After our visit to Beijing, T and I decided to go to Chengdu, in Sichuan. The main reason for going to Chengdu was the pandas, though we also wanted to try out Sichuan food. The world’s largest panda breeding research center is outside Chengdu, and I figured that when in China, see pandas. Sichuan food is renowned for being both spicy and delicious, so we figured we had a win-win situation.

Mara had told us that Chengdu was one of her favorite cities in China and her Taiwanese friend agreed. He told us we should be spending far more than 3 nights there…we should consider three months! Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. As a city, Chengdu seemed rather small—which it is, at 4 million. Small = quiet and fairly relaxed, which we liked.

We were staying at a guesthouse Mara recommended, which she sold me on by telling me there was a golden retriever. When we checked in, I heard a dog barking and the girl behind the desk, who always spoke in a VERY EXCITED VOICE told me, “NO DOG HERE! DOG NEXT DOOR!” When I looked sad, she said “WE HAVE GOLDEN RETRIEVER!” And my heart leaped, only to have her follow it up with “GOLDEN RETRIEVER NOT HERE! TOO COLD HERE FOR DOG!” Um, where does the dog go in winter? Miami?

Our guesthouse was also notable because it had a bathroom inside the room. And for all of you who think, “Duh, the bathroom is always inside the room,” let me clarify: the bathroom was separated from the bedroom by half a glass wall. This meant that not only could we hear everything the other one was doing in the bath, we could almost see it. Worst of all, the shower was a typical Asian-style shower that just poured onto the floor, which meant the water just sat on the ground, which meant the room smelt of mushrooms ALL THE TIME.

These things were not unforgivable, however. The staff was entertaining, including the VERY EXCITED GIRL at the front desk who informed us that they had FREE INTERNET! SUPER AWESOME DEAL! which it would have been, had the internet actually worked.

We spent most of our days wandering around town, trying to find restaurants with English menus, which was virtually impossible, and going to parks to spy on the Chinese Park Phenomenon. The great news was that people in Chengdu were even friendlier than in Beijing, and they would always greet us with a beautiful smile when we managed to choke out our Chinese hellos. I loved the people in Chengdu.

We were also far more of an oddity in Chengdu than in Beijing. Lots of the people there stared at us as though they had never seen white people before. I suppose this is understandable, since the people in the city spoke way less English than in the other cities we’ve visited in China, and they probably get way fewer tourists.

The one thing people couldn’t get over was the fact that we don’t speak Chinese. Again, this is somewhat understandable. After all, what kind of a dumbass would go on vacation to a country where they don’t even speak the language? People either gave us a kind of “Uh, ok” look when we said we didn’t speak it, or they just laughed in our faces.

Case in point: the nighttime front desk girl at the hostel. One night, we went to her and said we wanted Sichuan food. She nodded, understanding. Then T said we wanted Sichuan food with an English menu. She looked at him as if he was dancing around naked, shouting “I am the king of the ginger people!” and then she cracked up. It took her a few minutes to recover from our hilarious joke. “A Sichuan restaurant with an English menu!,” she finally managed to gasp, and then she stopped laughing and severely shook her head no. OK then.

The language barrier was our biggest problem in Chengdu, and it got a little exhausting after a while. We ended up giving up on local food one day, and ate at McDonald’s again, where a table of three little kids sat behind us, staring and giggling and daring each other to say something. When I smiled at the little boy, he got up from the table and literally ran away. RUN FROM THE GIANT WHITE WOMAN! WITH THIGHS LIKE THAT, SHE WILL SURELY EAT YOU! When we left at the end of the meal, they all smiled beautifically at us and chimed out HELLO! Apparently, were way less scary when were leaving.

Despite the fact that our Chinese sucked, people were remarkably kind and patient with us and never lost their temper, which I found amazing, since I was even pissing myself off with our inferior language skills.

The best discovery we made in Chengdu was the teahouse. Sichuan is apparently known for its teahouses, in which old men and boys spend hours playing cards or mah jong and drinking tea. There was one outside our hostel that we decided to try on the second day. We chose it because of its proximity to the hostel, the fact that there were already two Westerners there, and because they had an enormous and gorgeous German Shepherd (apparently, the dog next door).

Teahouses are just about the best invention ever. For $1, you can sit around and watch the life going by, as you drink unlimited tea. You can sit there all day if you want, FOR ONE DOLLAR. You order your tea, and they bring it to you in a little cup, alongside a giant thermos of hot water which you use to refill the cup as you wish.

We went every day and watched the life on our little alleyway. There is a lot of renovation going on to bring the street back to its former glory, so there were always workmen walking past and there were the card players and the other people walking by and, of course, the dog.

I’m pretty sure that dog was the smartest one I have ever seen. At about 5pm every day, they would start setting up for the barbeque outside, bringing out tents and cooking equipment. The dog would go nuts and would immediately leap up from his sleep and run around, barking. He would try to bite the legs of the tents to try to help, and would run circles around the guys setting up. When it was all done, he would sink back into the ground and relax. Man, I loved that dog.