熊猫 Pandas!!

成都

Sorry for the lack of updates recently - I've been super busy trying to fit everything in before the end of IUP in a few weeks. This past weekend was a holiday (劳动节 ＝ Labor Day) so Nick, Simin and I traveled to Chengdu, Sichuan for the weekend. It was great to see some more of China, taste the infamously spicy Sichuanese food I've heard so much about, see how much of the dialect I could understand, and of course, play with the pandas. I'm also currently reading a book, River Town, by Peter Hessler, that is set in a town in this province, so it seemed like especially appropriate timing. My overall impressions were: lots of construction going on, tons of open space/less buildings than in Beijing, less crowding, noise, and people in general than in Beijing, more traditional characters around town, and intense smog every day, (seemed worse than Beijing). We summed it up as, "A small town vibe in a very big city".

Below are some pictures from our trip:


Shadow puppets for sale




Our first encounter with the local food... Simin's face turned red for a good 20 minutes.








Off to see the pandas...


More to come...