What a huge mistake it would’ve been to skip this city!
It wasn’t on my original list, but it popped up on the map as I was planning my route toward Chongqing.
I’d heard they have some panda centers, but since I had already seen pandas at the Beijing Zoo, I wasn’t too eager to go. Big mistake!
After learning about the places I could visit in Chengdu and since it was on my way anyway, I decided to make a stop here. Specifically, I had: half a (rainy) day to explore the neighborhood I was staying in + 2 full days with guided tours and wandering around like crazy.
Capital of Sichuan Province, Chengdu is a city with 21 million people, ranking 4th in China after Beijing (22 million), Shanghai (25 million), and Chongqing (over 30 million!).
Gizzas, I just realized that any of these cities is more populated than our entire Romania!!!
It’s a relatively new city, but it already boasts 5 ring roads (considering that Beijing has just one more), 15 metro lines, one of the most modern airports in Asia (Chengdu Tianfu, opened in 2021), friendly people, and many other things. One of them: paying for the metro using… your face. A cool trick I already wrote about here.
“Panda bears and super spicy food – these are the two things Chengdu is famous for”, someone told me right before I arrived. I decided not to miss either, even though just thinking about “super spicy” made me feel like my poor butt was going to be on fire.
Still, I promised myself not to overlook the city’s other “offers” either.
WHAT TO DO IN CHENGDU
“You can go to People’s Park and feel like a true Chengduer.” To be honest, that suggestion didn’t sound too exciting to me. I mean, come on, we have parks to walk around in too, I don’t need to cross the planet and spend money to do that.
BUT… where I least expected it, that’s where I had the biggest surprise!
PEOPLE’S PARK (RENMIN PARK)
Located right in the city center, People’s Park is one of the oldest and most popular public spots in Chengdu.
Locals come here to relax, play mahjong, dance, show off their singing skills in open-air karaoke sessions, and much more.
And me, the clueless tourist? What am I supposed to do?
I start my visit to the park with… lunch, even though it’s not quite lunchtime yet. But I figured I shouldn’t let a growling stomach get in the way.
Beyond the beef noodles, I share with my guide some dishes I never in a million years would have guessed!
Then I stumble upon the entrance to a huge teahouse.
This Tea House is super popular! Lots of locals come here just to chill, ordering only one tea and stretching it out for hours. It’s a totally accepted thing – no one gives you dirty looks if you sit there forever with the same cup in front of you.
Just as I was still deciding whether I wanted to try the whole “tea leaf contemplation” experience, I noticed some folks in burgundy uniforms walking among the tables, clinking some metallic tools. Not a disturbing sound, quite the opposite.
“What are these people doing?” I asked.
“They clean your ears and then give you an inner ear massage!” OMG, I couldn’t believe it!!!
EAR CLEANING
I had read about this back in 2018, when I went to Tokyo, and I kept looking for a way to experience it, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the city. And here it came right to me!
This ear cleaning offered by street specialists is a traditional Chinese practice, specific to the Sichuan region, and especially the city of Chengdu. Here, it’s considered part of the local identity. While in other major cities you can only experience this in specialized salons, here it’s a cultural street experience. You’ll find practitioners of this craft in parks, teahouses, and shopping streets.
“I’m in!” I say so suddenly that I startle my guide.
We start circling around the teahouse tables like two lost birds, because I have no idea who to stop at. Actually, there aren’t many options – most of them already have clients. Ugh, and some of them even look really trustworthy!
Off to the side, I spot a young guy. The only one without a client. I ask my guide twice if it is really okay to go to him. What if he’s a beginner, what if his hands shake, who knows??…
She reassure me by saying that all of them are certified, not just anyone can throw on a burgundy jacket and start poking into people’s ears on the street.
Okay, okay, let’s approach him, I say. Well, she does, because I still only know “xie xie” in Chinese…
And oh boy, what follows!
First, the guy asks me if I want him to use new tools or reused ones in my ears. What?!?
Dear Lord and almighty Jackie Chan, what do you mean by “reused”??
