Chengdu
16 Feb 2014 | Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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Down from the mountains! I had first thought of continuing North stoping at Shangri-la and continue accross the mountains to Sichuan, but the man who had taken me to Qiaotou, who is from Shangri-la, confirmed me as I had read somewhere that a fire had destroyed most of the city center, and also told me that the road I intended to take afterwards wasn't practicable except if I wanted to walk -which is tempting but may take a couple of weeks I don't have- so I'd better go back South to use another road (I was surprised myself I could extract so much information from a conversation, in Chinese only please ;)
My second option is to go back to Lijiang and then take another road East accross some other mountains passing by Lugu lake which would make a nice stopover, Wujia who came that way had told me the road is in poor condition but practicable.
But fate decided otherwise: the first people who stop for me are going directly to Kunming, so I could as well go with them and take the main road to Chengdu from there. They are super nice so it's decided, I spend the day with them, we stop at some super good restaurant ran by one of their friend, and as it's late when we arrive in Kunming, I'm invited to stay at one of the lady's place who gave me her son's room, super!
The following day I start hitchhiking to Chengdu under the newly cold weather but make it only to Leshan, after trying the traditional Sichuan hot pot, where I camp overnight (to make sure I can still survive cooler temperatures after almost a year in too hot :D )
I spend a couple of days in Chengdu. I had read somewhere that you shouldn't expect to get a tan here as the city is famous for its lack of sun. Well it's true. Weather keeps gray-ish, not a single ray of sun. No much interest in the city itself, there are Sichuan mountains not far around but China is big and I don't have so much time so I'd better move on.