Smith Family Home

            Our first evening in town, we booked tickets to a local Sichuan Opera/cultural variety show and then used the time before departing to explore the famous Wenshu Temple, a five minute walk away from Sim’s. It’s still an operational monastery and visited regularly by active worshippers. The buildings are all in good condition and the shady gardens provide some minor relief from the heat of the sun. After an hour here, we went back to Sim’s and caught the free shuttle van to the opera show. The show is a great way to spend an evening in Chengdu. We saw acrobats, puppet masters, traditional dancers, musicians, and, our favorites, the mask changing performers who could change their masks from one color to another in the blink of an eye. We made it back to our rooms by 11:00 and slept well. 

            Chengdu is famous for its pandas. I wasn’t too keen on going to see them, but Sabrina begged and soon had Michelle and Steven voting to go see them, too. The National Panda Breeding Research Center opens its doors at 7:30 AM and we were there just as the ticket office opened. A worker walking to his office joined us and gave us tips about what to see first and provided an impromptu tour of the site. Pandas are most active in the mornings and the timing of our arrival coincided with the beginning of their morning feeding. The best thing about being there so early was that we had the place almost to ourselves. We saw the hairless, pink newborn cubs just weeks old in their incubators and then made our way over to the enclosure where the one year old pandas lived. These pandas were hilarious as they played in the cooler morning air. They wrestled with each other, climbed on their playground equipment and waiting expectantly for the workers to bring out their bamboo shoot breakfast. One panda especially seemed to be mugging for our pictures as he played on a kids rocking toy and then sat in his tire while he ate his food. I’m really glad I was talked into going to see them—definitely worthwhile.
             After a couple of hours here, we made our way to Zhaojue Temple—famous for its gardens and architecture which served as models for other Buddhist temples in Japan and SE Asia. This wasn’t just another generic Buddhist temple as I’ve written about previously. The buildings here are pretty unique and the gardens well worth a visit. Steven and Sabrina were reluctant about walking more in the suffocating heat so Michelle and I left them in the shade of the front courtyard with ice-cold Sprites in hand while we walked through the rest of the temple together. When we were done, we took a cab back to the guesthouse for lunch and a little break. It was here that I was passed counterfeit currency for the first time by a cab driver. I paid the 30 RMB fare with a 100 RMB note and the change included a fake 50 RMB note which I didn’t catch until later. We’d heard from other people that some cities are notoriously bad for the counterfeit money problem, but we hadn’t ever experienced it in Shanghai. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the receipt for the cab ride which would have allowed me to track him down and turn him in. Lesson learned though and now I more carefully inspect all of the 50 RMB notes I get—even here in Shanghai. That afternoon, Michelle, Sabrina and I went and toured the Taoist Green Ram Temple while Steven rested in the hotel room, because he wasn’t feeling well. When we got back, we finished up some laundry, had dinner, and went to bed early because we would be leaving for the bus station at 6:00 AM to catch our ride to Songpan.

     Songpan was one of the highlights of the whole trip, but it was sure hard getting there. We arrived at the Chengdu bus station by 0640 to catch our 0700 bus. When we booked our tickets we had asked for the nicest, most comfortable express bus possible and were assured that the bus we were on would meet our needs. Unfortunately, the bus we boarded that morning had definitely seen better days—about twenty years ago. Later, we even found there were holes in the floor through which water could splash in and which ended up soaking one of Michelle’s backpacks and damaging some souvenir paintings she had picked up in Lijiang. None of the passengers already on board were sitting in their assigned seats, but we eventually worked this out and settled down into adjacent seats for what was supposed to be a seven hour ride. We left about thirty minutes later than advertised but in China that's about par for the course so we didn’t mind too much. What we did mind was the fact that as soon as we pulled out of the station parking lot, we immediately stopped and the driver and his assistant took on another fifteen or so black market passengers. As they boarded one at a time, the driver asked where they wanted to be dropped off and then negotiated a price based on the distance with each one. The passengers going all the way to Songpan with us usually negotiated a price which was about half of what we had paid through official channels. To make matters worse, we then spent an hour trolling through Chengdu looking for another passenger who had arranged for pick-up at a specific street address which the driver couldn’t find. After some growling by the rest of the passengers and a few cell phone calls, the driver eventually found the guy and we finally left the city on an expressway and started climbing into the mountains.  

