26 March 2013
Eastern culture
Tonight, I headed east, on foot.
The east side of the city, and the next 5km further east, are the nicest parts of Chengdu I have seen so far.
Nicer than the city centre itself, which I am sure will be ok once finished, but will have lost a lot of its for want of a better term, culture, in exchange for louis vutton and gucci.
Thats not to say east of the city is hutongs and people in big straw hats. Its still a bustling modern city with malls, skyscrapers and convenience stores, but people actually live here currently too.
The people spend much of their time in the street, more so than any other city I have been to, and all seem so very happy. Well perhaps not the guys in the car crash in the photos below.
It may be too early to call, but my long walk through the east of Chengdu has me ready to elevate it to, best Chinese city yet visited status.
I reserve the right to change that upon reflection, but I will back in a week for another week to make sure I know what the hell im talking about. Not sure if that last sentence made any sense.
Around the corner from my hotel I found this market. Its a labyrinth down many back streets.
I had no idea this existed, its still under construction. The buildings that surround it are enormous, mixed use residential and commercial.
Its worth mentioning that all this construction is happening at the same time as at least 4 metro lines are being built, as well as 2 full elevated ring roads, more on that shortly.
One of the above mentioned ring roads. It boggles my mind to think that you can walk under it whilst its being built, as I did. You get showered in sparks from people welding sections together, hot dip bolts are being put in place and plasma torches are cutting things to size.
Australia take note. This is a supermarket in what many of us consider to be a third world country. I WISH we had these in Australia. Coles and Woolworths have a lot to answer for. Also, I love supermarkets.
This is the Mix C megamall view from the roof. Its eerily similar to a place I visited in Nanjing, which may have also been called Mix C but I cant remember.
Also like the one in Nanjing, it has an ice skating rink.
My dinner was average. It came from the food court. I chose poorly. I got excited when the plastic version had lots of nice looking bok choy. The real version did not live up to the plastic.
Also I ordered and pointed at the one that had roast pork as well as bbq pork, yet instead of roast pork I got duck, which is fatty and full of bones.
Also Australia, this is how you make a food court. Note that its large, clean, has a variety of non chain stores and every one of them makes the food in front of you to order. Also everything is $3 or less.
Now if only I could figure out how to still pay Australian wages of say, $25 an hour to achieve this.
Heading back now, and this is the impact a metro line under construction has. What would normally be a very busy road is blocked, and hence it becomes a great space for people to enjoy themselves in relative peace and quiet.
It was excellent to walk down here, it went for miles with almost no cars, just people eating out, dancing, skateboarding, whatever.
And a bit further up the street, you get to where the metro is actually being constructed. They just dig a trench, lay the tracks, build the road over the top of it again. Same thing I saw in Hangzhou. I climbed up someones fire escape to see this, they sure looked surprised to see my head appear out their window.
Long exposure.
And a random neon shot, because I didnt do any on this trip yet.
What at first appeared to be just one of many minor traffic accidents was somehow different. The 2 guys involved didnt just drive off. Instead they argued. A crowd formed, the police were called.
Now if the police came to an accident here, you would stand just out of view and try and listen in and observe. Not so in Chengdu, you crowd around the scene as close as you can.
As I was taking the photo it did occur to me that no one else was filming, and then it occured to me that even in our 'westernized' countries the police have been known to arrest or shoot people for filming them.
I dont know if its illegal to film the police in China or not.