China. First impressions.

I landed in Chengdu slightly before 2pm of yesterday. And I say yesterday cause I’m a bit unsure which day we are in today, probably Friday. After passing the border control and going through the luggage claiming zone, I left through the arrivals terminal. The terminal was a mere corridor from the luggage claim to the streetdoor. If you ever wondered about ATMs or tourist information, there was nothing of that. The only five meters of the terminal were extremely crowded with people with their cameras and phones ready to take pictures of the people arriving. Once crossed through all of them, I left the building behind and took a cab to the hotel. No English, just the address written in Chinese.

The old Volkswagen went through the spidernet of highways. The yellowish air I could see from the plane could no longer be noticed, but it was still a little foggy. Buildings, buildings and more buildings surrounded with railways under construction, highways, some sculpture, massive and unnecessary bridges, etc.

After the check-in and a short shower at the hotel, I decided to fight jet lag and go for a walk. Some tourism would do some good. Despite the smog, streets were clean -or cleaner than Brussels- and it was relatively nice to walk around. It was a bit messy, but not loud at all. There were some trees here and there and an enormous number of shops and restaurants. 

The walk until the Wuhou Shrine was easy and although I felt tempted to stop at some of the food places on the way, I kept walking through the city. To my surprise, we could see many old people, some even daring to cycle through traffic jams. Once in Wuhou Shrine, a great ensemble of gardens, palaces and museums gave me some peace. Just outside of it, a traditional commercial street brought together the best Chinese delicacies, pottery shops, tea shops and a lot of stuff with pandas on it, t-shirts, teddy bears or even purses.

During my walk I certainly came across stuff I didn’t know, to the level of being unsure if they were food or not. But the cultural shock didn’t came until I ran into three guys on the street carrying each of them one small monkey the same way we carry dogs. That moment I realised how surrealistic it all was, I was in the middle of a 14-million-people Chinese city I had never heard of and I didn’t know what time or what day it was, I wasn’t sure if the next meal would be lunch or dinner or if I should sleep, but I was extremely tired so I headed back to the hotel.