Sichuan - The Work-Related Trip
Wednesday, 7 November 2012 17:05![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekHaving completed my requisite 1667 words for today*, I am now going to write about my Sichuan trip :D
* My tactics is, no matter what, I will write the needed 1667 every single day. If it happens I have more to say on any given day, then I will write more than that. So while during the day I have completed my 1667 words, tonight when I'm home and if I have time, I may or may not write more, hohoho
Anyway. Sichuan.
As I mentioned, we were there mainly to visit 2 of the schools that our company (and the bosses) contributed to rebuild. With that in mind, we were given uniforms (T-shirts and a Windbreaker) for the entire trip.
Day 1
So, at the airport, we had to wait for our delayed flight... eventually, we got on the plane and flew for less than 2 hours to Chengdu. Then, a long bus trip to Guangyuan, checked in to the hotel, and then on the following day, we went to visit the schools.
Day 2
School 1
This school was situated in a quite run-down area. There were still cracks on the ground and the school didn't have much of facilities in it.
After a long ceremony, we held a friendly ping-pong tournament, 5 matches were made: Male singles, Female singles, Male doubles, Female doubles, and Mixed doubles. I heard that the company reps were told to lose to the kids. haha.
We had a quick lunch somewhere and went to the second school.
School 2
This second school seemed a little better than the first. I heard some gossip saying that this school ran itself like a business and invested back into itself, so they were able to build new playgrounds.
The one photo I was most proud of in this trip, haha, this is so cute!
Similarly, we had a ping-pong match, and after that, we returned to the hotel for our Gala Dinner.
It was a fun night. There were quite a few performances, we did ours as well, and then singing... The kids were so easily amused. Just an instant photo can make them really happy (unlike the brats I know of called, "my godsons" (x2) and second-cousins (x4))
The Gala Dinner was a success, and we also called it a day...
Day 3
With our "Official Task" out of the way, it was time to do some touring.
Our first stop was to the Huangze Temple. That was nice for me because I was already starting to miss my dogs, and going to this Huangze Temple, it was like my usual Saturday dog-walk: mountains and trailing. They didn't give us a map so I wasn't really sure what was The Thing to see out there, but as I roamed around, looked at various things, and saw it was time to leave, I exited the place and saw an overview of the attractions. I think I visited every single thing in there :D
Next, we went on a pretty long ride... so long that the driver actually got lost. I had very little expectations of the place, as the food really sucked, but, apparently I liked this site A LOT.
What we visited was the SanXingDui Archaeological site. They had really good exhibits, and the guide spoke English fluently (despite some funny pronunciations, but I'm not picky when in China)
The beautiful Tree Of Life they had there.
I suppose the tour just slotted this place in so that they can say "we have provided a museum in the itinerary" but really... giving us 1.5 hours in this place is simply not enough... I could spend the whole day here, really!
So just all too soon, we had to leave... After another long bus ride, we went to a Sichuan Hot-Pot restaurant.
The food sure looks good, but... OMG...
The soup base was really terrifying to look at. I have to thank my colleague that convinced the restaurant to place "Yin-Yang" pots for everyone (so half the soup base is spicy hot while the other half is not).
Half way through there was a power cut and we had to eat in the darkness... that was hilarious as everyone started to sing Happy Birthday for no reason at all. The electricity came back, and the dinner went on. I did not touch the spicy soup. Not one bit, haha.
Then it was just a ride back to the hotel.
Day 4
Our last day in Chengdu saw us spending the morning in Jinli Street. Personally, I didn't like it.
It was practically just some old-looking street, which is fine, but, selling modern stuff, which I think is not fine...
And well, call my hypocritical or whatever, after a quick walk through the area and getting some tea and some snacks for souvenir, I went to sit in Starbucks. We were given the whole morning to explore this street, but I thought it was a waste of time.
After that, just a quick ride to the airport, and back to Macau.
I spent a minimal amount of money in this trip: the transport, hotel and almost everything was paid for by the company. I guess I only used some RMB $40 or so (very roughly, USD$4?) for a Starbucks Green Tea Latte and a packet of chips.
