A First Look at Chengdu—Chengdu Travelogue—2

After arriving in Chengdu, for various reasons I ended up wandering around Jinli by myself that afternoon. It felt a bit on the commercial side to me. While walking around, I spotted an ear-cleaning service. From a distance, I could see lots of people lying there while practitioners fiddled around in their ears with some kind of tool. Honestly, it looked pretty relaxing, but I just didn’t have the courage to try it, and my girlfriend usually cleans my ears for me
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    As I ventured farther in, I realized there really were loads of places selling food, lining all the little lanes. But most seemed to offer the same few things: bingfen jelly, stinky tofu, and trendy snacks like crispy pork belly. Nothing really wowed me, though maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places. In the end, I ate a bowl of bingfen as I walked, but I honestly thought it wasn’t as good as the bingfen I’d had at hot pot restaurants in Beijing. A little bizarre, really,

and that was my quick, cursory look around Jinli. Just as I was nearing the exit, I spotted a little pond. Taking a closer look, I saw lots of turtles swimming on the surface, which brought back memories of some funny moments at the little pond at school.

    After that brief stroll around Jinli, I drove to one of Chengdu’s internet-famous sights: the wall-climbing panda at IFS. It really was adorable from a distance, and I felt like going over to give it a helping hand, hahaha. As for a close-up look, emmmm… there were too many people, so I didn’t go

. A little farther on was another internet-famous spot, Taikoo Li,

and I thought the atmosphere there was pretty nice. When I arrived, everyone was watching the glasses-free 3D screen, seemingly waiting for something to appear. The people below had cameras with lenses of every size at the ready, afraid they might miss something. After waiting ten minutes or so with nothing happening, I had to give up and go find something good to eat. Food was more tempting anyway, hahaha.

    So I wandered along Chunxi Road, looking for tasty food as I went. Along the way, I spotted a huge frying pot. I figured it weighed around fifty kilos, possibly even more. It was seriously enormous—if you don’t believe me, take a look

. It really was the first time I’d seen a frying pot that big—now I’ve seen something new. And just looking at it, I could tell it was going to be ridiculously spicy. Farther along, I found crispy fried chilies. I ate these quite a lot as a kid, but I’d never had them freshly made and still hot, so I got a portion. They really were great: crunchy, crispy, and so damn good. Then I got to see how they were made, too. I’d never seen an operation quite like that before

    Before long, it was time for a late-night meal, and that absolutely had to be hot pot. Let me sum it up first: the hot pot was seriously spicy, seriously spicy, seriously spicy. Important things bear repeating three times. I couldn’t handle it, but it did taste pretty good—though only at the start. After that, it was basically nothing but heat, and I couldn’t taste anything else, but it was still worth trying

    One last thing that pleasantly surprised me was that every so often along the street, I’d come across a self-service spot selling sweet drinks. That’s really nice for anyone with a bit of social anxiety. They tasted good, too, and were very affordable.