4 Seasons in A Day at Chengdu, China

This trip is meant for escaping the heat from Thailand and enjoying the cool weather in Chengdu. I have 5 days and 4 nights for this trip. We travel in a small group of 10 people and a tour leader.

For our first day of the trip, we meet at Don Mueang Airport at 04.30 a.m. and when we finished checking in and going through the immigration, it's already light.

This trip, we travel with Air Asia, flight FD 556.

This is a direct flight to Chengdu so most of the passengers, about 95% (as far as I can see) is Chinese. There's only 5% of foreigners including Thai. The noise starts when we get on the aircraft, it's similar to when we get on the bus. Some people are talking loudly while some are walking here and there, such a chaotic scene. I feel a bit sorry for the cabin crews.

When the aircraft starts to fly out of Thai sky, the cabin crews also start their duty. This morning I got Sticky Rice and Grilled Chicken as my breakfast.

On this flight, I'm lucky to have a window seat and feel luckier when my seat is opposite to the sun so that I can open the window shade all along the journey. After I had my breakfast, I look down to find that I can't see the view below because the smoke covers everything. So I decide to take a rest a bit as I didn't get much sleep last night.

I don't know how long the time has passed but when I look out the window outside again, I find the more visible view and see the many exotic landscape below it. Some are the urban communities, some are the mountains full of wind turbines, and some are the high mountains that are still covered with snow.

Soon, the entire view below is covered by thick clouds and only some peak of the mountains is visible. It looks like the islands in the ocean.

After 3 hours, the captain starts to descend. When the aircraft is flying under the clouds, I start to see the civilization of Chengdu again, several skyscrapers are up like mushrooms.

Soon, we arrive at Chongqing Airport. The air traffic here is quite busy. For as long as I've taken the flight, I've never seen the aircraft that just landed has to stop and wait for the flight that is about to take off in the middle of the runway. I've only seen the aircraft waits at at the gate and only until the other aircraft has completely out of the runway that this it starts to take off. But here, it's a different story. As soon as our aircraft landed, we have to stop 3 times in the middle of the runway in order to wait for the other aircraft to take off.

When we get our luggage, now we are ready to go to Chengdu. Our team waits for the shuttle bus at the front of the airport.

The weather is quite cold. While we were on the plane, the captain said the ground temperature was 11 degree. It's not as cold inside the airport but when we were out, we got shivering a bit. After waiting for a while, the shuttle bus comes at the exit gate. We then put our luggage at the bus. It takes less than 10 minutes from the airport to the metro station. This shuttle bus is free of charge.

Then, we bought the metro ticket in order to get off at Chong Qing Bei station, the train fare is 5 RMB each.

The little kid on the metro stares at us with full attention, she didn't even blink.

Once we get off from the metro at Chong Qing Bei station, we go buy the bullet train ticket (the fare is 96.5 RMB). After that, we need to take the bus to Chong Qing Bei bullet train station and the fare is 2 RMB each.

The train station looks spacious. That we need to travel for another two hours, I find some snack inside the station. I get some bread and the price is similar to Thailand.

We cannot go wait for the train at the platform because the staff allows the passengers insdie the platform only half an hour before departure time.

The seats are quite comfortable. Each row has 6 seats: A,B,C and D,E,F. For the speed, as far as I notice, the fastest speed is 197 km/hr.

While I'm on the train, I eat food that I bought from the train station. But don't worry if you are hungry and forgot to bring food, there's food sold in the train by the staff as well.

I travel while the mustard plants are blossoming so the view along two side is paved with yellow for as far as one can see. It's like this place is paved with yellow carpet.

We take about 2 hour and 20 minute of bullet train to arrive at Cheng Du Dong station. This station is located in Chengdu and then the van we have contacted earlier comes pick us up to our hostel at LAZYBONES HOSTEL.

LAZYBONES HOSTEL is our 3 nights stay hostel.

The Front of the Hostel

The interior design is quite cool and chic.

Here is the lobby and the staff speak decent English.

There's also a reading and free internet corner. But the WiFi here is very slow. We can hardly open any webpage and both Facebook and Line are blocked here, I'm so sad.