And, that was my China trip :D
You can find the complete set of photos in this Flickr Collection :)
* My tactics is, no matter what, I will write the needed 1667 every single day. If it happens I have more to say on any given day, then I will write more than that. So while during the day I have completed my 1667 words, tonight when I'm home and if I have time, I may or may not write more, hohoho
Anyway. Sichuan.
As I mentioned, we were there mainly to visit 2 of the schools that our company (and the bosses) contributed to rebuild. With that in mind, we were given uniforms (T-shirts and a Windbreaker) for the entire trip.
Day 1
So, at the airport, we had to wait for our delayed flight... eventually, we got on the plane and flew for less than 2 hours to Chengdu. Then, a long bus trip to Guangyuan, checked in to the hotel, and then on the following day, we went to visit the schools.
Day 2
School 1
This school was situated in a quite run-down area. There were still cracks on the ground and the school didn't have much of facilities in it.
After a long ceremony, we held a friendly ping-pong tournament, 5 matches were made: Male singles, Female singles, Male doubles, Female doubles, and Mixed doubles. I heard that the company reps were told to lose to the kids. haha.
We had a quick lunch somewhere and went to the second school.
School 2
This second school seemed a little better than the first. I heard some gossip saying that this school ran itself like a business and invested back into itself, so they were able to build new playgrounds.
The one photo I was most proud of in this trip, haha, this is so cute!
Similarly, we had a ping-pong match, and after that, we returned to the hotel for our Gala Dinner.
It was a fun night. There were quite a few performances, we did ours as well, and then singing... The kids were so easily amused. Just an instant photo can make them really happy (unlike the brats I know of called, "my godsons" (x2) and second-cousins (x4))
The Gala Dinner was a success, and we also called it a day...
Day 3
With our "Official Task" out of the way, it was time to do some touring.
Our first stop was to the Huangze Temple. That was nice for me because I was already starting to miss my dogs, and going to this Huangze Temple, it was like my usual Saturday dog-walk: mountains and trailing. They didn't give us a map so I wasn't really sure what was The Thing to see out there, but as I roamed around, looked at various things, and saw it was time to leave, I exited the place and saw an overview of the attractions. I think I visited every single thing in there :D
Next, we went on a pretty long ride... so long that the driver actually got lost. I had very little expectations of the place, as the food really sucked, but, apparently I liked this site A LOT.
What we visited was the SanXingDui Archaeological site. They had really good exhibits, and the guide spoke English fluently (despite some funny pronunciations, but I'm not picky when in China)
The beautiful Tree Of Life they had there.
I suppose the tour just slotted this place in so that they can say "we have provided a museum in the itinerary" but really... giving us 1.5 hours in this place is simply not enough... I could spend the whole day here, really!
So just all too soon, we had to leave... After another long bus ride, we went to a Sichuan Hot-Pot restaurant.
The food sure looks good, but... OMG...
The soup base was really terrifying to look at. I have to thank my colleague that convinced the restaurant to place "Yin-Yang" pots for everyone (so half the soup base is spicy hot while the other half is not).
Half way through there was a power cut and we had to eat in the darkness... that was hilarious as everyone started to sing Happy Birthday for no reason at all. The electricity came back, and the dinner went on. I did not touch the spicy soup. Not one bit, haha.
Then it was just a ride back to the hotel.
Day 4
Our last day in Chengdu saw us spending the morning in Jinli Street. Personally, I didn't like it.
It was practically just some old-looking street, which is fine, but, selling modern stuff, which I think is not fine...
And well, call my hypocritical or whatever, after a quick walk through the area and getting some tea and some snacks for souvenir, I went to sit in Starbucks. We were given the whole morning to explore this street, but I thought it was a waste of time.
After that, just a quick ride to the airport, and back to Macau.
I spent a minimal amount of money in this trip: the transport, hotel and almost everything was paid for by the company. I guess I only used some RMB $40 or so (very roughly, USD$4?) for a Starbucks Green Tea Latte and a packet of chips.
And, that was my China trip :D
You can find the complete set of photos in this Flickr Collection :)
