A Trip to the Park

After a long work week, taking a trip outside of Chengdu seemed like a good idea, and some of the students had suggested we go to some famous gardens outside of the city. After waking up at 8:00 on Saturday to meet the others at 8:30 so that we could have enjoy a long day at the park, I promptly realized that I had left my camera in the office. The office was on the way to the meeting point so I figured that this would not be too much of a problem. To my disappointed surprise both of the elevators in the building were out of service. After running up and down 11 flights of stairs, I had retrieved my camera and was ready for the trip, although I was 10 minutes late to the meeting point. It was worth being late because the trip would include some great photo opportunities, and I no longer felt cold on a chilly morning!

I have to digress for a moment here to note that Chinese people (or at least my friends) are always on time or early. If I was in college and my friends and I had tried to execute a similar plan, there would be no chance of us leaving on time. This is confirmed by leaving late for many Frisbee tournaments after running through the freshman dorms waking people up.

After an inauspicious start, we quickly caught a bus, and after thirty minutes we transferred buses at a central station. The central station was crowded and noisy even at 9 AM on a Saturday. Forty five minutes later we arrived at the gardens only to find that they were temporarily closed due to damage from the Wenchuan earthquake. Although this was disappointing, there were still a bunch of things to see in the area. Before beginning our walking tour we sat down at a restaurant for some tea, fruit, and nuts.

The restaurant was quiet and in the beginning we were the only group there. The surroundings were composed of plants and water systems with old Chinese style roofing covering the stone paths that wandered around the area. I didn’t realize how loud the city of Chengdu was and how pleasant taking a break from car horns, jack hammers, screeching breaks, and the other parts of the cacophony of city noises would be. This was the first time I had felt truly relaxed in a long time.

After our mid-morning snack, we walked around the area. The part of the park that was open was quite scenic. First it started out with a long path lined on both sides with Ginko trees, whose foliage was pale yellow, and red lanterns hanging in the air. At various points on the cement path there were reliefs depicting ancient scenes and figures. At the end of the path there was a large open space with a centrally located sundial (although it was too cloudy to use). After the sundial, we came up to a large building whose structure captured the feelings of an ancient palace, although it is actually used by the local community for gatherings and performances. The architecture followed the theme of ancient China with twin lion stone statues guarding the entrance: two massive red doors adorned with golden knobs.

After exiting the building on the other side, we found an upscale community composed of beautiful old Chinese style buildings. Although a local guard lazily attempted to stop us from entering the area, we circumvented his line of sight in order to view the interior roads of the small community. The buildings were beautiful and peaceful. The roads were open and there were few people walking around. Waterways were effortlessly integrated with the area, as was the theme of old Chinese buildings and architecture. More statues and reliefs covered the walls and guarded ornate entrances and exits to local homes. Behind the homes was a small park with a river and a man-made waterfall.

The feeling was serene although not devoid of energy, with much joking among my Chinese classmates. It felt great to get outside the city and be in a beautiful place reminding me of visiting the ocean when I was in Boston. Being in a foreign country and doing lots of work builds up stress in subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) ways. I felt like layers of stress were falling off of me as I walked around and listened to running water.
After walking around the small community, we returned to the restaurant by the entrance of the park for more tea, snacks, and lunch. Lunch was followed by some simple games and more snacking (I must have eaten a hundred sunflower seeds). By the end of the day, everybody was feeling good, and it was truly a shame to return to the city, but this small vacation, like all vacations, could last only so long.