There's a board for the tourists to write their feelings and share their experiences.

Let's take a look at inside. The inside is also quite cool with the bright orange color.

There's also a hair dryer for the common use. But from its conditions, I don't dare to use.

The wall along the walkway is decorated with artist photos.

Let's take a look at bedroom. This room has 2 beds.

I stay at 3-beds room. There're only a few facilities inside the room like TV, slipper to walk in the room and the air conditioner. Anyhow, the air conditioner now has turned into heater. A warm water machine and electric blanket are also provided.

There's also a towel inside the bathroom.

The surrounding area of the hostel is quite green. The room starts at about 900 THB/night. This hostel offers free WiFi with full signal but we can hardly get on it.

For today program, it's not ended here. We fly so far not just to sleep at the hostel. If it's not dark, we can still have fun, hehe. We take the bus to the ancient Jin Li Street. The fare is 2 RMB for the bus.

After being fully packed with Chinese on the bus no. 57 for about 15 minutes, we stop at the ancient Jin Li Street.

From the bus top, we need to walk a bit in order to go to ancient Jin Li Street. The entrance fee is 30 RMB.

We arrive here quite late and some important site has already been closed so we can't go inside. We can only walk to enjoy the outside atmosphere. The walkway is decorated with colorful lamps, it is very beautiful.

We decide to have our dinner here. We can try whatever we want. There's a lot of food shops at this ancient street. It's like food stands that we just buy and keep walking. There's no seating table and the price is quite expensive. Each snack in general is 10 RMB. So I pay several ten yuan for this meal. It's not only that I'm not full but the snack I decided to try is also not my taste, so sad. I didn't get to take the shop atmosphere photos for you guys as people are crowded and I need to carry the food, it's inconvenient.

After that, I'm just wandering around when the night and the light is up. I think earlier scene was already beautiful but with lights is also beautiful.

My energy is all used up for today. Before I go back to the hostel, I buy instant noodle because the snack I had earlier was all digested even before I took the bus back to the hostel.

The next morning, I have my breakfast at the hostel.

The area behind the lobby is designed to be a dining and guests' leisure time which offers bar and pool tables services.

Breakfast here is not so expensive. The American Breakfast is 20 RMB and you can choose to have either boiled eggs or omelets. In addition, there's pork rice porridge and chicken rice porridge for a bowl of 12 RMB.

After breakfast, we are heading towards Le Shan city. This city is about 122 km away from Chengdu. For the transportation, we have booked the rental car in advance.

It takes about an hour and a half to reach Le Shan. Our first destination is Le Shan Grand Buddha. Before that, we are going under the tree tunnel, it is very beautiful.

Near this tree tunnel is the walkway along Ming Jiang River. We can walk to this pier which has the boat service to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Ming Jiang River.

Before we can go pay respect to Le Shan Grand Buddha, we need to buy the entrance fee at this area first, it is 50 RMB each.

This is the atmosphere at the entrance. I arrive very early morning and the tourists are yet that many.

Magnolia flowers start to blossom which consists of both dark and light pink.

This is the map of Le Shan Grand Buddha.

From the entrance, there's almost no flat road for us to walk. In every step, we walk up the ladder to go up. On the left side is the cliff where at certain point, the Buddha image is craved on the rock and on the right side, we can see Ming Jiang River.

The water basin is craved in dragon head with its body winding around the pool.

There's also a tiger stone craved.

The giant Buddha image is craved here. The Chines tour guide explains something about it but I can't understand.

After walking tired for a while, we go across this gate and now we are getting closer to Le Shan Grand Buddha.

As soon as we enter this gate, the road is fairly easy to walk as it's all flat.

There're 3 main buildings here. The first one is enshrined different gods on which I don't know who they are.

The second building enshrines Buddha images and several other gods. I think the second building is the most beautiful one among all the three.

The monks are meditating while I go into the third building.

The side of the first and second building is the walking to the Chedi (pagodas).

Along the way to the pagodas, we see several rock cravings.

