Mystery tour

I’m not sure what the word I’m looking for is. Won? Awarded? Voted? Whatever, Chengdu has become one of China’s three ‘best tourist cities’.

This surprised me.

Although it’s a really nice place to live – well, when the sun is shining anyway – there’s not much here to compete with things like the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Terracotta Warriors or the Great Wall. So I went on the Chengdu sightseeing bus tour to find out what I’ve been missing.

There are actually two buses, one going from the centre eastward and the other – an open top double decker – west. With the wind blowing through my hair (I wish…) and camera poised, I headed west first. An hour later, I’d not taken a single picture. There are pretty tree lined avenues, a few temples hidden behind brick walls and the pleasant bustle of a busy city but there’s nothing you can really capture in a single image. While the westward trip climaxed at the rather grubby Jinsha Bus Station, the eastward one at least has a definite destination: the Chengdu Panda Base. On the way, once again, there’s not much to see apart from a lot of shopping zones and quite attractive – even Parisian – apartment blocks but the end justifies the means (as it were).

The Base is world famous for its successful breeding programme of the Giant Panda. There wasn’t a lot of successful breeding going on when I was there though. In fact they were all fast asleep (if you want to see them at their best you should get the 7.00am bus). Still, it is a good place; you get to see the babies in the nursery being pampered in a very anthropomorphic way; lots of red pandas; and several landscaped and leafy enclosures for the giant stars of the show.

I really wish Chengdu well as a tourist city. But sometimes it doesn’t help itself. The tourist map produced by its own Tourism Bureau begins: “Chengdu, the ‘Fourth City’ of China - maybe her beauty is not as grand as that of Beijing… maybe her beauty is not as fashionable as Shanghai… maybe her beauty is not as open as Guangzhou…” But, on the plus side: “Chengdu women are as gentle as the water and can be good helpmates. They are good at keeping house…”

It is true, however, that the city has a very relaxed vibe (just look at the pandas!). It also has something Beijing doesn’t have: a proper river running through the middle of it. So the best part of my day was sitting in the sunshine on the riverbank sipping a bottomless glass of tea, slurping beef noodles and just watching the world go by.

Now that’s what I call Chengdu.