Corruption in Chengdu, Beijing & Urumqi

Chengdu is the capital city of Sichuan province and is famous as the home of the giant panda and for its fiery chilli-laden hotpot stews. We stayed in an apartment that was equipped with a small kitchen, though, with half a dozen dumpling vendors just across the road, our frying pan never left the cupboard.

After a train trip spanning 3 days and 2 nights we arrived in China's capital. Our hostel, tucked away down one of Beijing's hutongs (old alleys), took some finding, but we soon realised we were not too far from one of the city's prize attractions- Peking Duck. Although ten times the price of the typical Chinese meal, it is still only about $20, which is probably half of the price that it would be back home - not bad for something hand carved by the chef at your table. The tender meat, wrapped in a crepe with shallots and soybean sauce, was alone worth the trip to Beijing, but of course there are some other places of interest too - such as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace, not to mention the Great Wall, just a few hours out of town. The city was great, but we can't help but think that there needs to be some upgrades before the Olympics next year- the subway system still relies on an old lady sitting on a stool collecting tickets!

After visiting these wonderful and unique places we discovered one of the perils of travelling in the digital age- a corrupt memory card is holding 300+ photos from Beijing and Chengdu hostage!


Postscript - The photos live! Months after leaving China, the fragments of our pictures have been glued back together by a nice bit of technology. Here's what we thought we'd lost:

Mel and I trying not to look like broken people in Kanding, where we arrived the night before after 14 hours on a small bus that was stranded in the snow at over 4000m on several occasions

A panda in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, losing himself in the moment while chowing down on some heavenly bamboo

While the adults tend to just sit in the one spot and eat, the junior pandas had a lot more energy. Here some siblings go head to head

Why you come to Chengdu (apart from the pandas) - Sichuan hotpot. Loaded with chillies and Sichuan peppers, it was a mouth singeing masterpiece

Arrival in Beijing. The two-wheeled action was intense

Entrance to the Forbidden City

The scale of this place was unbelieveable. Here Mel dwarfs me with a wide-angled shot

Mao still takes centre stage in Beijing

Another intimidating character

The Great Wall, stretching off into the mist (well, haze)

These junior comrades were acutally Korean kids filming a commerical

Some bits of the wall are STEEP...

...as Mel found out!

The 'Great of Hall of the People' (China's parliament building) - they don't do small in Beijing!

Peking Duck - maybe the most famous dish of Beijing - sliced by the chef at our table for our viewing pleasure

Mel showing the strain of wrapping up the fatty morsels in crepes using only chopsticks

A guard gazing out over the expanse of Tiananmen Square

Tranquility in Beijing - this is at the Summer Palace, in the north of the city

The perpetual burn of incense at Beijing's Lama temple

An afternoon breeze at Kunming Lake, Summer Palace

Heading out west from Beijing to Urumqi in the far western province of Xinjiang, the plains abruptly give way to shear mountain ranges

The food out here is nothing like the east - here kebabs are stacked ready for barbequeing

Urumqi dumplings - parcels of lamb wrapped in pastry and stuck onto the inside of a tandor-like oven

In the evening, Urumqi kids drive all sorts of motorised animals around the square

It's about to dawn on this kid that his giant yellow bird has deflated