I'm not sure of its history and significance, all I know is it gets me quite exhausting walking up to this pagoda. Even the weather is cool, I'm sweating already.

And the highlight here is the Le Shan Grand Buddha which enshrines in front of the first building.

Le Shan Grand Buddha is the largest stone Buddha in the world. The head is as tall as the mountain. The feet lays near the river, the hands place on the knee and the face is full and smiley. It has been registered as world heritage along with EMei Shan in 1996.

It is said that a Chinese monk named Tai Hong has traveled to Sichuan and found Le Shan mountain is located as a passageway of the three river (Ming Jiang, Qingyi Jiang, and Du Jiang) which has plagued the shipping vessels traveling down the river and people died. He meant to have the grand Buddha craved here in order to protect the people. Then, he used the money donated by the people to crave this Buddha.

Le Shan Grand Buddha is craved by the entire mountain with a height of 71 meter. The head is 14.7 meter height and 10 meter wide. The ear is 7 meter long, the eye is 3.3 meter long and the feet is 8.5 meter wide where each finger is taller than a person. It spent 90 years to build and is considered to be one of the world heritages of China.

When the Le Shan Grand Buddha has successfully craved, the accident of ship on a regular basis has gone and no harm was made to the people traveling on this river.

If you wish to experience the greatness of Le Shan Grand Buddha, you can also walk down along the cliff. But I want to just enjoy it from above as I have a cruising program along Ming Jiang River this afternoon.

After appreciating the greatness of Le Shan Grand Buddha for sometimes, now it's time for lunch.

I see the sign reads the South Exit and I could care less but just walk along the sign. But why, the more I walk, the further it seems and I didn't really see people walking out this way?

Along the way to the exit, I see the arched bridge in the middle of the river and mustard flowers. Mustard is a plant in the same family as cabbage and cauliflower. Mustard flowers can be taken to extract essential oil too.

Another stop along the way towards the exit is the Ma Hao graveyard which exhibits in a form of museum displaying antiques. There're two big stone coffins and a cave full of craving on the wall and it also stores priceless artifacts.

Finally, we are at the exit but why it's very quiet. After asking people around, we found out that we have come to the wrong exit. Here is about a kilometer away from the entrance and we are too tired to walk back. Therefore, we use the service of the electric tricycle to send us back to the entrance and the fee is 10 RMB each.

The electric tricycle takes us back to where we have parked our car in the morning. I'm thinking it's lucky that we didn't walk from the exit as it's quite far.

After getting off, everyone goes straight to the restaurant. This is the first official meal that we all have together.

Before we could order all the food is quite difficult as the communication is difficult. Luckily, we have three people who speak some Chinese. When the chef said something, we have to ask each other what she means and sometimes we have our smartphones help to find out the meaning of that word. If this still doesn't work, we can walk to the kitchen and tell them what we want. I feel tired for the friends who have to communicate with the chef.

This is Deep-Fried Pork. It is crispy outside and soft inside topped with sweet and sour sauce. The taste is quite right and it's the most delicious dish in this meal.

Here is the eggs fried with tomatoes.

Fried Cabbage is a dish that we must have in every meal as it's so cheap.

Egg Tofu Fried with Pork

I'm not sure what this vegetable is.

Chinese restaurant where we order food has the rice in a buffet style, it's about 2 RMB each regardless of how much one eat. The tea is also paid by each person. And another thing that we must all pay is this set of eating utensils which is about 1 RMB each.

After energy is charged, our next program is to cruising along Ming Jiang River to enjoy the greatness of Le Shan Grand Buddha by river.

It take less than 3 minutes by car from the restaurant to the pier. That we go through the tree tunnel again so I can't help but capture this atmosphere again.

The ticket is 70 RMB each and we go on a two story big boat.

When look out from the boat, we see Le Shan town.

The mountain in front of us enshrines Le Shan Grand Buddha.

Soon, we arrive at the mountain where Tai Hong monk and the local people craved Le Shan Grand Buddha. On both sides of the Grand Buddha craved a god.

From the top to the bottom, there're staircases and small craved Buddha all along the route.

