A Chengdu Travel and Reading Journey

I arrived at night and was finally able to climb into my hotel bed a little after 1:00am, so I had a full day when I woke up the next morning. Of course, I went to see the pandas. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is massive. After entering through the panda-shaped gate, you end up on a deck that looks out over the entire park, and it is massive. I walked through the Singapore Zoo without getting on any of the shuttles that take you around the zoo, but looking out at the panda center grounds I was immediately aware I couldn’t do that here. The vastness suddenly made me aware that I would be at the park all day, alone among the families and couples here to see the pandas. Luckily, on the first shuttle ride I met a friendly Polish couple and I spent the rest of the day exploring the park with them, happy to have people to chat with on my first day in Chengdu.

We had all arrived at the panda center around 10AM, and were able to cover most of the park by about 4PM. The most typical sight at the park is adult pandas lounging around or eating bamboo, but we were also lucky enough to see some pandas playing. We weren’t sure if we’d get to see baby pandas, but luckily there was one area where we got to see four babies, which one of my new friends aptly dubbed “pandlings.” There is also a small section of the park dedicated to red pandas, which are more closely related to raccoons and skunks than the Giant Panda, but these smaller pandas do inhabit some of the same territory and also count bamboo as a major food source. 

After spending the entire day watching pandas eat and relax, the three of us had a big Sichuan meal at Ma Wang Zi Chuan Restaurant. It is extremely popular even with locals, so we were told we could get in an hour and a half later. We walked around, got tea and checked out several shops before we finally sat down, and it was definitely worth the wait. We ordered a bunch of different dishes to try, all of which were excellent. Their signature dish is chicken that is absolutely drowning in Sichuan pepper. It made our mouths numb but it did not disappoint, and was hot without overpowering the flavor. I had a few other delicious meals in Chengdu during the following days, but this was definitely the best meal I had there. 

One uncomfortable reality I faced while in Chengdu was the huge portions and inevitable subsequent food waste. Many Chinese restaurants serve the dishes that are meant to be shared in a group, something I love to do with friends and family, but it makes choosing places to eat in China difficult for solo travelers. I went to two of these places by myself, once for a spicy pork and vegetable stir fry and once for mapo tofu. Both times I was served heaping dishes for three or four people. They were of course delicious, and I ate as much as I could without stuffing myself to an uncomfortable degree, but still ended up leaving more than half behind. I left both restaurants feeling ashamed for eating alone and the food waste I had generated. 

Yet as I was leaving the very same restaurants, I saw groups of people who had shared these dishes together leave behind heaps of food as well. I was reminded of what Fuchsia Dunlop wrote about the cooks for China’s imperial court at the end of the last dynasty, how they would make mountains of flavorless food that no one was eating simply to keep up appearances. Briefly I wondered if nonchalance about food waste is a cultural reality in China before deciding that was jumping to conclusions. Despite my guilt, perhaps solo travelers are only a small part of the problem. Still, casual noodle places where you can get a single serving are also common in China. I went to two excellent Dan Dan Noodles spots in Chengdu as well, so perhaps next time I should either frequent the noodle places, or find people to eat with as I did my first evening.