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I touched down in Chendu for which the literal English translation is perfect metropolis. ‘Perfect’ though is obviously from a Chinese point of view. It is basically the same as any Chinese city….. characterless sprawling grid of freeways, buildings put up in haste. China is embracing the western life while remaining a communist state which basically means it’s ‘out with the old in with the new’ on a scale you just cannot imagine. It’s hard to put a date on but I would say nothing in these cities is over 20 years old whatever was there before has been demolished and replaced by this formulated urban sprawl.

Little Trouble in Big China

Stucros
2006-01-13 18:46:19

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I touched down in Chendu for which the literal English translation is perfect metropolis. ‘Perfect’ though is obviously from a Chinese point of view. It is basically the same as any Chinese city….. characterless sprawling grid of freeways, buildings put up in haste. China is embracing the western life while remaining a communist state which basically means it’s ‘out with the old in with the new’ on a scale you just cannot imagine. It’s hard to put a date on but I would say nothing in these cities is over 20 years old whatever was there before has been demolished and replaced by this formulated urban sprawl.

Chendu however was a great city to first walk amongst the Chinese. The walk to my hostel (a story in itself) from the airport bus was a barrage of hellos and ‘mi hao’ I even had a few people taking pictures??? As I was only just beginning to understand for Chinese people I’m a complete alien. They gawk at my height, laugh at my big feet, gaze at my mirrored sunnies, envy my white skin, pinch the hairs on my arms, marvel at my technology and look on in amazement as I carry a backpack

A reason to learn manderin
almost the size of them. This would probably be true of any country is SE Asia had they not had an influx of westerners in the last few decades (it’s not that china doesn’t have westerners but with 1.2billion people there’s still a lot of people to surprise). So I tourist have somehow become the attraction?????

The loney planet has Chendu down as a 'party town' feeling very confident and enjoying my new found status as a Lowey (foreigner) I decided to party. The LP didn’t list any particular bar but the receptionist at the hostel suggested an area of bars. Taking a map in hand i decided to try and navigate to the bar area on foot but this is a surprisingly big city for 4 million people and basically every street is at least dual carriage way only half of which are ...