I'm not sure if I walk down to the feet of the Buddha, will I still see the head? But luckily that I watch it from afar so I can clearly see the head of the Grand Buddha.

For the tourists walking down from the top, you can't walk up the same route once you reach at the bottom (because the route is very narrow and it's difficult to walk pass each other). The way up top is a walkway parallel to the river and again it was craved as staircases upwards which is similar to the down walkway.

Let me tell you some story about the fare I paid to this boat in order to enjoy the greatness of Le Shan Grand Buddha by the river. The purpose of this cruising is more for the tourists to have a shot together with Le Shan Grand Buddha because there's special area at the head of the boat where the tourists can take photos with the Buddha in different posture like grabbing the head, the ear or the eye by using the angle of the camera. Chinese might not mind about touching the head of the Buddha but Thai people regard it as the most inappropriate behavior. If you wish to go into this specific area, you must pay extra (I'm not sure how much) so you can go to the best corner where you can face the Grand Buddha. On the way in, the boat comes quite close to the Buddha but will not stop. I can't take the photo from the direct angle as the boat goes quite fast and it's too close to the Buddha so my camera can't capture the entire image. Well, I was thinking that's alright, we still have a chance on the way back. When the boat turned back, I was holding the camera ready to take direct shots of the Buddha enthusiastically. But then the boat stops where the Buddha directly faces the head of the boat. That is to say, only paying extra fee people can go in. For those who only pay for the boat fee can only take oblique shots. Still, I have some hope that they might stop a bit for us to take photo later. Wrong! The boat simply just moves out and people standing outside the special zone only have a gold second to take the direct shots of the Grand Buddha. After it goes over the Buddha, it will stop on the opposite side to the pier for the tourist to look back and have the entire mountain view with the Le Shan Grand Buddha. The entire cruising is 45 minutes.

Up from the boat, we go shop for panda souvenir like panda dolls, sweaters cut in panda shape, panda pen cases. Simply put it this way, everything is about panda. We spend quite sometimes here, it's almost as long as when we cruise.

After everyone gets 5 or 10 pandas, we are on the road again to Bao Guo which is like a gateway town to EMei Shan. The travel time is about an hour.

When we arrive Bao Gao, it's quite late so we go to our hotel first. Tonight, we are staying at Mount Emei Shanshen Hotel.

The hotel is located inside the alley and there're several shops at the alley.

The room here looks new and much cleaner than LAZYBONES HOSTEL. It is also cheaper here, only about 800 THB each night. It's a two people room with a sea through bathroom.

I stay in a three beds room. The room is quite spacious. All the facilities look much better than LAZYBONES HOSTEL. There's a kettle, flat TV screen, WiFi which can access to certain webs only, still, we can check some emails.

After unpacked our stuff at the room, we go out to survey and find our dinner. There're lions and many other animals lights when we visited.

A lot of restaurants are nearby our hotel and the price is not expensive as well.

The rice comes in big bowl and we can have as much as we want. It is a buffet price which counts by people.

Again, we have eggs fried with tomatoes.

Fried Cabbage, the menu we must have in very meal as it's both cheap and delicious.

This looks like fried vermicelli but the noodle is bigger and stickier.

Most of the food is fried vegetables and quite oily. When we order, we must ask them to put less oil.

After dinner, we just walk around nearby our hotel to find some souvenir and some daily used things.

There're restaurants, small supermarkets and souvenir shops nearby. For those who want to climb Emei Shan, it's recommended to check the weather forecast. If there's snow up there, it's recommended to buy steel to fasten your feet for walking up on the snow. The price is up to your negotiation skills. The shop I went starts the price at 10 RMB and when I buy several, the price drops to 8 RMB. Some of my friends didn't buy as they think it won't snow. But I see the price is not expensive so I buy some and if I didn't get to use it here I can also use it with my other snow trip.

We just keep wandering around until stopping at Bao Guo Temple. We can't go inside as it's already closed so we can just walk around outside. There's big bell as well as craving stones telling some stories. I can't read Chinese so I have no ideas what each picture is meant to say. When the Chinese see I take photos, they approach me and try to explain the story to me. All I can do is nodding as if I understood because I don't want to ruin their good intentions.

