Bude, pande, pa prav nič več - Buddhas, pandas and not much more

22. maj  

Chongqing sem zapustila naslednje jutro. Še kar je deževalo. Pot na ultra-modernem ultra-hitrem vlaku pa je minila čisto brez posebnosti. Linija med Chongqingom in Chengdujem je ena najhitrejših na Kitajskem, saj je razdalja skoraj 400 km premagana v dveh urah. Nasproti mene je sedela Kitajka (no, kdo pa drug:-)), ki je nekje na polovici poti le zbrala pogum in me vprašala, kaj počnem na Kitajskem. Malo sva poklepetali, saj je znala res dobro angleško. Poleg tega pa živi v Chnegduju, in kdo bi bil bolj primeren kot ona, da me posadi na pravi avtobus do centra mesta.

In spet se je ponovila stara zgodba, da mi je voznik ves zadovoljen kazal, da moram dol, meni pa niti približno jasno, kje sem. Spet sem bila trdno odločena, da pot do hostla, ki sem si ga izbrala, prehodim. Hodila sem več kot eno uro. Vmes seveda vsaj enkrat ali dvakrat šla v napačno smer, a na koncu le našla svojo posteljo.

Ker je bilo zgodnje popoldne, sem si mislila, da je najbolje, da si na hitro ogledam mesto in pustim za naslednja dva dni glavna dva razloga, ki sta me privedla sem: največji kip Bude na svetu in pande.

Chengdu je eno redkih mest na Kitajskem, kjer še stoji kip bivšega voditelja Mao Zedonga. 

Mao Zedonga

Sem ga šla seveda pozdravit in fotografirat. Nato pa dalje pogledat samostan Wenshu, ki ga sploh ni bilo enostavno najti.

samostan Wenshu

Sem že mislila obupat z iskanjem, a se je okolica kar naenkrat spremenila iz visokih stolpnic v nizke, simpatične tradicionalne stavbe. Videti je, kot da so nekaj ulic okoli samostana prilagodili turizmu, jih nazaj preoblekli v tradicionalni slog in jih spremenili v trgovinice, restavracije in galerije.

Naslednji dan je bil dan za obvezen obisk največjega Bude na svetu, ki ponosno sedi na bregu reke in zre v daljavo. Moram priznati, da me je pustil hladno.

Res je veličasten, a zaradi nepregledne množice turistov je vse skupaj nekako spominjalo na Disneyland. Kaj bo šele pri Bojevnikih iz terakote sem si mislila!?

Zvečer sem obiskala Sicuansko opero z vsemi njenimi najbolj znanimi elementi: spreminjajočimi obrazi, lutkami, sencami rok.

Res zabavno in vredno ogleda.

Naslednje jutro pa je bil cas za pande. Spet je deževalo, a tokrat se je izkazalo, da je to prava sreča, saj pande ne marajo vročine in če bi bilo toplo, bi se skrivale, tako pa so bile zunaj, se igrale, jedle, počivale, zganjale vragolije ... pred našimi očmi.

In res lahko rečem, da kaj tako srčkanega pa že dooolgo nisem videla.

Ko sem plačala izlet v hostlu, sem se dogovorila, da me voznik pusti na železniški postaji. Nisem pa pričakovala, da bo ustavil nekje sredi ogromnega križišča v več nivojih, kjer je se taksi težko dobiti. Ko sem enega le ustavila, je samo odkimal in šel dalje. Pa naslednji tudi in naslednji. Joj … pa saj ne morem biti tako daleč ali tako blizu, da se mu ne bi splačalo peljati?! si mislim. Gledam ubogi zemljevidek v Lonely Planetu in se odločim, da je do postaje nekako 3 kilometre.  To lahko prehodim - si rečem naglas in prav nič prepričljivo začnem korakat. Pa se ustavi poleg mene mladenič na motorju in  mi nekaj kaže. Samo upam, da to pomeni, da me lahko pelje. Mu pokažem znake na kosu papirja, ki (menda) pomenijo železniška postaja. Pokima in mi pokaže dva prsta ter ju prekriža (kar pomeni 20 juanov). Hitro pokimam in mu zlezem za hrbet. Pa sva šla v nemogoči kitajski promet večmilijonskega mesta, kjer je edino pravilo, kdo je močnejši. Izkazalo se je, da je bilo hudo daleč. Peš ne bi nikoli prišla pravočasno. Se mi zdi, da me na tem potovanju res res spremlja sreča.

In tako sem se z malce tesnobe vkrcala na svoj prvi nočni 16-urni vlak. Na pol sem pričakovala umazanijo, smrad, hrup, pljuvanje, a ne bi se mogla bolj motiti! Prav nasprotno -celo WC je bil popolnoma sprejemljiv! Zaspala sem kot bebica vse tja do Xiana.

22. maj  

I left Chongqing next morning by train to Chengdu. Completely uneventful journey on a super-fast super-modern train which reduced traveling time to only 2 hours. On the train the Chinese girl (hardly a surprise, huh:))next to me started talking to me in a quite good English. As she lived in Chengdu, it was easy for her to put me on the right bus after we arrived. But again I was just showed off at some crossroad and just guessing where I was, started to walk. I was determined I will walk all the way to the hostel. Which turned into more than 1 hour. Of course I took the wrong road once or twice, but at the end I have found my bed.

As it was early afternoon I figured it is best to see a bit of the city and leave for next day the main two reasons which brought me here: the biggest Buddha in the world and pandas.

Chengdu is one of the last chinese cities which stilll has the statue of former leader Mao on the main square. I passed, said hi, took a picture and continued to visit a Wenshu monastery, which was more difficult to find then anything else until now. I was wandering around like crazy and wanted to give up, but suddenly the area completely changed, from ultra modern to some cute low buildings in traditional style. It seems that they have turned some streets around monastery back into traditional buldings and is now major tourist area with shops, restaurants and galeries.

 Next day I have done the obligatory trip to Leshan, to visit the biggest Buddha in the world, but I admit it left me cold. It is enourmous, sits solemnly on the river bank, but million thousands tourists around it makes it feel like a Disneyland.

In the evening I saw a Sichuan opera with all the classics: changing faces, changing clothes, hand shadow, puppet show. Amusing and entertening.

 And then next morning, pandas. It rained, but I realised that it is a good fortune because pandas don't like it hot and would hide, but in the cold morning they were out, playing and eating and just hanging. Really cute.

I agreed with the hostel that the driver will leave me at the train station on the way back from panda base, but I didn t expect to be left out in the middle of enourmous interchange crossroad. I flagged down a taxi but he refused to take me! I asked next one. Same result. What's going on?  I can t be so far or so close that they refuse to take me! I try to figure out from the poor map in Lonely planet where I am and decide that it's not more then 3 km. - I can walk- I say to myself and start walking without real conviction. And then this man on a motorcycle stops next to me, gestures something. I just hope it means that he is willing to take me. I show him the phrase Train station in chinese and he nods. To my relief also the price was completely reasonable and so we went. On the motorbike in a catastropic chinese traffic where the only rule is who is stronger. It turned out that it was really far. Walking, I would never make it in time. It's like the luck is really with me on this trip.

 Already when I arrived, I decided that I will leave the city in 2 days and this time would be by night by train. A real overnight 16-hour journey. 

So I borded my first chinese train, half expecting that it will be dirty, smelly, noisy, with men spitting all around. How wrong! It is all the opposite. Even the toilet was acceptable! So I slept like a baby all the way to Xian.