It's been an incredibly busy quarter in Grant's real life, hence the not-so-busy quarter here at Grant's Pad.
Last time, we left off just arriving in the city of Chengdu, China for our next great adventure. Since then, we've moved into our home away from home and generally exploring the city:
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| The view from our balcony |
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| Mobike is probably my favorite thing to do around here |
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| The kids' new school |
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| Ping Pong! |
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| At an awesome playground near the apartment |
Mobike has been a tremendous hit for me. What's Mobike you say? It's the latest public transport trend in China, which greatly solves the "Last Mile" problem. Bikes are rented to customers at extremely low rates (at the most it is 1 CNY per half hour, or basically around 15 cents ... at the MOST). I actually purchased a package for 3 months of unlimited rides for 38 CNY; since then I've already ridden over 100km!
The great thing about Mobike is that, unlike bikeshare systems of old, you don't have to park the bike at any kind of designated dock. This means you can basically park the bike in front of your house, or in front of a bus stop, or any shopping mall, grocery store, etc. The app will help customers locate the bike nearest them, so you don't have to remember where a dock was. You scan the bike's QR code with your phone, and the bike unlocks. When you're done, just park, lock it back up, and go on your merry way!
Using Mobike I've probably explored as much of Chengdu in the past 2 months as I had explored in Shanghai on foot for 4 years!
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| MOAR MOBIKE!!! |
Chengdu is located in Sichuan Province and is a hotbed of ancient Chinese culture. Notably, there is a site near the center of Chengdu called the Jinsha site, which was once home to an ancient culture that predated the Han culture in the region over 2000 years ago. It's famous for many pieces of intricately worked gold, including the "Sun Bird" emblem which has become something of a symbol of the city:
Chengdu is also situated in a valley of sorts, and as such is surrounded on all sides by mountains. We visited a number of them, the first being Mengding Mountain, famous for its tea cultivation culture:
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| Trying my hand at puring the long-snouted teapot! |
I also finally got a chance to bring the family to the famous Dujiangyan, an ancient irrigation system engineered by the Qin kingdom over 2000 years ago before the unification of the Chinese empire:
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| We got extorted by taking photos of these Monkey Kings... |
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| People Mountain People Sea |
Chengdu is also very proud of their affiliation with the ancient Shu kingdom, of Romance of the Three Kingdoms fame, as evidenced by the Wuhou Shrine, which celebrates the famed strategist Zhuge Liang. And of course, who can forget the magical Mask Changing art form, where the martial artist changes his face in the blink of an eye?
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| Third Brother Zhang Fei |
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| First Brother Liu Bei |
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| The three brothers - that's second brother Guan Yu on the right |
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| Zhuge Liang |
Of course, life is not all fun and games - there's school too! But there's still a lot of fun and games, even at school, such as during Halloween:
Or at a school concert:
Or at a field day!
So, that sums it up for our first few months in our new home! Next up, I'll provide a peek into what I've been doing with my new role!
