Our flight for Chengdu was in the morning, so after a 2 hour and 30 minute flight we were in China. We flew via Dragon Air, nice flight, comfortable and first Chinese meal - Sweet and Sour Pork.

Sophie met us at the airport, such a nice greeting to China, as she looked after us on arrival to Hotel but then for the rest of the afternoon, on her own time.  

Hotel very nice, rooms large, modern and 4 Star class it is, free Internet, so have time to blog!

After we dropped our bags off, we were ready to explore, and as mentioned Sophie offered to spend the afternoon with us, she firstly arranged taxi's and we headed for Narrow and Wide Street, which is known as Kuanxiangzi Alley and Zhaixiangzi Alley, these two streets have historical style dwellings from the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty.

Magical place, architecture a treat to see, little side carts along the street, with some arts and crafts but mostly peaceful streets and teahouses.   We did see the well know Chengdu Lacquer Art and we did the tourist quirky thing of the day - spinning a wheel to choose what toffee stick we'd get to try, mine was a crab and Cherie's an apple.

Sophie was excited about taking us to a local restaurant for the famous Sichuan Hot Pot, we all were a little nervous but then don't know why as the food was fantastic, fresh meat (with no fat) and vegetables, that you put into different type soups that sit in the middle of the table, the meat is so tender, and flavoursome. Sophie went through the menu and made suggestions, she chose a mild both and a bit warmer - perfect!     The restaurant is so well known by locals, we had to go to the third floor because of bookings - unique place - decoration of restaurant was special too.

Before we arrived at the restaurant we walked from the Dynasty Streets to where the restaurant was, with it getting dark, we arrived at the Qintai Old Path, which is made up of buildings either side of the Han and Tang Dynasties, you should have seen this street, the lights and the charm, mostly an avenue of restaurants - Chengdu's Champs Elysees!  

After dinner Sophie took us to an Open Air Tea Garden on the same street, to see the Sichaun Opera - again thinking "opera", mmmm, well let's give it a go, not real sure about "opera", the show was wonderful - it went for an hour and half. Before the show you could watch the entertainers do their makeup and head dress, it was brillant to be able to see how it all starts before they end up all heavily painted.   The show was not Opera!   It was dance, song, then hand shadow puppets which was amazing, with humour (Sophie said when she was a child she always enjoyed), there was the changing of the face masks and clothes, which I still don't know how they did it..........illusion most likely, then there was the stick puppets that also had humour thrown in, it was done very well considering no English is spoken.

Today was a fantastic start to our holiday!   What else did we learn.

1. Chengdu means 3 rivers, as it has three running into it, it also has mountains surrounding, so it sits in a valley.   It can be known as the gloomy city due to the weather, often misty and dull.
2. In saying that the people are known to be more lay back than those in Bejing and Shangri-la because alot of older people live here to get away from larger cities, it's known for it's longevity - oldest about 135, Chengdu has 1 million people living here, although the older people live here, it's a very modern and young city, the mix is good.

3. Chengdu prefers to be known for it's 3 famous things rather than the rivers, 1. Green Tea, 2. Sichaun Hot Pot and 3. The Spicy Ladies.

As you, when I read spicy ladies I got the wrong impression. Chengdu is known to have alot of young career women, the husbands are the homey ones, more so than the ladies, they cook, clean, if you see the men with their ladies in the malls etc, you will often pick them by seeing them carry their wives handbags.    The men are known to be very caring and supportive. And yes, it's true we saw quite a few.