            The highway portion of the journey didn’t last very long, however. The road to Songpan is a two lane affair that quickly ascends into the magnificent Sichuan mountains. In many places, the road consists of steep switch-backs cut into sheer rock to allow vehicles to climb up and over mountains. The scenery is spectacular with deep gorges carved by white-water rivers. We passed about a dozen hydroelectric dams during the drive, some of which created beautiful reservoirs reflecting the majestic mountains surrounding them. But that two lane road was also a problem. The first three hours of the trip was in heavy stop-and-go traffic. If vehicles broke down, there was no place to move them out of the way. As a result, we had to stop half a dozen times for long periods of time. When the driver turned off the engine, passengers would get off the bus to walk around, smoke cigarettes, and try to see what the obstruction was ahead of us. The picture below is one I took of such a stop just as we had exited a really long mountain tunnel. If we had stopped a hundred feet sooner, I would have gone crazy being stuck in that darkness for half an hour. In the end, our seven hour bus ride turned into almost twelve. 

            Songpan is a very Tibetan town of about 70,000 people way up at an elevation of roughly 8,000 feet. Apart from the Tibetan inhabitants, there are a large number of Hui (Muslim), and of course Han Chinese. The town is undergoing a little bit of a renaissance as it becomes more popular. The ancient city walls are being restored and new hotels are going up to accommodate increasing numbers of travelers. We chose to come here for the opportunity to do a horse-riding trek in the mountains. Because it had been raining nearly non-stop for our entire trip, we decided to scrap our original two-day trek plan and just do a one day trek instead. The second day we would use to do some hiking and sight-seeing as weather permitted. We negotiated our trip at Shunjiang Horse Trekking Company and checked into our hotel which was right over the bus station. The room was adequate—we got a six person room for the four of us (everything else was booked) for 200 RMB per night. Emma’s café was a terrific place to eat in Songpan—good food and friendly, laid back atmosphere. After our long day of travel, we went to bed pretty early. 

            The next day, we were out of the hotel room by 0700 to have breakfast and then be at the meeting spot for our horse-trek at 0800. The horses were Tibetan ponies—a little tired looking but very sure-footed and familiar with the ground we were covering. We had three guides for the four of us and we were soon on the horses heading out of town on a very windy trail which led us up into the green mountains. The scenery was magnificent. The weather turned out to be perfect—really blue skies and occasional lazy white clouds. All around us were towering granite mountains with snow-covered peaks. On the smaller mountains nearby, we could see small Tibetan villages clinging to the hillsides thousands of feet above valley floors which had rushing streams tumbling through meadows and agricultural fields. We climbed up and over our mountain into the adjoining valley where we finally reached our destination after a couple hours of riding. It was a picturesque Tibetan village complete with monastery and large stupa. Our guides broke out the food they brought and began cooking lunch while we explored the village and monastery. We had a great time meeting the local chief monk who told us about his monastery and showed us inside their temple. After we ate lunch, it was time to get back on the horses and head back to Songpan. My saddle was little more than carved wood with a canvas cover and by the time we made it back into town I was more than happy to say goodbye to it—my rear end had had enough. I was glad we didn’t do the two-day trek. Michelle and the kids, on the other hand, loved every minute of it and took to the horses like naturals. Michelle, of course, used to train horses and teach riding in college. Sabrina immediately took after her mom and was soon urging everyone to go faster. Steven, after some trouble with his first horse, soon picked up the technique, and was doing well too. My butt hurts just thinking about it again. 

            Day three was our hiking day. We got directions for the trail to the nearby hilltop citadel overlooking the town and spent the morning enjoying the climb to the top. We ate a snack lunch in the ruins at the top looking at the city below. We made our way down using a different trail, which eventually led us to another temple and some homes perched above the walled part of the city. We spent a couple of hours exploring the city until dusk.  When we returned to the hotel, we were greeted by a funny sight. Before leaving that morning, we had given the hotel our dirty laundry to clean for us while we were hiking. When we got back, every piece of furniture in the lobby was draped with our freshly scrubbed clothing! Because the rain had started again in the afternoon, they took it off the rooftop clothes lines and put it all on display in the lobby. Thank goodness we didn’t give them our underwear! Very practical method, I guess, but still somewhat unnerving to have all the guests quite literally walking by our “dirty laundry.”

