More Chengdu with a bit of Tex Mex

After ooh-ing and ahhh-ing at pandas for a few hours, we experienced something else the Sichuan province is famous for - hot and spicy food!  Haba took us to a local cafe - it was the real deal with no other tourists in sight.  He ordered a variety of dishes - some with lots of peppers, others that were "mild".  We were so interested in eating the food we took no photos.  No one left hungry and it cost about $20 US.  There were 8 of us!

We then went on a tour of the city.  We visited a really pretty park where there were lots of groups out singing.  Haba told us that they were old Communist songs and that the people singing them had not gathered spontaneously for the fun of it. This is the interesting sort of thing you learn when you have a guide!

This is one of many bonsai trees - they were really interesting and pretty!

We walked through the old city (honestly it didn't stand out to me as anything extraordinary - maybe I'm getting numb to old Chinese cities!) and ended at a Taoist temple. 

While we were outside the temple we were approached by university students who were working on a project to improve the English on signage in China.  They showed us photos of signs and asked if we, as English speakers, understood their meanings and if there was a better way to word it.  I was actually torn as we were giving them advice - sure it would be great if the signs were more accurate, but so much humor will be lost if they're fixed.  Where else but China can you actually use the word psychopath on a sign?!

Finally, we ended this day with a trip to an area where I really WISH he had taken photos, but it would have been a really bad idea.  The Tibetan area of the city would have been interesting on an ordinary day with hundreds of Tibetan monks in deep crimson colored robes, Tibetan stores, and ordinary Tibetan people.  (I can say now that I know what a Tibetan looks like and it's distinctly different than other Chinese.)  However, on this day, in another part of China, two monks had self-immolated (I don't know if this hits the US news, but this is a huge issue in China & Tibet).  Police were swarming the area - not sure if it was preventive or a show of force.  I bet there were 25 officers to a block.  Some groups of officers were on dinner break, all gathered around police cars eating noodles out of bowls.  It would  have made an amazing picture, but Haba warned us that our camera could get confiscated.

The next morning we headed to another panda reserve out in the country.

Okay, I can't resist just posting a bunch more photos of panda cuteness!

I admit that I got carried away with panda-mania and boldly said that I'd pay whatever they wanted to hold a baby panda.  After all, in a place where eight people can eat for $20, how much could they possibly charge?!  As it turns out - a lot.  It cost $500 US to have a one-year-old panda sit on your lap; $300 for a 2-year-old panda to sit next to you - both only for the time needed to take a picture (with your own camera, of course).  For a mere $3,000 we could have played with the baby pandas.  Needless to say, I was suddenly satisfied looking at the baby pandas through the glass!

Our panda escapade was followed by a Sichuan lunch at another local diner.  We saw something we've never seen before in China - a sign that shows what "grade" the restaurant got at an inspection with the food & drug department. The grade for food safety:

Yep, it was a C, the lowest mark on their grading scale.  Made me wonder what they do if they receive less than a C.  My guess was that they just don't put up the sign.  With that bit of positive thinking, I ate the lunch.


Our next activity was a hike down a beautiful gorge.  It was raining, but was great to be outside in clean, crisp air that felt more like Colorado than China!

After another stop in a China village, we headed back to the city in pursuit of a restaurant.  Not Sichuan style, but a place we heard about from another expat at dinner the night before:  Peter's Tex-Mex:

The smell of Mexican food wafting in the air was a delight to the senses.  Chips, salsa, and burritos filled our tables. I don't know a better way to end a trip in China!