Chengdu: Chunxi Lu
Traveling to Chengdu this past weekend was my first time “jet-setting” across the country just to spend a weekend hanging out and experiencing another city. Chengdu is actually in the Sichuan province just south of Shaanxi, about 700 km away by car and about an hour in the air by plane. You may remember hearing about the Sichuan province due to the massive earthquake that occurred about 80 km northwest of Chengdu in May 2008.
Due to the fluctuating cold and warm weather lately there has often been quite a bit of fog in the mornings, and Saturday when the flight was supposed to leave was no exception. Upon arriving at the airport I discovered that there were people that had been waiting up to 36 hours to get on a flight out of Xi’an. This didn’t look good.
After being delayed for about 2 hours, they decided they could let flights to Chengdu check in. First come, first served. Fortunately Jinfei was able to work some magic and bat her eyelashes enough that the ticketing agent checked us in almost immediately while others continued to wait. We left the Xi’an airport in chaos about 90 minutes later.
An hour later the Airbus 319 landed in Chengdu and we caught a bus for 15 yuan to the downtown area. Upon our arrival we met up with one of Jinfei’s best friends, Zhu Mangqi. Zhu took us a few blocks to Chunxi Road, while it is a real road, is is most commonly known for the large pedestrian mall with a variety of shopping, and typical “only in Sichuan” snacks directly next to it.
On Chunxi Road I had amazing snacks such as spicy duck neck (very spicy, very excellent!), as well as an assortment of super spicy pork on a stick, and tiny, deep-fried baozi (typically a stuffed, steamed bun).
After getting my fill of spicy snacks we headed for Zhu Mangqi’s university. I thought my university was out of the way, but her’s was worse. It didn’t take as long to get to, but it was more of a hassle. There’s only one bus to take, and it only goes about half way there, so we had to stop at a bus stop area where taxis often waited. By taxis, I mean guys who happened to own a van and will drive places for a fee. These taxis would drive us the rest of the way. So getting to her university was a bigger hassle and also cost quite a bit more than the 1.5 yuan i’m used to paying on the 336 to SUST.
After the long day of waiting around in the airport, and walking Chunxi road, Jinfei and I found an inexpensive hotel near the university and got some rest for the next day.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts about my 4 day trip to Chengdu. The remaining posts will come in daily intervals over the next week.
Traveling to Chengdu this past weekend was my first time “jet-setting” across the country just to spend a weekend hanging out and experiencing another city. Chengdu is actually in the Sichuan province just south of Shaanxi, about 700 km away by car and about an hour in the air by plane. You may remember hearing about the Sichuan province due to the massive earthquake that occurred about 80 km northwest of Chengdu in May 2008.
Due to the fluctuating cold and warm weather lately there has often been quite a bit of fog in the mornings, and Saturday when the flight was supposed to leave was no exception. Upon arriving at the airport I discovered that there were people that had been waiting up to 36 hours to get on a flight out of Xi’an. This didn’t look good.
After being delayed for about 2 hours, they decided they could let flights to Chengdu check in. First come, first served. Fortunately Jinfei was able to work some magic and bat her eyelashes enough that the ticketing agent checked us in almost immediately while others continued to wait. We left the Xi’an airport in chaos about 90 minutes later.
» Read more: Chengdu: Arrival & Chunxi Road
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