Friday 1st September. Today’s weather: 20 – 24ºC; Cloudy with an occasional shower.

Hang picked us up after breakfast, this time on foot. We walked the short distance to the subway and caught the train to the centre part of Chengdu City. The trains are new, clean and fast and we were efficiently in the city in less than 10 minutes. The subway system is very like the one in Tokyo and comes at a good price. Three Yuan each way (60c). Interestingly there was security to get into the station, including all bags being x-rayed and water bottles sniffed!

The city is similar to a lot in Asia. Busy, lots of international shops and heaps of eating options. We tried a sugar crusted waffle and then later some fruit in coconut chilled soup with rice balls. Very delicious!

Hang had to go to work for a few hours, so he took us back to the hotel. We phoned both kids and also Dave’s Mum who all reported as well. Dave and I then walked for about 20 minutes to some local shops, quite near to Hang’s apartment. I enjoyed some rice noodles for lunch and Dave had a KFC chocolate sundae.  I also tried some China-style popcorn chicken – which was pretty spicy!

We then checked out another supermarket. Note the live turtles, crabs, bullfrogs and by-the-kg, rice. How good do the fresh Enoki mushrooms look?

A hair cut for Dave was next on our list. It took us a couple of different barber shops to explain what we wanted at the price Hang told us – 10 Yuan (A$2). Its pretty short – but at that price who can complain.

Dave then had fun trying to explain to the driver of the mini three-wheel motorbike style taxi where we wanted to go.  I wish I could load the video to show you the fun we had on the trip back to the hotel – especially driving the wrong way up a one-way (busy) street! All for 10 Yuan (A$2) 😉

We were going to catch the train to meet Hangs family for dinner, but as it was raining Hang hired an electric car from near his work and came to pick us up. It works a little like get-go in Australia. You order the car through your phone and use the app to unlock it when you pick it up and then again to lock and pay for it when you return it to any of a number of points across the city. All for 0.6 Yuan per minute (36 Yuan or A$7 per hour). My first ride in an electric car 🙂

We met Hang’s father, mother, wife (Sun-Lin) and son (Allen) at a famous ‘Hot-Pot’ restaurant in a well known old style street called Narrow Alley. It was a fantastic evening. Hang did a wonderful job interpreting all the conversations. Their little boy Allen is 18 months old, very cute and eventually by the end of the night I got a cuddle. The dinner included an amazing Chinese dance show and ‘face changers’. It was fascinating and, as you can see in the pictures, Allen also enjoyed the show! I ate a few strange things in the hot pot; goose intestines, pork throat, duck livers, some sort of pressed meat, quail eggs… after a while I gave up asking what things were, but it was all pretty good 😉

Today’s ‘Spot the deliberate mistake’…

Yep, Australian grown navels. Price was $10 Yuan per kilo (A$2) Apparently they are in short supply in Australia!

Tomorrow we are off to Shanghai… catch ya then 🙂