2 April 2013
Barbecue night
I like Chengdu. Its very relaxing to walk around.
A couple of things I forgot from earlier. When checking into a Chinese hotel they always copy the main page of your passport and the visa page. I believe this gets entered into a database so foreigners can be tracked.
Today I got questioned about my previous trips to Japan, and why my passport has so many Chinese tourist visas. I explained I keep coming to China on holidays. They asked what business I had in China, remember these are hotel desk clerks. I told them none. They said 7 days is a long time to stay in Chengdu if not on business, what will I do? I said walk around a lot.
The girl noted down all my responses, but I have to wonder where they get entered! The red army could come crashing in here at any moment.
Now for some car news. People talk about the big mac index for cost of living. In China I have devised the Porsche Panamera Index. The Porsche Panamera is a ridiculously fast, enormous, ugly as hell, expensive family car. It was designed by Porsche for rich Chinese business men with families.
In Australia, no one has one, in China, they are common....in Chengdu. I think this is a good indicator of the relative wealth of the two cities, I have seen a lot more Panameras in Chengdu than I did in Chongqing, and the population here is under half that of Chongqing. It seems to me wealthy people choose to live in Chengdu.
On my walk to dinner I went through a muslim area. Here they are making delicious looking bread in the street. I really wanted to try it but I cant just eat plain bread for dinner. I rarely eat bread! Perhaps another day when I dont feel like a proper meal.
Apparently this MGM building is a giant disco. Unfortunately I am there too early.
A new winner for fire trap waiting to happen award. I could not find a way out of here for at least 10 minutes. No exit signs, no escape routes, crap everywhere. The problem with just heading in one direction until you find a wall is you hit a t-junction that is there to confuse you into staying in the facility. A bit like casinos and their confusing layout.
Tonight mall is an indoor / outdoor variety with a perspective trick. The floors slope down, the steps slope up (as they are steps) and it gets a lot narrower at one end.
Some distance underneath this mall is the alternative hipster boutique underground area. Lots of girls with tiny shops selling stuff they designed themselves.
This is highlighted by the sign, all for arbitrary.
For dinner, I had barbecue. Not Chinese barbecue where you get delicious cubes of fatty pork, but korean barbecue where you select from a list and cook it yourself.
I was proud that I succesfully filled out the list of things I wanted despite it having no pictures and being in Chinese. I did have a separate picture menu to compare some items to, and price, but also I could recognise a lot of the characters.
I may have over ordered....but I did eat it all. Probably the healthiest meal option you can get around here.
My favourite way of eating, pile it all on a lettuce leaf and wrap it up, delicious.