From Bao Guo Temple, we just keep taking photos and enjoying the atmosphere until we reach the Bao Guo city gate.

On the way back to the hotel, we stop by to buy some food for breakfast. There's one thing that made me feel really bad, it is the price of the steel fastening our feet. Here, the starting price is 5 RMB without me having to negotiate. Also, we can buy a bamboo stick to help us walk up to the mountain, it is about 1.2 RMB. And if you wish to pay respect to the Bodhisattva on the mountain, you can ask for the price of incense and if it's less than 40 RMB you can buy one as it's 40 RMB on the mountain.

Once we return to the hotel we ask the staff of the hotel whether there's snow on the Emei Shan and the staff 'surely' replied there's neither snow nor storm up there. I only thought to myself that I must have been deceived by the steel fastening shoes' sellers.

The next morning, we leave the hotel at 06.30 a.m. and go to the bus station which is not so far from our hotel. The first bus to Emei Shan leaves at 07.00 a.m. The round trip ticket is 90 RMB. Before we get on the bus, the staff will tear off the going ticket and we must keep the ticket well as we need to show our return ticket to the staff again on the way back (one of our friends lost the ticket and have to buy the ticket again at the price of 50 RMB for the single trip ticket).

Probably due to the bus is already full, it leaves 10 minutes earlier than expected time.

We sit on the bus quite sometimes. The bus starts to go up and there's no sign of snow. Soon, the bus stops for the tourists to use restroom and then it stop for one more time to let us buy the Emei Shan ticket. The ticket is 90 RMB. Here, everyone must get down and buy their own ticket because we must go through the QR code reading machine.. While we are going through this machine, it also takes our photo.

After we sit on the bus for a while, I start to see the snow covering bushes. The higher it goes, the whiter it gets. Now, the entire mountain is covered by snow. I'm a bit happy that I wasn't deceived and at least I can use that steel now.

The bus stop at the foot of Emei Shan. From here, the tourists must walk on foot along the stairs in order to go up to cable car station. I thought I'm already early but there's already the crowd here which surprises me a lot. We can only move slowly along the crowd.

When we start to walk on the snow for sometimes and up to the stairs, it's really slippery so I must take out my steel and fasten it to my shoes.

Some of my friends in the trip who didn't buy it last night now must buy it. I really wanted to sell mine to my friend as the price here is 20 RMB. It would have made a good profit. I see the shops sells several equipment to help us walk in the snow like the steel, weaved straw shoes and socks. Naturally, the shops at the foot of the hill are more expensive than the higher located shops. But we must pay as it's very difficult to walk without any help. If we were hoping to get cheaper price at a higher shop, we could have fallen since our first few steps.

If you do not want to walk, you can also sit on this sedan chair.

When we are ready, let's go!

There are souvenir shops, food shops, and snack shops set up all along the way.

The branch of the tree is covered by the snow. If it were black, I would have thought of it as Glico Pocky

When we walk for a while, we will see the viewpoint where we can see the sea mist.

Some people enjoy the sedan chair services.

Soon, we arrive at cable car ticket booth. The going up cable car is 65 RMB. It takes about 40 minutes from the foot of the mountain to here including times for taking photos. The view is quite beautiful looking out from the ticket booth.

From the ticket booth, we just need to walk a bit to the cable car station. Near the cable car station is Jia Yin Dian Temple.

Before going in the cable car station, we must take off the steel fastening to our shoes.

There're really a lot of people here. Each cable car can take up to about 50 people from my rough estimation.

When the cable car is open, I rush to stay near the window glass so that I can see the view when the cable car is moving up. Soon, the cable car, traveling in the mist of snowy forests, takes the tourists to their destination. The snow we saw minutes ago now have all gone. The cloudy sky also turns into a bit blue and we start to see some light. I also feel more energetic. Before travelling here, I've done some research as well as asked people who have been here. I found out that the sky at Emei Shan is closed almost the entire year except about one month and the weather up here is changed so fast. Sometimes when the sky is all open can also turn into cloudy in just second.

