Farewell to Chengdu

Today was our last day in Chengdu, which was unfortunate because Katie and I both woke up with pretty low energy to start the day. All that hiking yesterday at the Thousand Buddha Cliffs really tired us out I guess.

Anyway, we eventually got up, checked out of our hotel, and took a taxi to the Wenshu Temple in Chengdu. The outskirts of the temple are lined with so many alleys and side streets that are full of shops, tea houses, and food stands. It was a really nice walk.

Since today is a national holiday, the temple itself was super crowded with worshipers. Despite that, we managed to walk around the grounds a lot and take some good pictures. Although the temple was really beautiful, it felt a little strange to be walking around as tourists when so many people were there to worship. And to be perfectly honest, we have seen so many temples since we've been here, that we are pretty temple-d out at this point. So, rather than going to see some of the other temples in the area after that, we decided to take a taxi to the People's Park.

Lonely Planet said good things about the park, and it turned out to be quite a nice place. Though, like the temple, it was super crowded. There were some koi fish lakes, some cool buildings, and a garden made entirely out of potted bonzai trees. The definate high point though was the animatronic haunted house that was there. It was like a primitive version of "It's a Small World" at Disney World and was soooo cheesy that it was actually funny. (Katie was scared though haha)

After that, we headed back to the hotel area to have lunch and decided to just go to KFC since we didn't have much time. This was a big mistake though - it was soooo crowded, the lines took forever, and we couldn't even find a table to eat at despite looking and walking around in circles for about 10 minutes! It was really frustrating.

But, food is food, and food makes me happy :) Once we finished eating, we got our bags and headed to the airport for our flight to Xi'an. The flight was really nice, and really short, and with the exception of the super long taxi ride to our hotel, Xi'an seems like a nice place so far. Our hotel is really nice/luxurious, and we just had a nice dinner at a restaurant nearby.

As nice as Xi'an is, Chengdu left a really strong impression with me and I miss it already. Tomorrow, we are headed to Luoyuang to see the Longman Caves. We are planning on taking the bus there, and based on our bus experience yesterday, we are a little nervous. Hopefully it'll be okay!