Had a relaxing morning calling the Credit Union to try to get Josh's ATM card re-activated, relaxing, playing pool, and trying to figure out how to post to the blog from this side of the Great Firewall of China.
For lunch, we went out to a recommended noodle shop and ordered with the help of Lonely Planet (she pointed to things they had, we pointed to what we wanted). We ended up with “Noodles in Soup” which was okay, and “Bean and Meat Soup” (also a noodle soup), which was excellent. It was insanely cheap: only 10 Yuan for both of us. And apparently here they absolutely refuse to take advantage of our cluelessness to overcharge, nor do they seem to steer foreigners to the expensive dishes. Most things on the menu were in the 6 to 7 Yuan range with some outside that range, so I tried to pay with two 10-Yuan bills, expecting to find out the price by the change. So it must have been pretty obvious to her that I was expecting to pay more than 10 Yuan. Anyhow, I love being able to sit down to a meal and find out how much it cost after eating by how much change I get back from around $3 of local currency. Thailand was like this too, when we ate street food.
After lunch we took the bus to Tianfu Square, which was full of people and absolutely beautiful. We couldn't believe it had hardly a mention in Lonely Planet. We also peaked in the windows of the under-construction metro station, which will be the big downtown hub when Chengdu's metro is done.
Next we walked to People's Park, which was bustling with activity, and a great place for a stroll, or sitting at a teahouse playing cards (as many of the Chinese were doing), or riding on the festival rides. We also really liked the recycling and trash bins, labeled in English: “Recovery” and “Unrecovery” and with great pictorial representations too. I may never refer to an “Unrecovery” bin as anything else ever again.
Our last scheduled stop, again by bus, was Wanshu Temple, which had some fantastic grounds. Definitely made us feel like we were in China.
There are more photos in the gallery.
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