The stories of baggy eyed and stiff shouldered lawsh: Chengdu : Land of Giant Pandas and MaLat Spiciness

I was recently asked to perform a site certification for the company in Chengdu, China. The reason behind the choice was fairly straightforward, there weren't too many candidates who is able to converse in Chinese in my team. Initially, I thought it was just a 1 person thingy but later on I found out that my boss would be joining me =_=

Anyhows, its not a trip, its for work and its supposed to be huge. I have handled big projects before so this is not really that difficult although it is my first time doing a site certification. In my mind, it is an easy job and it should not take more than 1 day. Boy was I wrong and in the end it actually took around 2.5 days to complete =_=|||

This coupled with the initial confusion on flight dates, it was chaotic. After the dust have settled down, I went 2 days before the actual work started so that I have at least some time to do some exploration of the city. Since my boss would be there, we could go and visit the Panda Research Center together and that would of course cut down on the travelling cost but it would seem that transportation would be provided by our host and that worked out perfectly because that way we would not get cheated by the taxis.

The driver brought us to have local dishes and other places of interest like Kwan Zhai Xiang Zi, Jinli Street, Shu Ma Guang Chang (its Chengdu's Lowyat). These places are the most accessible and not too far out of the city. If you ask for my opinion, I would suggest for you to visit Jinli Street in the city and Panda Research Center. I did not get the opportunity to visit Leshan Buddha or Er Mei Mountain but I think this places would be of interest as well especially for those who like to take pictures. The further place would of course be JiuZhaiGou and HuangLong if you have a couple of days to spare not to mention be willing t0 pay for the flight tickets.

All in all, the foods are filled with spices and almost unavoidable and the sceneries at the tourist attractions are wonderful. The roads will be an eye opener, 3-5 lanes highways and 2-3 side roads just beside the highways to turn off. Visibility varies from 200m to over 1km. Most of the time the city looks to be covered in a haze. I suppose pollution is quite bad there but I did not get breathing difficulties so it should still be acceptable.

One thing which I cannot get used to would be driving. Their cars are like Americans, left hand drive and drive on the right side of the road. When I sit in the front passenger seat, its like the car is missing the all the driver's things where its supposed to be. Almost all the people there drive like the road belongs to them, move and stop at their fancy. Using the horn as if they are the police speeding to chase after fugitives. The traffic lights do not need to be put up because cars can stop in the middle of a major 4 land road and try to make the turn while avoiding oncoming traffic. I was scared stiff and nobody would volunteer to sit in the front.