The city is on my list of cities worthy of annual pilgrimages (Hong Kong's #1 on the list and Tokyo/Japan). I might return again this year cuz thanks to SQ's Krisflyer Anniversary promotion, I suddenly have a free ticket to my favouritest place of the moment! Hehe ...
HH asked me why the hell I keep returning to the same old place - 是不是我的老家. Oh well, in a way, yes, it's one of the few places that I feel at home in. Besides, the city flower, the hibiscus, is the national flower of Malaysia. How more homey can it get? Hehe ...
Other reasons (and plenty of them), in no particular order, are:
1) 麻辣火锅 (Sichuan hotpot) - beware of the numbing 花椒 (pepper)!
2) 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu - numbing and spicy beancurd) - and lots of other delicious food!
3) 茶室 (teahouse) - I can spend hours here just watching people.
4) 熊猫 (giant pandas) - Just cannot resist these cuddly furballs! Not that I ever got the chance to hold one ... it costs something like RMB2000 for that once-in-a-lifetime experience ... or is it more?
5) Gateway to Tibet - my ultimate destination! Even in Chengdu itself, I can get hints of Tibetan culture especially in the city's Tibetan neighbourhood. Short drives westward of Chengdu, the number of Tibetans grows, like in Kangding which I visited last Aug.
6) Gateway to great natural wonders - the snow-capped mountains and the lakes and the bamboo forests and ... let me catch my breath ... and the waterfalls and the fertile plains and the gushing rivers ... I suggest a visit to the National Geographic store for some awesome pictures of Sichuan in any of the incredible books on China (^___^*)
7) Gateway to spirituality - I'm not as religious as I'd like to be but the countless temples especially those on Mt. Emei gave me a sense of serenity, the very purpose I headed out to Chengdu last Aug ... 寻找平静 - in search of peace of mind.
8) To try out new discoveries, notably 伤心凉粉 (heartbreak cold noodles) - discovered these during the last trip but didn't try it ... the name's so poetic I couldn't bring myself to try it :( And so many more undiscovered gems of this mysterious and yet amazingly welcoming place.