After getting off from the cable car, the food shop is waiting for us. I get a hot corn to help in this cold weather.

When seeing this sign, I learn that this place is also popular among Thai people.

The more we walk, the more the sky is open. In front of me now is the far stretching sea mist.

And now I have arrived at Emei Shan, one of the four grand Chinese Buddhist mountains in China. The four mountains refer to Emei Shan in Sichuan province, Pu Tuo Shan in Zhejiang province, Jiu Hua Shan in Anhui Province, and Wu Tai Shan in Shanxi province. Emei Shan has been famous since Chun Qiu Zhan Guo period, thousands years ago, and has been registered as cultural and natural world heritage in 1996.

When we travel up to Emei Shan, we shouldn't miss to go up at "Jin Ding". If you are ready, please follow me!

Here enshrines the golden Bodhisattva with a height of 24 meter. It is the largest golden Buddha in the world. The Bodhisattva has 10 faces and is enshrined on the back of the elephants and elegantly situated on the peak of the mountain.

The sun is right at the same position as the face, looking like the Bodhisattva's face is shining.

Hua Jing temple is located near the Grand Bodhisattva.

What we see here is the peak of Wan Fo which is the highest peak of Emei Shan with 3,099 meter high above sea level. Now, it is standing among the sea mist, looking similar to the wave hitting the shore. It looks not far from Jin Ding Viewpoint to Wan Fo peak so I walk along the route. After walking a while, I come to the dead end so I can only take photos from there.

Finally, we arrive at the peak of Jin Ding. Jin Ding means the golden peak. It locates the golden pagoda and is 3,079 meter high above sea level. Inside the golden pagoda enshrines the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. The gate of this pagoda is facing the West which is the Tibet direction where the Buddha was born. We can have a 360 degree view from here.

From the golden pagoda, we can also see the fighting arena.

This is the silver pagoda. Inside has the sacred fetish which has been consecrated for those who wish to have them. From the review I read, the silver pagoda originally has the entire building in silver including the window, the wall and the roof. However, now the wall, the window and the door has changed from silver into brown.

This is the cable car station from going down which is a different one than the one going up.

When looking carefully, we will see the waterfall on the left side has turned into ice.

I didn't really want to call this sea mist as during this time with this sunshine, I don't think the mist is still here. What is left should be cloud.

Since Jin Ding is located at 3,079 meter above the sea level so the oxygen is relatively little, making we feel tired easily when walking up the stairs.

Even the sun at Jin Ding is quite strong but since the weather is not hot and the sky is open, I enjoy photography time so much that I forgot all about the heat. I spend quite some time up here before deciding to go down as it's quite a long journey to go back to Chengdu.

Then I walk to the cable station for going down and buy a ticket in a price of 55 RMB. Going down has less people. When we are moving down, the scene is changed again. The snow comes back and the weather also suddenly changes into cold. There's a slight rain when I get out of the cable car and I use the steel to fasten my shoes again walking to the parking. We can walk faster going down as the tourists are less and the view is the same with going up so we won't waste time taking photos.

I feel like I'm getting sick on the bus. Probably the body can't adjust to the too fast changing weather. It's hot and cold, it snows and rains, I'm shivering the entire way.

I reach Bao Guo at 17.00 p.m. and the rain is heavier than when we were on Emei Shan. I quickly go back to the hotel and the van we hired has waited there. I ask to find something to eat first as I haven't had anything much from the morning except bread and a corn. I really have no energy to take photo for dinner, I'm all bad now. Then I take a medicine before going to Chengdu.

It's already dark when we reach LAZYBONES HOSTEL so we all just go to rest on our own.

The next morning before our program starts, I go have breakfast near our hostel.

I have egg noodle and dumplings for my breakfast. The price is not expensive, it is 8-10 RMB each menu. The soup is completely bland whereas the dumpling is super salty. I must have them both, one bite after the other. They are such a complimentary dish that one cannot be missed without the other.

