Wednesday, August 23, 2017

China: Day Twelve - Rain Rain Go Away

Chengdu is known for two things: pandas and hot pot. We'd done the panda thing, so after fellowship we did the hot pot thing with Joel and Liz.




As I said, Chengdu is famous for hot pot. All the guests sit around a table with a gas burner sunk into the center. A pot of broth is put on the burner and brought to a rolling boil. You can get red (spicy) or white (not spicy) broth. We got white.





They also bring aprons, hair ties, lens cloths, and protective covers for your phones. That was a hint that things were gonna get messy...




Then plates of meats and vegetables are brought to the table on a cart and are dropped into the pot and left to cook. 




While the food is cooking, you take other ingredients and make a dipping sauce.




For dessert we had pumpkin mochi filled with red bean. I think it was the best thing I ate in China...



It is not only delicious but a true social gathering. 

I love English signs in China... LOL




For second dessert we got bubble tea. I had red bean with actual red beans in it! 



Then we made an unscheduled stop at a tea shop where we sampled several "bamboo" green teas...





Before we went back to the apartment for our debrief we stopped by the corner grocery to pick up a few things to bring home.



This scooter is how we knew we were in the correct stairway... :)


The Cs store their scooter in this underground parking structure...


The apartment complex has a guard at the gate and also has people that live in the parking garage to keep the scooters secure.

Our debrief of our week of teaching was good. It's helpful for beginning to process the trip.

After the debrief, we hopped on the subway to Tianfu Square. The subways were very nice and not the stuffed full of people like I had envisioned, even during rush hour. And the stations are very well lit and clean. There are even "moving pictures" of scenic views from China to watch as we rush by...







The subway went up into a pretty underground mall and then up another set of stairs into the Square.


the view of the mall from the Square


Tianfu Square was very nice: fountains, artwork, statues, building lights and  a lot of people out just enjoying the cooler evening air...





And, as you could see in the video, lightning. We probably shouldn't have been so cavalier about the lightning...

Liz left to spend the night with a friend in the hospital and Joel took us on a field trip to a famous Chengdu shopping alley. As we were walking up from the subway station, we hit a wall of people. It was raining! No, pouring!!! 

We made a run for it and spent as much time as we could in shops waiting for it to let up and doing our walking when it wasn't so bad. There were so many things to see that I think would have been much more fun not soaking wet...








I would have totally loved one of these under different circumstances. But cotton candy and ice pops just didn't sound good right then.  :) 




I'm not sure I'd ever enjoy any of these other things in any weather... LOL

Eventually we went into the Starbucks to try to wait it out.





It was getting later and later and not letting up, so we just made a run back to the subway. Unfortunately, we had waited too long. We could only ride to the next station and we were at least 8 stations (about 2 hours) away from the hotel and it was still pouring.

Taxis wouldn’t stop for us because we were wet. So we started hoofing it back. We went the wrong way a couple of times and got passed by by the taxi Joel called. Then the app wouldn’t let us call another. We bought the last two umbrellas and poncho from a couple by the subway station for our walk.  Thankfully it wasn’t cold and the rain did let up once we started walking. And I was wearing my new bling-y rubber shoes! We walked for about 1 ½ hours before we got to a hospital where there were a ton of taxis dropping off patients at the ER. Just as a woman in labor and her husband got out of a taxi, we jumped it and saved ourselves about 40 minutes of walking. We arrived back at the hotel close to 1am. 




The most frustrating part is that we could have avoided the whole thing if we hadn’t taken our umbrellas back to the hotel room just before we left. Ugh! I’m still waiting for this one to be funny… :) 





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