     Once again, our bus adventures continued on the way to Jiuzhaigou. Our bus driver and his assistant must be pretty wealthy guys because they were picking up people everywhere and the cash was going straight into their pockets. The biggest time delay was caused by our bus breaking down twice and having to pull over for repairs—with a hammer, no less—both times. The second stop wasn’t so bad because the scenery was great, so we got off the bus and walked around to stretch our legs. Somebody discovered that wild strawberries were growing all over the place, and soon Steven and Sabrina came back with handfuls which they happily ate while waiting for repairs to be completed. In the end, our two-hour drive doubled to almost four hours. Ah yes. Buses in China—always an adventure. After checking in to the hotel, we walked down the road a mile or so to the park entrance and spent a couple of hours at the visitor’s center to get more information on how to plan the next two days. After that, we perused some of the local souvenir shops and found a restaurant for dinner. 

            Jiuzhaigou—the name means ‘Nine Village Valley’—is billed as a national treasure in China and it more than lives up to its name. I had never heard of the place before coming to China, but BSM (OSC 2003, Shanghai) wrote about it in their Olmsted reports and highly recommended it as a must see. Our whole family now heartily concurs. Jiuzhaigou is situated in the far north of Sichuan Province in the middle of a stunning mountain range. The area’s inhabitants are predominantly Tibetan and this is reflected in the architecture, clothing, and local dialect. As far as what it looks like; imagine Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Tetons all wrapped up into one place and you’ll start to get an idea. The rivers and lakes in Jiuzhaigou are stunningly clear and have the most amazing colors as you can see from the pictures below. The mirror-like reflections of the mountains in the lake surfaces are also superb. Maybe best of all was the crisp air. After living in Eastern China for the last 18 months, there was some shock to our systems as our lungs took in beautiful fresh mountain air. 

            Jiuzhaigou valley is roughly shaped like a ‘Y’ and we planned to spend the first day visiting the more densely clustered sites on the upper right branch of the valley. We had been fortunate to meet a nice cab driver on day one who was very helpful in giving us tips on how to see the park and what to do in the area. He gave us his card and said we could call him twenty minutes in advance of leaving and he would pick us up and take us wherever we needed to go for the metered rate. We arranged for him to meet us at 0640 the next morning in front of the hotel to take us to the front gate. Sure enough—he was there waiting for us. We arrived at the ticket office five minutes before seven and were rewarded by being first in line to buy our park passes. Tickets are super pricey—we paid 880 RMB for the passes to get in (good for two days) and another 550 RMB (total cost for two days) to ride the LPG-fueled buses inside the park. No private cars allowed inside. The cost is worth it though—the park is immaculately cared for and the facilities inside are very well maintained. We caught the first bus out in the morning and rode it up to the end of the trail where we began the day’s exploration. 

             Without planning to, we spent the next 10 hours walking everywhere—probably a total of 8 miles by the time we left at 5 PM. The park has designated walkways and visitors are not allowed to leave them and hike through the forest alone. Nor is any camping allowed within the park. As a testament to how beautiful it was and how many cool things there were to see, the kids didn’t complain once about being tired—something nearly unprecedented in Smith Family history. The lakes in the valley are all connected via streams and descend via a series of spectacular waterfalls at points along the trail. There were three or four locations where there was no clear water channel and the entire floor of the forest was one wide shallow river with tree islands rising from the water everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it before. The picture opportunities were fantastic and we were glad we had stocked up on camera memory cards before the trip. Michelle snapped one of the coolest pictures I’ve ever seen of a moth on a flower—you can see it below. In fact, the hardest part of updating our website this time around has been sorting through the thousands of pictures we took to narrow it down to just a representative few dozen.
            We spent day two just like we spent the first day—same schedule. Because the distances between sites were greater on this left fork of the valley, we did more walking—probably closer to 10 or 12 miles. Once again, the scenery was so beautifully distracting there were no complaints about being tired from anyone. At the end of this day, we just had a KFC dinner at the visitor’s center before heading back to pack for our early departure the next morning. We would be leaving from Jiuhuang Airport, 90 minutes away by taxi. Jiuhuang Airport itself is pretty cool. It’s sits on a plain at almost 11000 feet surrounded by stunning peaks in all directions. Taking off is a real treat because the views of these towering mountains and forests is awesome. It was hard to believe we were already on the way to our last stop of the entire trip—the huge industrial city of Chongqing.

     Chongqing is situated on a long narrow peninsula which ends where the mighty Jialing and Yangtze Rivers come together. Topographically, it is famous for its really steep hills and long staircases everywhere which serve to keep bicycle traffic to a minimum. The tumble of buildings stacked on top of each other from the banks of the rivers to the highest hills is a unique sight. Chongqing is one of China’s major population centers (with provincial level status) and a new industrial powerhouse. If Shanghai is the gateway for commerce at the mouth of the Yangtze, Chongqing is the main source for all of the goods being exported through Shanghai around the world. The city itself is rather beautiful, but unfortunately the air and water quality have suffered as a result of its industrialization and the thick gray haze during the day detracts from its attractiveness. Nevertheless, the city has a real energy to it and the people are working hard to make up for lost time. New buildings, roads, and factories are springing up everywhere. 

