4/23/18 Xi’an to Cheng Du

4/23/18 Xi’an to Cheng Du


By Katie

At the Xi’an Railway Station, we say goodbye to our guide Lily. Uh*

Lily was remarkably unimpressive in her guiding skills. She was knowledgeable about the Terra cotta warriors, but otherwise I can’t say that she was that helpful. She has provided us with some fodder for entertaining stories, like how she would walk across the street without waiting to make sure we were with her. She’d keep walking and then finally notice that she should stop. We were spoiled by our Beijing guide, Grace, who was flexible and aware of our occasional need to change the plan. Grace decided we should have our larger meals at lunch because the kids were tired by dinner. Lily, on the other hand, wasn’t even aware that we needed to eat lunch at all!

* And Lily had a habit of ending her sentences with “Uh.” We think it was instead of saying, “right or great” or some equivalent.






We’ve arrived in the more mountainous area of China, Cheng Du.



Lunch after arriving in Chengdu. Our new guide David was on the ball and directly had us get lunch and ordered for us. We were so happy to have a meal after our morning travel, and really appreciative that we didn’t drive around looking for a KFC for an ice cream lunch (which is what happened in Xi’an with Lily. We ended up telling her we didn’t want to drive around anymore. We finally got out of the van and bought ice cream from a convenience store!)

Everyone is getting better at using chopsticks. Hayden has been remarkably open-minded with the food - he’s tried pretty much everything and is enjoying the food! Lydia has been “ma ma hoo-hoo” (so so in Chinese) in terms of her food trying. Eliza is really loving the rice!




The Buddhist Temple in Chengdu.



Hayden trying out a new game, outside a shopping street in Chengdu.



The busy fancy shopping street.



Interesting that in this posh area, there are people who set up ear cleaning services! Long Q-tips, a headlamp, and a lounge chair - and business is booming.



Roasted rabbits - another finding on the posh shopping street. Lydia looks like she is high-tailing her way out of this pic.



Lydia trying out the chili-grinder.


A man’s whose art is making fancy designs with melted syrup and putting them on a stick, like a lollipop.



A Chinese instrument


At the People’s Park, we saw an old fashioned version of Match.com, where the parents print out advertisments to try to find a spouse for their children. Our guide, David, almost convinced Hayden to put his name in the ring. For real, though, Chinese parents are serious about marrying their children off. And the fact that there are more boys than girls make this not necessarily easy. David said that the advertisements will list things that person owns, like an apartment or a motor scooter. And a “wanted ad” may state a range of age the spouse needs to be and the range of height.





Chinese chess




My (Katie’s) favorite restaurant. It’s in the open air and food was delicious. We all especially enjoyed our first western food- french fries and chicken fingers.



Hayden jumping down the stairs.



A cool “Face-changing” show. Also in the open-air, a open-air theatre. When we arrived, Hayden asked “is this a talent show?” Seemed like a funny question, but actually it did resemble a talent show!




A finger shadow puppeteer.




A clown of some sort. Kind of funny. Kind of creepy.



Our hotel, with mirrors on the ceiling. The only downside of this hotel is we didn’t arrive until after dinner. We did spend some time here the next afternoon, because we all needed downtime!