Xi'an to Chengdu

Today we're doing nothing except a 4 hour bullet train ride to Chengdu.  As usual I'll try and take a few photos from the train if I've got a window seat.  As before the station was more like an airport and very busy.

Funnily enough though the platforms always seem to be incredibly quiet.

Leaving Xi'an

And I thought we had a lot of polytunnels in Kent.

Before long the scenery changed and was quite beautiful for a short while.

They're not good photos, reflections/dirty windows etc and neither are they particularly interesting so I'm going to lump a few together just so we have a record of the journey.

Every so often we'd approach another city.

And then back to rural scenes.

Approaching Chengdu.  Prior to this holiday I'd never heard of the place but it turns out to be the 4th most populous city in China with 21m+ inhabitants and I guess they need to live somewhere.

This sign at the railway station appealed to my infantile sense of humour.

The area around our hotel was quite attractive especially with the Jaracanda mimosifolia trees in full flower.

It was only mid afternoon when we arrived at the hotel so we checked with Raymond and our new guide Rebecca (very sweet, looks like a panda herself) where we might find some wine and set off to a nearby department store.  The entrance we used was from a walkway above the road and we arrived in the middle of the ladies clothing dept of a John Lewis type shop.  At the doorway was a police riot kit and presumably somewhere a sign saying "in case of emergency, break glass).

We were doubtful we'd find anywhere selling wine but sure enough in the basement was a tiny convenience store and not only did it sell wine, but Chilean and at a reasonable price.  We bought a couple of bottles and having tried one back at the room to make sure it was drinkable we then went back and stocked up for the forthcoming cruise.  We bumped into several other couples from the group and pointed them in the direction of the store but explained that unfortunately there was none of the cheaper white wine left.

We very much enjoy the company of Steve and Tony and they us; we have a similar sense of humour, so we decided to head out after dinner and explore Chengdu which looks a rather nice place.  We had a good wander around some of the smarter shopping areas, then to an old district and finally found ourselves alongside the river which was beautifully lit up.  By now it was about 20:30 and we all rather fancied a beer but all the cafes we could see appeared to serve just tea (as I mentioned earlier, generally the Chinese aren't big drinkers).  In a quiet street we passed one with a nice terrace and just a few locals sitting around so I decided to see if they by chance served alcohol.  The young waiter spoke hardly any English but did recognise the word beer so all we had to do was then explain we wanted it ice cold (Raymond had already told us that they tend to drink it a room temperature - yuk!) but we made ourselves understood and were ushered to comfy seats whilst the waiter disappeared into the night.  He returned a few minutes later waiving 4 bottles triumphantly in the air - delicious.

A lovely evening and the only downside was I hadn't taken my camera with me so we're going to have to retrace our steps tomorrow for some pictures.