Day 4 was long and not too exciting. I reserved a taxi the night before, then woke up early to take a relaxing hour long drive through the countryside to Yangshuo Station. It was so bittersweet taking in Yangshuo’s beautiful views one last time before my departure. I thought a lot about the lives of the people of Yangshuo.
At 11 am I boarded a train that would take me all the way from Yangshuo, southern China to Chengdu, in western China. Chengdu is in Sichuan province, which is basically on the border of Tibet and famous for spicy food! After almost 8 hours I arrived in Chengdu, exhausted from doing absolutely nothing all day.
However, I was determined not to waste any time and decided to check out Jin Li street. Now well after sunset, Jin Li Street was lit up with tons of red lanterns. Chinese tourists walked around all the alleys that sell street food and little trinkets, mostly related to pandas because Chengdu is famous for its panda research center. It was fun to walk around, but it didn’t blow me away like Shanghai’s YuYuan Garden. I feel like once you’ve seen one street market in China, you’ve seen most street markets in China. It was still fun to walk around and enjoy the night before checking into my hostel.
My hostel had a great vibe, with jazz music playing in the lobby and foreigners and Chinese together chatting and drinking beers. I reflected for a bit before getting to bed early in preparation for a big day the coming day.
Bryn, your photos r beautiful, I c a photo-journalist whom speaks Chinese working in China.