Ya'an Wildlife and Nature Film Festival

Staying connected is a critical factor in keeping good business relationships. Luckily, our hotel is one of few with great networks both local and foreign.

The West is still expanding and actively seeks investment in new business sectors. One organization specifically searches and maintains friendly relationships with investors from foreign countries. As the hotel is a foreign brand we often receive invitations to events and networking dinners. This time we were invited to attend the opening of the Ya'an Wildlife and Nature Film Festival.

Ya'an is a University 'town' 2 hours from Chengdu. It is green, hilly and small compared with Chengdu. We stayed 2 nights and had the chance to visit some local sites.

Our first evening we arrived and met with the organizers for lunch at the hotel. As soon as all were seated the Chinese liquor was offered. This is 50% alcohol and sometimes more. Here you have no choice, but to drink. If the host invites you, you drink. Done. So, glass after glass, it burns going down. Small glasses, but nonetheless potent. Five drinks later and everyone was having trouble using chopsticks.

After a quick nap we headed for the Panda Breeding Base in Ya'an and saw panda after panda including some youngsters.

That evening we made our way with police escort and 12 mini buses to the festival on the university campus. This is very common for any government function to have a caravan with police escort and stationed police officers at intersection to keep the caravan moving. It is a little over excessive.

We arrived at the festival and drove right up to the rear entrance behind the main stage. The event was outdoors. There they had rolled out a red carpet for all the VIPs. Not sure whether we were included or not. Either way, we walked the red carpet and cheers came from the small crowd that had gathered. Ha! Hollywood. We walked past the stage and were seated at reserved seats in the front row. Looking back we saw a sea of people. And you won't believe it when I say there were 10,000 people there.

The opening ceremony started and dragged on with speeches from government officials, military generals and romantic chinese love son

gs. Fireworks lit the sky and two hours later we were more than ready to leave.

Along with us were guides and translators from the local university. They were always willing to help and make sure we felt comfortable. Shelley and Claire even accepted our offer to join for BBQ later that evening after everyone had gone to bed. We still wanted to see more of the city. They showed us a famous bridge and a good BBQ spot on the riverside.

The next day we went to a local town in the country side. Ancient and beautiful. It is wonderful to see the colour green again. Trees, grass and flowers!

Even some local fresh water eels for lunch, freshly gutted with a utility knife.

Random and...

Caught a fly with chopsticks today...

Chengdu Lifestyle Magazine

A Hole in the Ground

Ever wonder what it would be like inside a large tunnel boring machine? If yes, I can tell you all about it.

Chengdu is busy building its new Metro subway line. This involves tunneling under the city with large machines. The plan is to create two lines; one running North-South and the other East-West. The entire system will take a few years to complete, but I was lucky enough to take a tour and get up close and personal with the mighty machine.

We first explored the site on ground level taking notice of the large amounts of earth laden containers used to move what was recently dug up. Then it was underground with a hard hat and site supervisor. We toured the first length of the tunnel which already had its concrete ring. Then we made our way into the machine from the rear and right up to the very front, just behind the cutting wheel. Too cool!

Chinese Lantern Festival

After one festival ends another is just around the corner. This one being the Chinese Lantern Festival. It celebrates the first full moon of the lunar year.

There is a large park in Chengdu that is set up with large paper lantern sculptures. These are huge. Some even move. There are fair rides, candy and artisans who turn melted sugar into creative sculptures.

In the middle of the park is a large temple decorated with red lanterns and colourful lights. It was beautiful to see. Even if we couldn't see the moon through clouds.

On the way back we had to wait to find a cab. This is normal and something everyone has to get used to. It took us 30 minutes to get a cab. Sometimes it can take even longer.

Chinese Lunar New Year

After a great New Year's celebration in the bush it was time to celebrate another one in the East. Chinese New Year is marked by the first new moon of the year. On the Chinese calendar it falls on February 14th this year, marking the beginning of the year of the tiger.

Again, words cannot explain it. The celebrations run 15 days until the Chinese Lantern Festival marking the first full moon of the year. The city sleeps for 15 days. No honking horns. No playing Frogger to cross the street. Only loud and overwhelming fireworks every night with the largest on New Years eve.

These fireworks are not set up by the city or some professional, but rather sold on every street corner in orange tents lined with boxes of fireworks. We are used to individual fireworks that we buy on certain holidays. Now imagine a box, something the size of a microwave. Some even the size night table. You light this thing in the middle of the street and you get a professional looking fireworks show for 2 or 3 minutes. And that is just on one corner of an intersections in a city with many intersections. The sky was a sparkling sea of colour. The buildings echoed.

First Impression

Well, after some difficult good-byes at Mokuti it was off to Chengdu, China.

Our GM had friends from Munich visiting for NYE and they would be on the same flight back to Munich. That meant some company and some entertainment to shorten the 10 hour flight.

I stayed overnight in Munich to break up the flight and met up with friends to continue the fun into the evening. We were deep into beer and Schweinshaxe. Delicious!

The next day I made it on a flight to Chengdu over Beijing.

Chengdu is in the Southwest of China in Sichuan province. The city has a population of 15 million! The country of Namibia only 2.1 million. What was I getting myself into. There was definitely no scenery here.

And that is the first thing you notice. I was now in a city. Trucks, cars, mopeds and pedestrians whistled in and out of traffic to get where they needed to go. My driver's palm rested continuously on the centre of the steering wheel as his use of the horn was frequent. This was an aggressive place. Get in front or lose it all.

I made myself comfortable in my new quarters and was ready to see what this place had to offer. That meant dreary skies, no sun, fog, spitting people and more honking horns.