Here’s the thing: many people are fine with reused tools because they disinfect them after each use. Plus, it’s cheaper: if you want brand-new tools, you’ll need to pay a little extra.
The guy shows me the little pouch with the new tools, and I suddenly feel like I am about to get a blood test, you know, when the nurse says: “See? The needle is sealed!”
He puts on his miner headlamp and begins the operation “Wax out of the ears”.
He tells me to relax. Seriously?! I think I even held my breath, afraid that he might poke that stick somewhere it shouldn’t go…
It tickles. Every now and then, he takes the stick out and tries to show me what was on it.
“No, no, thank you, I’d rather not see it…”
Then he grabs something like a tuning fork tweezer (the thing I kept hearing clinking along the paths), a stick with a tiny brush at the tip, and begins the massage.
I don’t know how to describe this massage. Judging by the tools I saw – a stick with a brush at the tip, a rod with a feather at the end – it is like cleaning a bottle with a brush, mixed with dusting with a feather duster, but on a much smaller scale. On the stapes scale, actually. And the malleus. Because both were vibrating in there.
The whole thing lasts a few minutes. Maybe 5. To me, it felt like an eternity!
All done. I pay 50 yuan + 10 extra because I wanted new tools. No more stress, now the wind whistles through my ears even louder 🙂
We keep walking through the park. We don’t get far, though, because suddenly… I see pink in front of my eyes!
MARRIAGE MARKET
A long, winding alley is lined on both sides with countless laminated A4 posters. Passersby stop and read what’s written on some of them.
I find out that this is the so-called “marriage market” – quite literally a matchmaking fair. The people featured on the posters are looking for a life partner. Pink posters are with women, and the light blue ones (on a different path) are with men.
China had a law, enacted in 1979, that allowed families to have only one child. That law was repealed in 2016. The result? They now have way more men than women! So this market is in high demand!
But the funniest part is that, in most cases, it’s not the young people paying for the posters, it’s their parents! 🙂 Desperate to promote their children in hopes of finding them a husband or wife.
It’s not free. You pay for one month, two, three – however long you think it’ll take for your personal info, displayed for all to see, to attract the right match.
First, there’s information about the “seeker”: name, birth date, height, marital status, and a few other personal details.
Under the section “looking for”, the seeker clearly states what they want. Height is an extremely important criterion! A minimum of 170 cm is often required – apparently, nobody wants short kids…
Then comes the job – the candidate must have a stable job, because that means a guaranteed pension. Freelancers, farmers, and part-timers are usually considered less desirable, as they don’t qualify for a pension.
Next up: expectations regarding property (owning a house, ideally).
And last but not least, the candidate must NOT have bad habits: no gambling, no drinking, no smoking, and ideally, no tattoos either.
What’s funny is that, at the bottom of the poster, it clearly states that the information is provided by the “marriage seeker”, so you can imagine how much parents tend to embellish their children’s profiles. And of course, in most cases, the phone numbers listed are the parents’ numbers 🙂
Among the classic posters, I came across some special ones too:
This guy, 27 years old, didn’t bother to fill out the entire template. He simply wrote:
Man
Looking for Woman
Still, he’s a good candidate – he’s 1.75 m tall! 🙂
And look at that, I even found the only poster with a photo!
Apparently, she paid extra for that. She went all in, no holding back…
Usually, photos don’t appear on the posters. They’re kept in a thick folder, managed by a “matchmaker”.
We come across a particularly colorful matchmaker – dressed in a bright red blazer, surrounded like a guru by lots of people who seem to be placing all their hopes in him. (They are definitely parents, right?)
But wait, it’s not that simple: if you want the photo of the person you spotted on the posters, you have to pay. It costs 20 yuan (about 2.5 euros), and the man digs through his folder/bag to identify them for you.
You can even pay him without choosing anyone from the panels: just tell him your ideal match’s traits, and he’ll search for someone who fits.