            We learned upon arrival that the local government is implementing some measures to help fight the pollution in the city. All taxis in Chongqing are fueled with LPG—the big gas canisters are located in the trunks of every cab in town. While this is certainly good, it also means there is zero room in the boot for any extra luggage. As a result, we had to split up into two separate cabs and coordinate our directions to the hotel via cell phone. The hotel was located about a block away from the central business district around the Liberation Memorial monument. It was a perfect place from which to see the city. Many of the famous places were close enough so that we could walk there which was very convenient. 

            After checking in, we hit the streets and visited the pedestrian walking area around the Liberation Memorial and then made our way over to the nearby Arhat Temple. It’s a thousand years old and the age and style of its architecture contrasts sharply with the gleaming new skyscrapers surrounding it on all sides. Next we made our way to the Jialing River Cable Car ride and paid fifty cents each to ride across the river and catch the panoramic views of the city from high above the turbulent water. Once we crossed back to the peninsula, we inadvertently spent some time weaving our way through the city’s maze of steep stairways and narrow alleys in an attempt to navigate our way to the Chaotianmen docks. The dock area is bustling with people of all kinds. Porters and stevedores work to load the big river boats which ply the river between Chongqing and the cities further down stream. Tourists come to catch one of the many sightseeing boats for the trip through the diminished, but still magnificent, Three Gorges on the way to the city of Yichang. The tip of the peninsula is an area of huge stairs descending into the water. People come here to fish with nets in the swirling muddy river or just dip their feet to cool off and relax for a while with family and friends. We bought tickets for an evening dinner cruise to see the city’s lights at night. The city at night becomes a grand neon garden. After some initial dissatisfaction with the “four star” cruise boat’s service, we were quickly mollified when the owner upgraded us to the boat’s private suite with bow-view balcony. The story of how all this happened is pretty funny, but too long to post here. We finally made it back to the hotel at about 11 PM and quickly sank into a nice sleep following a very full day of travel and walking. 

            The majority of our second day was devoted to WWII history. Chongqing was the wartime capital for several years after the Japanese invaders overran Nanjing and forced the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek to flee here. As such, there are plenty of interesting historical sights worth visiting. After a couple of hours in Ciqikou Ancient Town and a visit to Baolun Temple, we made our way to Red Cliff Village. This was the headquarters of the CCP during the United Front period in WWII. Zhou Enlai led the delegation of CCP officials who lived and worked here seeking to cooperate with the KMT government in fighting the Japanese. In the heat and humidity, climbing the huge stairs to the museum was a very sweaty affair. While the kids weren’t very interested in what we saw, I thought it was terrific. We followed up with a visit to the wartime headquarters of one of my personal favorite historical figures—Gen Joseph ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell—commander of US forces in the China/Burma/India Theater of WWII. A must-read for students of Sino-American relations is the biographical “Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945” by Barbara Tuchman. It’s the single most interesting portrayal of this pivotal period of relations between the two countries. Seeing the home where Stilwell worked and lived was a thrill. The exhibit signs are refreshingly positive about the US here. Just across the street is another worthwhile site: the Flying Tigers Museum. It sports a collection of interesting photos from this famous flying unit and is also very positive in its recounting of this period of Sino-American history. After these visits, we made our way back into town, stopping off at an internet café to catch up on e-mail before heading to our final dinner of the trip—at Pizza Hut no less. That evening, Steven and I got haircuts while Michelle and Sabrina did some more souvenir shopping.
          Our flight back to Shanghai didn’t leave until the next evening. We spent a leisurely morning walking around Pipa Mountain Park where we watched the groups of elderly Chinese doing their morning Tai-chi exercises, while others played badminton or practiced classical Chinese opera. We walked through the pedestrian area one last time in the afternoon and then boarded the car we hired to take us to the airport. We arrived in Shanghai that evening with a tremendous feeling of relief and satisfaction. Three weeks of non-stop travel with the kids through seven cities and three provinces was a pretty significant feat. It was great to be home, sleep in our own beds and shower in our own bathrooms. The trip was outstanding. We saw a huge cross-section of China that most foreigners never get to see. We fell in love with the kind people and magnificent scenery in Yunnan and Sichuan.