The Travel Bug: Sichuan, Chengdu's Culture

Over the course of our stay in Chengdu, we were lucky enough to catch some of the arts performances, mostly during our dinners.

Sichuan Opera is famous for its Bian Lian ("face changing") where the performers changes their masks with such speed and dexterity, that it was really impossible to see how they did it regardless of how closely you looked. Two thumbs up for this, they were seriously good!

Hand shadow was also something that was very unique and well done. Amazing how it was just one person using her hands and body with few if any props.

If you think its difficult enough to pour tea from a normal tea pot without spilling, try imagine using these special pots with extra long spouts!

Wuxia or martial arts is a very unique part of Chinese culture (who hasn't watched and loved Jin Yong??!!) and these youths gave us a brilliant performance, demonstrating the different types of weapons that they trained with and how they spar.

Look how high they can jump!

You don't really need to understand much Chinese to enjoy this little mime/skit that is quite famous and had the audience in stitches and rolling with laughter

Dances are of course not to be left out when it comes to talking about arts and culture.

See the headdress on these ladies? Balancing with it and not poking out your neighbours' eye is no mean feat!

This one had a fish-related story behind it, but sadly I was too distracted to remember it.

Last but not least, there's always the dragon dance!

The Travel Bug: Sichuan, Chengdu, Jin Li Jie

Was in Chengdu recently for business, but because the hotel was a good 40min away from town, only had time on the first day when we arrived to look-see. The hotel concierge suggested that we head to Jin Li Jie (Jin Li Street) which is an area with narrow ancient streets and traditional buildings.

Everything about it screamed "tourist trap" to us, but we still decided to be good natured about it since it was already late afternoon, and we could grab dinner there as well.

The area itself is not very large, taking at most 15min to complete if you speed walk. We obviously took much longer, pausing to enjoy the stores selling a variety of traditional goods lining the streets.

A few traditional craftsmen were plying their trade, including this guy which created beautiful animal figures out of an edible sweet.

You could stop at the teahouses along the way, and try their noodles (warning: extremely hot with lots of chili oil!!)...

... or try the more interesting grilled meats along a Xiao Chi Jie ("Little eats street"). There thankfully wasn't anything as exciting as what I showed in my post on Beijing, but Sichuan food is either 1) VERY VERY spicy, or 2) VERY VERY oily, or worse of all 3) BOTH!

There were some really pretty areas to walk around, this path led up to a museum of sorts where you could view some historical relics.

You could also purchase one of the red hanging items, and hang it up to make a wish (quite like the Japanese?). If you wanted, you could also dress up in the traditional Chinese costumes and take a photo under it.

The place gets much more exciting at night when the lanterns are lit up. There are lots of restaurants for you to choose from as well, most feature some kind of traditional performance during the dinner as well. (more on that in the next post!)

My top 10 visited websites

In order of frequency...

#10 Internet Banking 2
#9 Internet Banking 1
#8 http://www.blogger.com/ (from home lah!)
#7 http://www.capitaliq.com/ (log in both from work and at home so at least twice a day)
#6 http://www.gmail.com/ (less often cos I use BB to check)
#5 http://www.singaporeair.com/ (both for work and pleasure)
#4 http://www.asiaone.com/ (start up page at work)
#3 http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/ (no choice, for work!)
#2 http://www.google.com/ (start up page at home + via the toolbar)
#1 http://www.facebook.com/ (how else to destress?)

I wonder... what can you conclude about me from the above list???

What happened in Jan to Apr

Trips made: 8
Flights taken: 20
Hours spent in the air: >150
Foreign countries visited: 5
Foreign cities: 12
Days out of the country: about 50 (of about 120!)

and more to come...!