This morning, we are going to Ya An city to see pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

We arrive here very early. We are one of the first groups of tourists to arrive. The entrance fee is 58 RMB.

Once we go in, a lot of pandas are welcoming us.

The research center is quite spacious. We should plan well so we won't waste much time. We can ask for a map at the front of the center.

Here is the research area.

It is quite shady inside with large trees and abundant bamboo trees.

My first stop is the Red Panda. They are very small and cute and not afraid of people. They are walking close for us to let us see them too.

This area is the Giant Panda Club Enclosure with lots of pandas. There're 8 pandas inside this cage.

Next is the Sub-Adult Panda Enclosure. There're big trees here as well so the pandas can climb up to rest on the trees.

I try to find baby pandas but can't find anywhere. After asking, I learn that the center will have them out only during August in every year.

In addition to pandas, the peacock and the swan is also there.

I was holding my laugh when the peacock suddenly spreading tail-feathers and attract all the tourists' attentions, leaving pandas, who are eating bamboo, unattended.

Several flowers are also blossoming in the research center.

When seeing this colorful panda, I also want to have one at my home too.

While walking back to the parking, there're a lot of panda souvenir shops. Dolls, shirts, magnet, key chains, pencil cases, and small bags are there. The products and price is similar to those offered at the pier of the cruising trip but here has more options.

After our team, again, makes a big purchase of panda, now it's time for us to go back to Chengdu in order to go to Huang Long Xi ancient town which is 40 km away from Chengdu. We go pass strawberry farm where the fresh strawberry stands are to be seen along the way.

The first destination we go after reaching the Huang Long Xi ancient town is restaurant as everyone is starving.

Before we could have our meal is also quite tiring again. But this time is better as we go point what we want from other table as well. Anyhow, we also order something different than what's already been on the table.

This menu is a long slice thin pork fried with soy sauce, it is quite delicious.

Fried Tofu Dish

Here is the omelet. We are getting tired of tomatoes so just order the plain one.

Corn is fried with something like sweet pepper.

It's like Fried Pork with Spring Onions.

Chicken fried with Potato and Mala (spicy and numb spices). Our tongue gets so numb when we eat one of these spices.

After lunch, it's time to explore Huang Long Xi ancient town.

I can't walk around much as the people are way too many. The atmosphere is similar to Samchuk Market in Thailand where each old houses sells stuff like food and souvenir.

There're grilling and deep fried snack like squid, chicken, insects, and grasshoppers. Fresh strawberries as well as sugar coated strawberries are also there.

You are also welcome to sightseeing the town by riding these horses.

I can't fight with this big crowd so I decided to walk outside and go along the river.

When we reach this river, we can still see the ancient town near the river.

There's a big bridge here as well.

On the opposite side to where I stand, we can see the mustard flower fields. A ballon service is also offered to enjoy the high angle veiw. Anyhow, the balloon doesn't fly up high as they tide the rope to the balloon.

I walk up on the bridge but there's nothing much up here, except the ancient town can be seen from here. I stay here until 17.00 p.m. and I think it's time to go back to Chengdu.

After we are back to Chengdu, there's still some time left so we plan to walk at Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley. That I carry the big camera entire day, I want to enjoy the walk without anything on myself.

On the opposite side to our hostel is the subway. We take the subway to Kuan Zhai Xiang Zi walking street. Since we get there quite late, we can just walk for a bit.

The atmosphere is similar to other walking street. The shops are not as ancient as the ones in Jin Li and Huang Long Xi. Most of the shops are food shop and souvenir shop. But what makes this walking street outstanding and different from other places is the wall. It is decorated with high relief sculptures where the tourists can be part of it.

This corner is like a room which has wardrobe, TV, record player, telephone, sewing machine and flour milling machine which are craved high reliefs coming out of the wall.

The corner is a bicycle of a postman which also put a large letter as a decoration.

This corner is high reliefs sculptures.

This corner is a horse stable which has both its head and feet floating out of the wall.

Here is a tricycle corner.

From what I notice, I think souvenir here has the cheapest price. Starting price of some souvenir is the same as the price I have bought from other places.

