After our visit to the Panda Base and Pete's Tex Mex, Mary Kaye kept the girls for a bit and Bob showed Art and me a little more of Chengdu. Here the guys are standing in front of the premier building of Sichuan University...

Like everywhere in China, when you encounter a little road construction, you just step around it and try to avoid getting too much tar on your shoes. Really. No barricades here. (see post from way back in Kunming re: no civil litigation in this country)

Following Bob and Art to the music district...

Chengdu bike... (can't help myself)

Entering the music district...

Here in shop after shop are rows of Chinese instruments and pianos, and walls covered in violins. China's music prowess today is remarkable given that Mao's cultural revolution killed all western and classical music. A generation of young people (my peers from '66 to '76) grew up without a hint of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven... or the Beattles or the Stones...

At one shop, Art and the shopkeeper broke into a spontaneous jam session...

See how happy he gets when he's making music...

I'm liking these. A lot.

Cece and Nina at the Wuhou Shrine, in front of a tablet carved during the Ming Dynasty... The shrine itself was built in 223AD (and rebuilt many times since). It's old and serious, with a lush and mossy jungle of gardens surrounding it...

Random Wuhou doors...

We had just seen this instrument (called a Guqin) on our music tour the day before. Nice to hear one played.

Strikingly similar to the Bjorn Wiinblad figures on my (Danish) Nymolle collection at home...

Wuhou roofline...

Since we were at this shrine on Qingming day (but without fake money to burn as an offering...)... the girls gave thanks to their ancestors this way...

I give thanks to their ancestors every day...

Art thinking of Karl...

And always we get little signs along the way... like this ornamental ginkgo tree...

Love this...

Pretty grounds to stroll through...

Quilt image 13 (old Wuhou wall)

Mysterious cave...

And these...

And an enormous outdoor bonsai garden...

Mossy...

Quilt image 14...

Me and Elle...

Old wall plaque...

Awesome shade structure...

Detail...

Leaving the Wuhou Shrine... (see what I mean about jungle-like...)

At the entrance to JinLi Street (note the green circle at 11 o'clock in the street opening... Starbucks is everywhere...)

Doors on JinLi Street...

Old carved water trough on JinLi...

Strolling JinLi...

Pretty part of JinLi Street...

In search of Sichuan "hot pot" we found all these flowers...

And then we found a "hot pot" place. First, you light the gas burner (affixed to the center of the table)... then add lots of red hot chili peppers to the pot of oil...

When the oil gets hot and bubbling, you dump virtually anything you want into it. We did seaweed, lotus root, chicken and fish, various chopped vegetables and noodles... As foods rise to the top you fish them out with chopsticks. You need these oversized beers to cool off your tongue.

Happy campers all around...

Elle at the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu. She "made" lipstick from a lollipop...

Tibetan bag...

Beautiful people...

Tibetan meditation cushions...

On the other side of town is a waving Mao...

Farewell Chengdu... (she needed this...)