Today in Qingming, commonly called tomb sweeping day, a national holiday in China.
What this means is that unless you work in a shop, theres no work, and schools are closed. But shops and restaurants are all open, just busier than normal.
This also means that everyone is trying to get somewhere to sweep a tomb presumably. So taking a long range bus or train is out of the question, the tickets would have been sold out ages ago.
The day is also raining, well it appeared to be but never did. The streets were wet when I woke up but I never actually saw it rain.
Hence I decided to go to the polar ocean world park where they electrocute dolphins and sit polar bears out in the heat.
I did my research, theres a metro stop named ocean world and the internet told me thats where it was...no.
First, the train didnt even stop here, the stop is closed, the stop after it is the last stop, no problem I thought, I can get off there and walk back. Only I never did find it, I found what is claimed to be the worlds largest structure, its nearly finished but not yet. Heres a link to an Australian news story on it.
When I eventually got back to my hotel which involved an hour long jog up the highway in the rain, I found out that inexplicably the ocean world is nowhere near the station named as such, and is a few miles further south past the last metro stop. Maybe tomorrow!
Getting off at the last station seemed promising at first. A finished building. Turns out its the only one, predictably, bank of China.
The worlds largest building, 3x the size of the pentagon, 500 metres long, 400 metres wide, 100 metres high. And after I read the SMH article I linked above, I now know why theres a stop called Ocean Park here.
It is going to have a fake beach and palm trees when finished.
OK, one last pic, its not everyday you accidentally jog past the worlds largest building hiding in the fog.
Another bank building. When the bubble bursts in China, I dont want to be here.
After an hour or so of light jogging in what looked like light rain but wasnt, along a freeway, I arrived back at civilization, in an area called 'Incubation Park'.
Here stuff was being built but a small mall was finished. The basement was staging a real estate fair which seemed chaotic, perhaps its people trying to buy an investment property before the new anti property investment laws take effect.
I found this cool coffee shop, which is also a book shop and stuff females like shop, where after a long delay and what seemed like a gargantuan effort by 3 staff, I was served a decent coffee.
Back on a subway station, and here they have indicated the ocean world stop is closed, but theres no clue that it is not the ocean world park.
As frustrating as this might read, to me it was exciting to get so lost in the fog, find the giant building by accident and not really have any concept of where I was going.
At times I wasnt convinced if I was heading North or South, one way would take me further and further away from a way home! Luckily I was indeed heading north the whole time.
It was very quiet out. I should really have paid more attention to that because it ended in me not really getting any dinner!
First I went to the station where the U.S. embassy is. They have closed off the street around the embassy, and you have to walk head on into traffic in the 1 remaining lane to get past.
Theres a police checkpoint on each corner, which means a little bus and guys on segways, there job is to stop you getting onto the street thats closed off or the footpath.
Then there are Chinese soldiers, with rifles, on podiums, all around it. Then theres a few gatehouse things with U.S. soldiers. I decided photos were a bad idea.
Predictably, just about over the road form the embassy, is where white business people go to get drunk. And drunk they were. Theres a couple of hundred metres of brightly lit street and I recognised a few of the names of places from the various Chengdu forums I read before coming here.
Once I saw a drunk guy call a waitress a slut, I decided that I didnt really want dinner here. I felt like mapo tofu from the place near my hotel, so headed back there, the long way.
It was 9pm when I got there, and much to my surprise, everything was shut! Not sure when they normally shut, maybe they closed early for Qingming. So for dinner I had 7/11 fruit salad, and various things that come in packets that are bad for you.
Dinner time on this building site. Noodles in paper cups whilst crouching in the rubble.
No one ever tries to stop you from walking through such places. I like it! I just stand under cranes and wait for stuff to fall on me.
2 of these things were not like the others. Which means I peered through the window, and there were a bunch of waitresses standing by the door to greet people. My boobs were bigger than all of them, except one girl who must have decided hooters is her long term career goal and paid the money.
She could barely stand up straight. This place was really expensive, and full of sad looking lost western businessmen.
Chatime! not seen in Chengdu before now. And its a mobile one so maybe they arent established in this city yet.
Their advantage over the other bubble tea places is they claim to use real milk rather than that cream stuff in plastic dispenser bottles. But with milk paranoia in China maybe thats hindering their business.
This guy and his monkey are harassing people for money waiting outside a particularly popular noodle joint. I think it was popular because its right by the university gate and they appear to give students a discount.
As far as I could tell, the monkey jumps on you until you pay the guy money and he goes to the next person. I would just punch the monkey. I fled before I caught monkey AIDS.
These new residential towers have been constructed specifically to meet the needs of western business families. Theres hospitals and dentists and schools and whatever aimed at Americans (and presumably Australians and English and German) all around it. Its also next door to the U.S. embassy.
It also has a sex toy shop in a very prominent position.
A row of particularly sanitized shops. Very expensive. Many of them still empty. Many of them sell wine or cigars.
This is the most debaucharous location in Chengdu. Referred to as the blue carribean complex. Among other establishments it contains 'the spot' which is a bar run by Americans. It was out the front of the spot I saw a drunk guy call a Chinese waitress a slut to her face and laugh about it because she didnt understand.
On my way back now, this group of restaurants seems to have catered for Chinese idol or similar by setting up a big screen in the street.
There was no one watching it now, but there must have been a big crowd earlier as the street was covered in pistachio and peanut shells.