. My cold was still tormenting me, and I had problems to normalise the pressure in my head. My head was literally exploding. We got back at 3 am and still had to ride our bikes home for about 20 minutes. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it was worth the trip.

If I had to summarise our trip to Chengdu, I would say that it was one of the best short trips I’ve ever had. Guys, although tensions are rising between China and the USA, don’t be afraid to visit this beautiful country. Everything’s so beautiful here. I’m truly in love with China. Almost every country in this world is worth visiting!!!

Here you can see the text I wrote about our trip to Chengdu. Every student had to write one.

在成都考察四川文化

我很高兴有了这次机会参加这趟去成都的考察。我首先想对ISA和中山大学表示感谢。

关于我们的文化考察我想跟你们说一下我的感觉和经历。

成都让我回忆起家乡，因为天气几乎一样。天天都阴天，下很多雨，秋天和冬天都很冷。除了天气以外，成都这座城市有很多绿地。我特别喜欢立交桥的植物。在世界上有太多灰色的地方。但是看过了几座中国城市，让我很惊讶。每座城市在路上有特别多花和绿地，还有很多优美的公园。

对我们交换生来说，学期中我们几乎没有时间出行。这是因为我当然不想失去这种时机。虽然这趟出行让了我感觉很累，但是我真喜欢这种冒险。在出行中我说了很多中文，看过了很多漂亮的地方，吃了很多好吃的东西。

第一天我们都去看一条古老的村子叫黄龙溪古镇。在那里我们的同学尝了蝎子。我真不敢吃。吃晚饭时，我们看到一个表演。我觉得最厉害的是变脸，很神秘。然后我们的小组去看成都现代的市中心，在市中心我们一起喝了奶茶。

第二天我们都坐巴士观光成都的寺庙和风景。晚上的时候我们的小组坐了地铁去成都电视塔，甚至坐了电梯上塔去。我们在电视塔上欣赏成都的夜景。

第三天早上我们去看成都的特色: 可爱的熊猫。这是我们旅游最重要的目的。怪不得在世界上各个人都喜欢熊猫。其实在每个国家的动物园可以看到的熊猫是从中国四川来的。四川是熊猫的摇篮。

最后我认识了很多新朋友！我们去成都之前没有现在那么熟悉，现在成了好朋友。

谢谢大家！