Chilled out Chengdu

Arrived in Chengdu early on Sunday morning and got met by Lori of Lazy Bones hostel – our home for the next 2 nights.  She took us to the hostel on the brand new Chengdu metro.  It’s only been open for a month and was a quite pleasant experience; air con, no crowding and English signage!  Our hostel was only 3 stops from Chengdu North station and also centrally located for the Chengdu sites.  It was one of the nicest places we’ve stayed – big lounge/bar area with pool and ping pong table and a nice little outside courtyard.  Most importantly, it had a washing machine which meant we could finally wash some clothes.  There was even a roof terrace to dry them on so our bedroom didn’t turn into a makeshift laundry room!

After successfully getting ourselves and our clothes clean we walked down to Tianfu Square which marks the centre of Chengdu.  There’s a big white statue of Mao looking out onto the square and lots of very impressive fountain displays.  The square itself is enormous and looked particularly so because it had been cordoned off by the police for some reason and was completely empty.  We grabbed some lunch, our first at a Chinese fast food joint, and then headed over to Renmin Park, one of Chengdu’s bigger public parks.  There was a flower festival taking place in the park so we had to pay a minimal entrance fee.  Worth every penny, though, because there was lots going on.  We saw everything from Chinese opera and story of Communism dances to traditional music and some gorgeous flower displays. Click here to read more…