Helen kept trying to convince me to pay and let him find someone for me!!! Can you imagine me sending you kisses from China, married to a smart, handsome, rich Chinese guy? And tall, of course 🙂
We moved on – my guide already married, me still single. The park hadn’t revealed all its surprises just yet.
BONSAI GARDEN
We take a stroll through a beautiful little spot, a sort of mini botanical garden inside the park. Absolutely packed with bonsai. There are over 200 bonsai pots, on display all year round.
I find out that “bonsai” means “plant/tree in a tray/pot”, i.e., a plant cultivated in a small container; and that the art of bonsai actually originated in China, not Japan, like I used to think!
My guide tells me, a bit annoyed, that a lot of people think the same as I used to, just like many don’t know that chopsticks also originated in China! (I did know that one, ha.)
KARAOKE, DANCING, CALLIGRAPHY & SPORTS
And just when I thought I’d seen it all, I hear people singing. Of course, we head that way too.
Gathered in a section of the park, roughly the size of two tour buses full of enthusiastic Asians, everyone is singing their hearts out, under the guidance of a woman who seems more focused on pushing them along than actually leading the tune.
Just a few steps away, another group is dancing in sync.
I’ve always been fascinated by these public groups I’ve seen in many Asian cities, on the streets, so here, I finally decide to embarrass myself and join the dance, because no one cares that I am terrible, the whole point is to have fun and move!
(Thank God I never pursued a career in dancing…)
In front of the obelisk at the center of the park, I become an audience member for a live water calligraphy demonstration. The guy skillfully handle a massive brush on the stone tiles. So cool!
Then I literally join the circle – a street vendor with little shuttlecock-like toys invites me to “pass the ball” with him and some local Chinese girls.
We don’t know each other, but we immediately form a circle of players. We are all terrible, haha. But we have fun!
My guide gives me the feathered shuttlecock as a gift, so I guess I’ll be starting my training back in Romania…
After all that exercise :), I feel like my blood sugar had dropped.
On one of the park’s alleys, a talented woman is making beautiful candy sculptures out of melted sugar, placing them on sticks. One cost 10 yuan (just over 1 euro).
But first, you have to spin a wheel – wherever the arrow lands, that is the shape she’ll create for you. In my case, the arrow pointed to a pomegranate, but it felt too simple, so I sneakily nudged it toward the butterfly instead. The lady laughed and got to work on my butterfly.
When we finally left the park, I realized something: what they told me at the beginning wasn’t just talk, you really do feel like a local here. And I truly had a great time!
KUAN-ZHAI LANE
I absolutely love busy commercial streets filled with food stalls, local shops, souvenirs, and crowds of people! I love them so much that I came to Kuan-Zhai Lane three times in two days! With and without a guide!
In fact, this area is made up of several connected streets, and you simply can’t get bored, you’ll find everything you want and plenty you didn’t even know you wanted.
That’s pretty much what I did:
1. I bought souvenirs.
There are tons of options, but the STAR is the panda bear.
Panda plushies, hats, pens, notebooks, keychains, beanies, bags, backpacks, wallets – basically anything and everything in panda form! God, I could’ve filled two suitcases!
2. I ate something unusual for me – rabbit head! After getting instructions from the vendor on how to eat it.
It was okay, nothing that made me cringe, just that I didn’t find much meat once I cracked open the skull…
Then I even bought some. Many shops sell vacuum-packed rabbit heads or rabbit meat.
3. I wrote postcards… with pandas, of course.
4. I stared at anything that looked bizarre and tried to figure out “what on earth is that?”
In this case, I came across what looked like back scrubbers. Turns out, they were… mushrooms!
Snow fungus – the vendor told me, letting me touch one (which, apparently, is what all curious people do). It’s a mushroom used in soups and is said to benefit the skin.
Inside the store, you could even sample different soups made with this mushroom. I tried a few, and to my surprise, I actually liked one, despite the gelatinous texture.
I had a sugarcane lemonade, watched how sticky rice in bamboo is made, and then moved on.
