Welcome (back) to China...

We woke this morning feeling pretty good despite the long travel day yesterday and the late night arrival last night...perhaps the Ambien helped.

We got ready for the day and headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It is always fascinating to see the breakfast buffets in China...it reminds us that there are a lot of differences between our cultures, and they start at the breakfast table! Really?! They eat that for breakfast?!

We find some raisin bran, hard boiled egg, the Chinese version of bacon, and coffee...that's enough to get us started. Surprisingly, the staff at this hotel do not do that well with English, even though they get a fair amount of American and other tourists...

After we finish breakfast we head out to do a little walking around the local area. The sun is out, though it is a little hazy, and it is already getting warm and humid. The hotel is located on the main north-south boulevard through Chengdu, the Avenue of the People.

We're in luck, the world meeting of puppeteers is in town...Patty just had to celebrate by getting her picture next to their sign...

As we walk north, we begin to recall what we didn't enjoy about China the last time...first, there's the traffic. Apparently, when your country has 2 billion residents, traffic is used as a form of population control...crosswalks mean nothing, and pedestrians are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to travel.

Then, there are the Chinese pedestrians who do not give an inch as they walk down the sidewalk, but neither do the scooters that for some reason decide to drive down the sidewalk and honk at the pedestrians. We see many more bicycles here in Chengdu than we did in other Chinese cities we visited, and a lot of scooters that are used for anything from simple transportation of an individual to a delivery vehicle stacked high with boxes.

Finally, there is the haze. Now, in some places the locals acknowledge that the smog builds up and makes the air hazy. Here in Chengdu, they blame the mountains that ring the city for making it "foggy" but otherwise they claim that it is a very clean city. We still believe that this is man-made, not climatological...fog doesn't smell like someone is welding...

Speaking of welding, this mass of steel beams appears to be a future museum...It reminds us of the Birds Nest stadium in Beijing...

The new museum is across the street from Tianfu Square, also known as the People's Park. This square sits fight in front of the Museum of Science and Technology as well as a couple of government buildings. And watching over it all is The Chairman...Mr. Mao.

Here's a medallion the size of a flying saucer that, due to its size, only The Chairman can read from his height...so, not really the People's Medal, just Mao's Medallion...

Like other cities in China, Chengdu is growing and developing, and one of the costs is the loss of the old-style, traditional Chinese neighborhoods or hutongs. These were one-story neighborhoods, with homes built around a central shared courtyard. They are being torn down and replaced with high-rises and commercial development. Here's a small hutong remnant that is on its way into the history books...

The Jinjiang river winds though the city of Chengdu, and it is an interesting muddy green color.

Along the banks of the river a mile or so from our hotel is a building that was built in the shape of a cruise ship...interesting architecture...

We decided to get away from the traffic a little, and walked down a neighborhood side street near the river...this is a bit more typical for a Chinese neighborhood of today...

Along the river, on both sides, is a river walk which provides us with some most-appreciated shade as the sun reaches its peak at midday...As we walked along, the pattern continued...aside from Chinese pedestrians doing a lot of double-takes due to Michael's height or Patty's fair skin, the only person who made any eye contact or connection with us was a cute little four year-old girl who just had to smile, wave and say hello as we walked by...

We returned to the hotel for lunch and to catch up on organizing photos and drafting our blog posts...and to cool down in some air conditioning. At lunch, both the food and the service again underwhelmed us...we're not foodies, or particularly demanding, but when no one approaches your table throughout your entire meal, and you have to leave the restaurant to get someone to bring you your bill...well, some remedial customer service training might be in order. Also...why would the background music in the restaurant be Kenny G's instrumental version of White Christmas...?! We know there is a significant time change, but we're pretty sure it's not six months...

By later afternoon we both are feeling the effects of jet lag, and despite our intentions to go out to a nice Szechuan restaurant for dinner, we found a Subway sandwich, ate in our hotel room and went to bed very early...we have to be up and ready to head to the airport by 5:30 for our flight to Lhasa. Tomorrow...Tibet!