the alley from the other day is a reconstruction of old chinese styled buildings, but i visited a real ancient town today on the outskirts of chengdu. there were preserved old blacksmith shops, pawn shops, temples, etc. and a lot of traditional styled food.
with my cousin
the whole bowl is one single strand of noodle. i thought the single strand thing is just something to attract people’s attention, but it tasted surprisingly good. the noodle was super chewy and the soup was yummy. they sell just two kinds of noodles, hot and cold. this restaurant claims that this style of noodle making is nearly extinct and they’re the only place in town that sells them. i think it’s worth a try compared to the other stuff around.
pipa, a popular fruit in the area. bought some but haven’t tried them yet.
i went to the chengdu panda base yesterday. the pandas don’t look as white in real life as they do in photos, but they’re still so furry and cute.
the best time to view pandas is in the morning before 8am. they’re lazy animals, by the time we got there around 12pm a lot of them are sleeping or just lying around. baby pandas are the cutest, too bad the nursery was closed yesterday )= we were lucky to catch a few pandas still awake. every move they make is so adorable cause they’re all so furry and chubby. they also eat bamboos super fast, they would chew on the stick to get the inner fresh parts and spit out the outer layer immediately.
all the pandas have names too, i tried calling them but they just ignored me D:
there were little red pandas / firefoxes there as well. these guys move so fast, they’re not afraid of people either, i saw them running around everywhere on the walkways.
i really like chengdu. it’s a beautiful and cultured city, the food is amazing, and people here live a really laid-back life. this particular alley is a reconstruction of old chinese style buildings, a lot of specialty shops, cafes and teahouses.
these are jelly-like noodles, a szechuan specialty. there were countless variations of them in the restaurant, these were the four types we tried.
teashops here offer free tea tasting. szechuan is known for a tea produced on its mountain, it tastes lighter than normal, and has a really clear light green colour.