The Spicy City - Chengdu

Allow me to give you some perspective on the city we are in right now, Chengdu. According to our local guide, it is known as the city of the beautiful girls and the hen-pecked men. The women supposedly go to tea houses and play Mah Johng in the evening while the men stay home and take care of kids, make the meals, and clean the house. It sounds kinda funny, but the city is really known for this. Mah Johng was invented in this city and is such a pastime that some people play it all day, trying to make a living by gambling on the game (which is illegal in China). The weather here is almost always overcast and the sun rarely shines. Supposedly, this makes the men in Chengdu unusually short and gives the women very fair complexions.

 

There is a saying in Chengdu, that the women are “Spicy.” This is because they are both hot tempered and really into fashion and how they look. Chengdu is the capital of the Szechwan province, known for its hot food, which also contributes to the Spicy nickname. A quick walk around the city, and you will believe the legend ;)

 

               

But, let me tell you something else we have seen in this city. For the first time, I feel like we are really getting a picture of real Chinese life in these big cities. The traffic here is incredibly chaotic. Cars and buses move all over the street, ignoring lanes and even their proper side of the street. Left turns almost always include a daring dash through traffic, often resulting in a car stopping mid-way through the intersection and cars coming the other direction weaving around it.  It is almost like the traffic laws are just suggestions here, not something that must be followed. There are an incredible number of pedestrians as well as people on little scooters and bikes too. They weave in and out of each other as well as the cars and buses putting their lives at risk almost every block of their journey. It is sorta insane. This picture I took from my window does not even begin to do justice to this semi-organized chaos.

 

 

Chengdu is a city of 10 million people, just a little bit bigger than Chicago. As we drove out of the city center, we saw wave after wave of gigantic cookie cutter apartment buildings. One look at them and you can tell how this city has such a large population.

 

   

Despite all this – a lack of sun, insane traffic, and humdrum living conditions, Chengdu has one more nickname… the Panda city. Because its residents like to take it easy and relax a lot. So, it is not that bad a place after all ;)