30th October: Xi’An, China to Chengdu, China
For the final time on this trip, we leave behind the silk road. I’m still (!) not too well, although slept a bit better aside from being woken up by a mosquito in my ear. Predictably, my ear and cheek have now swollen up! The Antonio Conte ‘just one normal week of Barclays’ meme comes to mind.
It was wet and very murky in Xi’An, with little to see. Once at Xi’An Bei station, we realised that the vast space we were in before was just for arrivals and there is a, scarcely believable, even larger departures area two floors above. Given the size, we’d assumed that we’d be able to get food here and there were indeed a huge number of outlets. However, every single place seemed to serve the same few beef dishes with zero vegetable options. The lack of viable vegetarian, let alone vegan, options has been a really unwanted surprise in general in China. Yes, we’ve found some good food and lots of tasty dishes, although many are very similar in each city and get a little boring after a couple of days, but it’s very hard to track down places in a new city without a bit of luck. My hunch on this is that China is still going through the ‘eating meat is a sign of prosperity, so let’s do it at every meal’ stage of development that many older people in the west also haven’t yet progressed from and/or realised it’s killing them and the planet. Eventually, we did find some pumpkin porridge and disgusting chips which cost 3 times as much as last night’s buffet!
Leaving Xi’An, endless tunnels bored through the mountains. Whenever we were allowed a split-second peek, which was never long enough for a photo, wispy cloud and fog licked the sides of deep green slopes. Autumnal yellows and oranges gave it the feel of a dream forest. I could imagine pandas here, although that’s probably unlikely.
There was a change in foliage on the south side of the hills, in Sichuan, slightly tending towards the subtropical. Our arrival into Chengdu startled me as if waking from a dream. Three hours had passed in a flash. The efficiency of train travel here, combined with still being slightly delirious, puts us in a scarcely credible place geographically. Looking at the map, we’d somehow travelled half of the distance from Xi’An to Burma today. We are now on the same latitude as northern Saudi Arabia, although still surprisingly north of Nepal.
Soon enough, we were on and off the metro and checking in to our place for the next 5 nights. I’d completely forgotten what we’d booked but it turned out to be a studio flat with a bed on a mezzanine up on the 18th floor. We have very impressive views back out over the river and city. Although walking down a wooden staircase straight towards a feature length window onto a 90-metre drop is not quite ideal for someone with a deep fear of heights who is already hallucinating and dizzy!
Kaja found some great vegetarian options all on one street, so we headed there. Hopefully we’ll have better luck with food in Chengdu than in Xi’An. I was pretty out of it using not eaten very much for 4 days, although the pain was gradually going away, and I definitely wanted dinner tonight. What we had was a feast! I was careful not to overeat too soon or order anything spicy (easier said than done in Sichuan) but it was so good to try things again. We shared some wild rice; a deep umami matsutake mushroom soup; a vegetable and bean curd soup, with goji berries; some beautifully fresh tofu skins with a green salsa and hidden Sichuan black pepper, which numbs your tongue in a somehow pleasant way; moreish battered and fried mushrooms of various types; and some incredibly ‘meaty’ porcini mushroom baozi. After everything I said earlier, this was the best dinner we’ve had in many weeks!
Chengdu feels different to the other Chinese cities we’ve been to but we’re yet to really put our fingers on it, except that there are panda insignias everywhere! It’s chilled and lusher and is beginning to remind me of my previous visit to the south of the country. Coming back, we stopped at a supermarket. These seem very difficult to find, although poorly stocked convenience stores are everywhere. I’m not sure if this particular one was some secret high-end supermarket or what but somehow, a small punnet of blueberries would set you back £25! That’s the same as two nights in our room. We did find a some moderately expensive cereal and oat milk though for the first time in China (we bought what was on offer!), so can at least have some plain breakfasts until I feel well enough to dive into the local options again. I hope this is soon!
