Chengdu

Chengdu, Sichuan.  Nicholas, Anthony and I ditched Cindy, Em and Conner in Beijing to head to Chengdu, home of the Giant Panda Base and Sichuan hot pot.  The hot pot nearly burned my bloody tongue off!

The Flag in Chengdu

 

Chengdu is a great city.  Much cleaner and a hell of a lot more organized than Wuhan.  The city was easy to navigate, and the weather was good.

At the Giant Panda Base, we saw a lot of pandas (obviously) and also many peacocks, which are annoying little buggers.  I heard a story that one time a panda got fed up with a peacock and chased it down.  Once caught, the panda took off the peacock's head.  As adorable as the pandas were, I always had to remind myself that these bears could probably smack a human around like it was a plastic straw.

Not as well-known as their giant panda buddies, these "red pandas" were nonetheless cute as hell.  They were pretty lazy. Most of them were sleeping in a tree the whole time.

I was really impressed by the Giant Panda Base.  I was expecting really ragtag treatment of animals, but I was happy to see that the pandas get taken care of very well and have plenty of room.  Most of the time they just sit together eating or wrestle with each other.  They don't really utilize all the room they're given, but at least it was given to them.

The Flag at the Giant Panda Base

At a Buddhist temple

At Du Fu`s Cottage

Garden at Du Fu's Cottage

After the Panda Base, we went to the cottage of the famous Chinese poet Du Fu, a good friend of the Romantic poet Li Bai.  All I know of these two guys is that they both shared a really close friendship (perhaps somewhat like Wordsworth and Coleridge in Britain), and that Li Bai really liked the fire water.

We ended our 2 day adventure in Chengdu at a Tex-Mex restaurant near Sichuan University. It was one of the best non-Chinese meals I have had in Asia.

Kung Fu Fighting and the English Arts Festival

Today some of my colleagues and I went to Kung Fu lessons.  My instructor Carol kicked the crap out of us...as usual.  By the end of the lesson, my left arm was ready to fall off.  I've been having some muscular pain in my shoulder as of late.  Probably just a minor rotater cuff injury.

After Kung Fu, I went to my school's English Arts Festival.  The kids and volunteer teachers put in a lot of care and work into the production of this year's play The Jungle Book.  I was really impressed, especially with the shadow puppet show the art teacher spearheaded.  My role this year was helping with the speech competition.  Out of the 40 students that competed for the speech cup, a grade 9 girl came out on top. When I saw her speak at the finale earlier today, I was so proud of her.  Her English was better than some of my grade 11 and 12's. She used many techniques outlined in my Toastmasters CC manual...without any formal training. Wow.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

More Beijing Pictures

"Men at Work"

The Flag at the Imperial Throne Room

Silly Forbidden City Antics

"You're not a real man if you haven't climbed the Great Wall" - Mao Zedong

Anthony basking in his Great Wall manliness

Cindy and Myself becoming manlier!

THIS IS CHINA!!!!

Great Wall After Shot

Roller Coaster Slide!!!  Definitely the best way down the Wall.

Kerosene...I mean baijiu.

Beijing Breakfast Crepe

Head-bopping calligrapher

Jenga!!!

Final evening in a chill hutong bar - cards, Jenga, Leffe Blond, and Paulaner Oktoberfest

Capitals Deux

In the Land of the Rising Sun...Kyoto.

I liked this place, wherever it was. Had a quiet, minimalist, and calming Japanese moment at this spot. Crisp, cold air and no one around. A perfect place to do some iaido.

In the Gion Alleyways

Graveyard East of Gion

In the Middle Kingdom...Beijing.

Tienanmen Square

Yea!!!  Beijing Kaoya!!!

Forbidden City

Practicing my Johnny Cage moves.

The Train Crew, Anthony, Lemmy, and the Flag

The Flag 1

The Flag at 798

The Flag at the Forbidden City

The Flag at the Temple of Heaven

Capitals

It's been too long since my last post on here.  Since my last post, I've had a spring break vacation.  My colleagues Nicolas, Erin Marie and Cindy met up with some Vancouver visitors to the Middle Kingdom- Em's brother Conner and my buddy Anthony.  We mucked stuff up around the capital city of Beijing! Unfortunately, my girlfriend Cathy didn't come with us on our adventures, but we had fun regardless.

Nicolas, Cindy and I went to Beijing via overnight rail.  We got to our cheap hotel near Zhangzizhong Lu at around 9 AM.  The area's a great strategic location to stay if you're in Beijing.  It's near many hutongs and is easily accessed by the subway.

Beijing Railway Station

At the Summer Palace

 

We met up with Erin Marie and her brother Conner at the Summer Palace soon after.  It was a really nice day, but holy cow was it busy.  China was celebrating May Day and Beijingren came out of the woodwork.

At the Summer Palace: Cindy, Em, me, and Conner

Me and Fox

Cindy and I

That evening, Cindy, Nicolas and I had a cheap dinner and picked up my buddy Anthony from the subway station.

The next morning, we went to the 798 Art District.  Very very cool place.

As you can see, Nick and I learn from our students well.

798 Art District

Train crew!

DPRK Art!  Whatah?!?!

The Beijing Crowd.  From the left: Nick, Anthony, Cindy, Em, and Conner.

 Kyoto                                                                                      


Meanwhile...back in February... from traveling in a group to flying solo...

Kyoto. The ancient and cultural capital of Japan. Donning my MacArthur aviators to make a point.

A garden near the Kinkaku-ji.  Kyoto is a very very beautiful city.

I splurged in Kyoto.  Stayed in a very clean and homely ryokan.

Afternoon cha

Evening strut around Gion