After walking the street until our energy is all used up, we also have our dinner here.

Tonight is my last night here but I still have tomorrow morning. The destination that I wanted to visit is Wu Hou Ci or the Chinese epic Three Kingdom Shrine.

And before anything else, let's charge up our energy. This morning I have dumpling (Kanom Jeeb), Salapao, dumpling soup, and soy milk form the shop just opposite to our hostel.

Our tour leader tries to find out the exact location of the Three Kingdom Shrine. From the map and information searched, it is said that it is right on the ancient Jin Li Street. To make sure, we ask people around again of where it locates and everyone points to ancient Jin Li Street. Again, we ask the staff at the entrance gate, he said the same thing. But if we want to go in, we must pay the entrance fee of 60 RMB. Well, we wonder why it's more expensive than the first day when we arrived, which was only 30 RMB. The staff said due to that day is a New Year so the ticket has been half discounted but today is a regular day, so the ticket fee is 60 RMB.

We were hesitate for a while of whether to go in or not. The Three Kingdom Shrine has already closed on our first day visit here and that we may come Chengdu only once. So 60 RMB seems reasonable as we might feel regret going back without knowing what they have to offer insidet the shrine. Let's just think of this 60 RMB as our lesson fee.

Upon walking in, we can feel the serenity of the place during the early morning like this which is totally opposite to the first day evening. There're almost no tourists. Probably it is still early and today is a working day.

From the entrance, we can see the Liu Bei Shrine. The Liu Bei Shrine was built in 203 or right when he died.

Liu Bei Statue

Near Liu Bei statue is Liu Chen statue, the fifth son of Liu Shan.

Zhang Fei Statue

Guan Yu Statue

Nearby Liu Bei Shrine, there're a lot of great generals and nobles of whom I don't know who they are.

Next to the Liu Bei Shrine is Kong Ming or Zhuge Liang Shrine which is considered a highlight here. On the entrance ticket also depicts his photo as the main charater. Zhuge Liang Statue stands in the middle of the hall.

Zhege Liang (Kong Ming) is the Marquis Wu (Wuhou) of Kingdom of Shu.

On the right hand side of Zhuge Liang is Zhuge Zhan.

On the left of Zhuge Liang is Zhuge Song, son of Zhege Zhan and grandson of Kong Ming who fought in war and died along with his father.

When we walk out, we will see the pavilion near the river which sells souvenir inside.

The oval gate is the entrance to bonsai garden.

At the furthest inside, there's another shrine and I'm not sure whose shrine is it. It enshrines 3 gods' statues with rock cravings.

The General Atmosphere

I spend quite some times at Wu Hou Ci. Then, I walk out to see the atmosphere of the ancient Ji Lin Street during early morning. The Three Kingdom Shrine is located on the Ji Lin Ancient Street where we can walk from one place to the other.

The morning atmosphere is totally different from the evening. The evening is very crowded where I almost couldn't take any shots whereas it's very quiet during the morning hours. I quite enjoy my time this morning as I get to walk around and explore more.

Now it's time that we have told the van to come pick us to bullet train station at Cheng Du Dong (the bullet train ticket is 96.5 RMB).

Since our members buy too many pandas home so the newly bough bag has ripped off when we transport it out from the van at the bullet train station. Therefore, we must repair it as we are afraid that the Thai Immigration might take them away if they see so many pandas being transported across the boarder.

The driver who ripped off the bag didn't show any responsibility but just hands us a bag like the fertilizer bag. Then, the members of the trip help repair the best they could. Luckily, some people still have the steel fastening to our shoes things so we could use the rope there to sew the bag and makes it looks tidy.

Good thing that we spare quite some time at Cheng Du Dong station so we have enough time to buy food to eat on the train. There are more restaurants at Cheng Du Dong than Chong Qing Bei station. And I have McDonald's for my lunch.

It takes about 2 hour and 20 minutes on the bullet train to reach Chong Qing Bei station. After that, we take the bus in order to go to Chong Qing Bei subway station and take the subway to the airport (the bus fare is 2 RMB and the subway fare is 5 RMB).