2016 - China - Chengdu

February, 2016.

We arrived in Chengdu, China on Lunar New Year’s Eve, not entirely sure of how to get to our hostel. We were presented with a few problems:

We were too cheap to cab it to our place, so instead relied on an airport bus that would take us to city center and hop on a bus that would hopefully take us the right way. After 45 minutes of confusion, we found ourselves outside a KFC and a massively shady apartment complex.

KFC and the walking dead. Shot with the Sony A7 and Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/60sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Eventually we found our way into apartment complex through a decrepit staircase and a set of glass doors. The owners undid their bicycle locks for the front door and happily let us in. We settled in for a little bit while playing WeChat translate tag with the owners to figure out what we could do in the city. We decided to cab out to Lan Kwai Fong, which is a popular party district in Chengdu (it’s also a super popular one in Hong Kong as well, but I’m not 100% if theres any correlation). Problem was, we decided not to listen to our AirBNB host, and arrived at a ghost town of a place. So we walked across a bridge into a residential area to find this gem of a restaurant and tasted the finest of what Chengdu had to offer. 

We could read the word pork without issue. Problem was we didn’t know if it was pork belly or pork anus. We decided to just try our luck instead. Shot with the Sony A7 and the Sony 35mm f/2.8, F/2.8, 1/60sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

The next morning, our AirBNB host and their family invited us to make pumpkin dumplings, which was a new year tradition. With neither Andrew or I experiencing this, and also too cheap to buy breakfast, we were inclined to agree. My pumpkin dumplings were subpar at best, but I wasn’t about to show it in front of our hosts who were kind enough to let us take part in their family tradition.

Pumpkin spice latte; Chengdu edition. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, F/2.8, 1/60sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Morning stroll at the complex. Shot on the OnePlus 2 with the Camera FV-5 app. Shot in RAW, edited in Photoshop Mobile and VSCO.

Our morning was pretty uneventful, as we walked around some of the tourist districts, had beer and fried chicken stuffed with cheese for second breakfast and wandered around the city aimlessly for hours trying to just soak it all in.

How Canadians tourist in a foreign place.Shot with the Sony A7 and the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/160sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Apparently the Mexican Wrestler and Poodle mix is the new trend in Chengdu. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, F/5.6, 1/400sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Andrew taking a break in Chengdu. Glute-master 1000. Shot on the OnePlus 2. 

For dinner, we decided to go with the more adventurous route, through the advice of our AirBNB host in broken WeChat translations, we went to a restaurant around the corner that specialized in a version of Chengdu hot pots. Basically you would go to a fridge with a big metal pan, pick out the skewers you wanted to eat, hand it off to one of the servers. They would boil the food and dump it into the fire oil, and you just eat. Best $23 CAD or 110 RMB meal by far.

Round 1

After Round 5

The next morning, we left for Mount Emei which is located in the mountain ranges of Sichuan province. Despite this trip taking an 8 hour roundtrip with us only spending 90 minutes on location, it was definitely a site to behold. However, anyone that reads this should definitely learn from our mistake, and absolutely avoid travelling anywhere touristy during the New Year’s lest you want to be a lemming being shuffled around by the masses. 

On the ascent towards the cable cars. Believe it or not, an hour drive back down felt like 18 degrees celsius from this point. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/250sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

The view from the top. I also always make it a point of touching something that is really old, just to ensure that it’s real. Shot with the Sony A7 with the 10-18mm, f/22, 1/50sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

On overwatch. Shot with the Sony A7 and the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/250sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Back down at base camp, we were trying to figure out how to get ourselves back to Chengdu, because you know, why plan when you can react, right? Thankfully, this girl spoke both English and Cantonese and was able to find us someone that could get us on the bus. We bid adieu and ran for what felt like a kilometer with a stranger while running through a red light and catching the bus with a minute to spare. We paid $15 CAD or 75 RMB each to get on the bus, and we were on our merry way back to Chengdu.

The girl from Chengdu that learned both their Cantonese and English from TV. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, F/4, 1/50sec. Shot on RAW, edited in Lightroom.

On the bus, there was a strange plastic tub that this little girl was kicking around. It had some odd stains in it, and we quickly concluded it was a piss pot. She loved to kick it around; thankfully it was empty.

Nobody knows romance like this sweetheart. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/50sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Back in Chengdu, we messaged our AirBNB host for a classic must have Sichuan hotpot place, and her suggestion definitely did not disappoint. I’ll let the photos speak for the meal itself. 

Me after the first bite. Shot on the OnePlus 2.

Andrew after the first bite. We improvised our sweat rags. Shot on the OnePlus 2.

I couldn’t tell if she took pity on us, or if she was saving the peppercorns for someone that could actually handle it. That was only half the amount that was taken out of our pot. Shot with the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/60sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

On our last day, I met up with a friend I had briefly met at a hostel in NYC, and decided to hang out with him before we left Chengdu. Little did I know, he literally escaped the hospital, with an IV tube in his arm, still nursing his food poisoning, just to see me. I had met this man for all but 3 hours, and he still completely went out of his way to show me some of Chengdu’s finest, including pork knuckle and a sweet flour pastry. Rex, you’re a G.

The GreatRexWong breaking out of the hospital just to see me; IV tube and all. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/3.2, 1/500sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

The first actual Chairman Mao monument I saw in China. According to Rex, the Chengdu dialect was actually in the running to be the national language because of it’s pronunciation. Shot on the Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/6.3, 1/400sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

We said our goodbyes, as he headed back to the hospital with his mother yelling at him on the phone to hurry back, and we headed out to the train station to catch our train out to Chongqing.

Chengdu moods. Shot on Sony A7 with the Sony 35mm f/2.8, f/16, 1/10sec. Shot in RAW, edited in Lightroom.

Next stop, Chongqing.