A visit to Chengdu

Changdu has been on our "to visit" list for quite a while and this past weekend a group of us made the journey to southwestern China and visited this beautiful city.  We had a great time seeing things we had never seen before and enjoying each other’s company. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province
and has over 14,000,000 people and lots to do!

Here are some of the highlights of our visit.

This is the garden at a highway rest stop.  Much more impressive than rest stops at home.

 

These pictures were taken behind the rest stop where there were beautiful terraces of tea plants.  The tea harvestors pick the tea leaves and collect the harvested tea in baskets they wear on their backs.

This giant Buddha is located on the river running through town. The size was immense.

Most of the afternoon was spent traveling through the town and spending time in little shopping areas and walking through a part full of people and lots of activities.

This flower shop almost took your breath away with its colors and variety of plants.

Was he real?  Yup!

Since the panda preserve is located in this city (the next blog) you could shop for panda items to your heart's content.

Several of these pieces of art were photo worthy. So fun!

Not sure which was bigger - the dog or the shoes...

I had no idea that  huskies liked the poodle look.

This town was koi heaven. Paul found many he wanted to buy.

This lovely bouquet was made out of hand blown sugar candy. They really were quite pretty.

There were lots of activities for kids in the park from balloons to artficial walking and jumping.

Writing on the cement with water is often done and it really is beautiful. Here is an example of a "beginner" and a very accomplished artist.

Both of the above ;pictures are very intersesting and quite unsusual to westerners. These signs and posted papers are efforts by parents to "advertise" their children to others who might be interested in marriage. We have no idea how effective it is. But the kids are too busy working and if this is the only way to become a grandma, well they will advertise as necessary.

Everyone is out for a good time and dancing to the loud music was both a favorite activity and spectator sport.

Where's Mom??? (ummm....where is the back of my pants.....)

Typical traffic jam on the way home - this gives gridlock a new meaning.