There’s another similar area – Jinli, but I didn’t make it there, as it’s a bit farther away.
Instead, about a kilometer from my hotel, I explored Jiangyuan Street, near Manjushri Monastery.
It’s nowhere near as lively as Kuan-Zhai, but still interesting – with stalls selling religious items, souvenir shops, terraces, and restaurants.
I even came across a Chinese man selling turtles. I didn’t ask if they were for cooking or for keeping as pets…
CHUN XI ROAD
…And just when I thought I had seen all the panda bears in China, in every shape and form, surprise – I was wrong. I was strolling down the sidewalk, relaxed, when suddenly I saw the butt of a panda.
When I looked more closely, I discovered a giant panda perched on top of a building!
I have reached the most popular shopping area – Chun Xi Road – full of massive malls, restaurants, street shops, and even stalls selling everything from souvenirs to handmade goods. Apparently, there are over 700 stores around here! Now that’s serious shopping!
From the hundreds of plush pandas lining the street, I look up and see the giant one climbing the luxury mall building, IFS.
The giant sculpture is called “I AM HERE”. It was created in 2017 by an American artist of British origin (Lawrence Argent) and has become a popular city “check-in” spot.
One day after I snapped a photo of its panda butt, I find out you can also photograph its face – you just have to go inside the mall and up to the terrace. Well, of course I go up!
The terrace is packed… like, literally like a bear sighting. Everyone wants a selfie! There is a line of about 20 people.
I find a good photo spot, so I skip the line.
Then I go back down, mentally replaying the whole adventure of discovering the giant panda.
I stroll right past the luxury shops on all floors, exit the IFS mall and wander around the surrounding streets.
That’s when I find another cool attraction – a giant 3D screen that draws a crowd, mouths open, watching ads that look like they’re about to leap right off the wall.
PIATA TIANFU
I come out of the metro into an interesting underground square, with a central pillar just as intriguing, wrapped in a golden dragon. Up the escalator I go, and bam, I am in Tianfu Square.
It’s huge! Surrounded by museums, government buildings, and shopping centers.
And underneath it – where I came from – it’s full of shops and restaurants! Apparently, that whole underground area is actually a civil defense bunker built in the 1960s. If something goes wrong, at least people here won’t run out of food and drinks 🙂
Thanks to its central location, Tianfu Square is considered kilometer zero, the point from which all road distances in Sichuan Province are measured.
In front of the Science and Technology Museum stands a (lit-up) statue of Mao Zedong.
It’s one of the largest statues of Mao in China, installed here in the 1960s, right on the site of a former Buddhist temple…
From the speakers, Christmas songs are echoing across the entire square (even though it is early April, yep?). It makes me smile, but I also enjoy it. Just like I do the fountains.
I take a selfie (read “ten”), and something surprises me: at exactly 8:30 PM, both the music and the fountains stop. Done! Apparently, it is time to call it a night. Everyone head home.
Well, to the hotel room, in my case.
I head to the metro.
This time, I pay closer attention to the signs and make sure to board a car with decent air conditioning, as I’d frozen in the others…
The metro is super crowded in the evening! Back home, I’d hate that, but here, in full tourist mode, I love watching people and blending in.
The next morning, early and half-asleep, I am already at Chengdu railway station. It takes just one hour on the high-speed train to reach my next chosen city – Chongqing. (The alternative would be a 4-hour car ride.)
Chengdu East Railway Station (ChengduDong) feels more like an airport, with how everything is organized and the parade of train staff and conductors passing by in front of me.
While waiting for the high-speed train to Chongqing, I’m thinking about what I didn’t manage to see or do during my two and a half days in Chengdu (but I’ve heard they’re worth it):
- Attending a traditional opera show with masks, at Shufen Yayun Teahouse (Shufeng Yayun).
- Visiting the sacred Taoist mountain, Qingcheng (Qingcheng Shan), located about 70 km from Chengdu.
On the other hand, I did get to see the famous Leshan Giant Buddha and, especially, the panda bears! I can’t wait to show them to you!
