Chengdu Travel Guide - San Xing Dui

Chengdu Travel - This last weekend we visited another of Chengdu's important tourist sites - The San Xing Dui museum.
San Xing Dui - about an hour's drive outside central Chengdu - is the location of an excavation site where relics from a lost civilisation have been found. These artifacts are very old - carbon dating putting them from periods dating between the - 11th and 13th century BC.
Apart from their age - the finds are also unique, since the styles employed in their design are totally different from anything else found in Chinese art, and that the large size of some of the bronze castings show that the manufacturers used casting techniques - adding lead to the bronze alloy mix - that were remarkably advanced for this period of time. The Bronze head, in the picture above, is massive - 4 or 5 adults would easy fit into to it - and its tall enough so they would only be visible from chest height up. If I was to compare this stuff to those pre-historic bronze collections I've seen back home in the UK - usually made up of small bronze blades - then I'd classify some of this stuff as gigantic.
But perhaps what's so intriguing about the exhibits, are their sheer mystery. Apart from the finds there are no records whatsoever - not even through folklore or myth - of this truly lost civilisation.

For lots of pics of that illustrates the stuff to be found here - just scroll down.


Here's the gang again - our nephew and a friend's daughter - on their way into the museum. The exhibition halls are sighted in a park. Admission was quite expensive - 86RMB for adults, half price for kids and since the smallest of our team was under 1.20m - she got in for free.
We drove our own car here - but there are buses going out in this direction - and decent traveler friendly hotels like Sam's and Sim's can put you onto good transport possibilities.


There are two exhibition halls - here's the first - built into a mound.


Inside, I'm afraid the display design and lay-out, is rather boring and conservative in comparison to the fantastic ancient art that's exhibited in the halls.
Also you're not allowed to use flash-photography - and lighting levels are very low. I'm lucky to have camera with an image stabilising function - and a copy of photoshop on my computer to edit and sharpen the images for latter use. But if you do want good photos here - you need either a very steady hand or a tripod, and a good photo-editing program is a must. I took many photos - maybe one out of ten are what I'd consider decent.


The other problem here - is lack of interesting labeling. But I suppose if the stuff does come from a lost civilisation with no recorded history - then there's very little to write about it.
Like all of these type of sites - you can hire an English speaking guide.


But the quality of the exhibits well make-up for any lack of imagination on the presentation front. This stuff really is treasure - here's a gold mask dating from the 13th century BC.



Here are Tiger teeth - they've gone that color through being buried for over 3,000 years together with all those bronze artifacts.


In that first hall there's a lot of jade - and not your usual jade jewelry - but jade knives!!!


Here's a beautiful selection of jade blades.


This is the biggest - they've described it as a sacrificial knife. I wouldn't fancy being an offering to the gods after being poked by that!


In these kinds of places I often much prefer the small to the big - this jade knife is less that 30cm long - but it has such a neat design.


More Jade on smaller scale - a spear head - these guys could carve.


But it is the ability to produce big that makes the San Xing Dui exhibition so special. The crowing pieces of the first hall are a couple of weird bronze 'ornaments' - that look like cross between very fancy lampposts and exhibits in some avant-garde art show. Kind of crazy to think that they're over 3,000 years old.


The second hall - which was the original museum before the site developed and expanded.


Inside we have all the bronze heads, and a lot of other bronze artifacts - there are three level of exhibition hall - you ascend on a spiral walkway.


Again another large bronze casting - this time exhibiting those protruding pupils that seem to be a popular style with some of the heads.


Now this guy is big - and it's also the worlds oldest life size bronze statue of a human - in fact it's slightly over life size at 2.6m. Obviously in the days when it was still serving its purpose, probably as some religious monument - its held something in those hands.


Again another huge head/mask.


These next two guys are on a smaller scale.


Since we have so little knowledge of this civilisation, pieces like this, can certainly get the imagination rolling.


Some of those masks are covered in gold.



But once again its the small stuff that fascinates me - an eagle head bronze - about 6cm high.


here we have a chicken.


A fantastic bird.


Now we're getting onto the bigger stuff again - this is well over 1 m high - and with all those crazy designs, would surely be an inspiration for some modern day tattoo artist.


And if everything gets too much - then there are useful sites outside the exhibition halls - like a sacrifice platform to put them naughty kids in their place. Actually there are no ruins - remains consist of mounds. But San Xing Dui does home a truly remarkable collection - a good day out.

Chengdu Travel Guide - Dazu Rock Carvings Pictures

Chengdu Travel - After some enquiries regarding the Buddhist Rock carvings at Dazu, it seemed a good time to show some of the pics we took during a trip made last January - taking a couple of Italian girls on a Dazu day trip from Chengdu.
By the way the many handed lady above is the god of Mercy - apparently there are 1007 hands, if you don't believe then you best start counting!!
To see this and the other pics in their full-splendor - klick on them to get the larger image.


That last statue is in a small cave, but most of the Dazu carvings were made on open-air cliff-faces. The work itself dates between the Tang and Song Dynasties (9th -13th centuries). At the biggest site at Baoding (there are several sites - Dazu is main town of the area) the scale and state of preservation of this ancient work is very impressive - this picture gives an idea of that, and also shows what kind of viewing opportunities are offered to the visitor.


Here are the Italian girls - they were working with the then upcoming Olympics and had decided to do the Dazu trip from Chengdu. The distance to Dazu from Chengdu is about 200km (Chongqing is closer by about 50km) - and it's possible to do most of the drive by motorway. However to give our guests a bit more of a view to the "real" Sichuan - we drove to the carvings, using country roads, passing through the type interesting small towns and villages that most tourists just never get to see. We took the motorway route home.


Here's another section of carvings - this time at Beishan. These carvings, also very interesting, were not so impressive as those at Baoding.


Viewing the carvings at Beishan.


Here's the girls with Meggie - there are a few hangers-on in the background - obviously trying to get into the picture!!!


Its difficult to capture the scale of this monument in photos - the sites are very impressive.


A few more hands to count.


Its good fun just looking for the weird and wonderful. Could this be a rather grouchy man sitting on an armchair cat?


It's also a good fun place to play around with a camera.


There's something special about this face.


This guy reminds me of my old Maths Teacher at Moseley Grammar - we called The Toad.


A monk in his Lotus flower.


Dazu - a very nice day out.

Chengdu Travel Guide - Chengdu Winter Weather

Chengdu Travel - Don't worry this isn't typical Chengdu winter weather - but it's close by - a winter shot in the Qincheng Mountains. To find more about the winter weather out here - read on - or just scroll through the pics.

Recently we've had a bit of a cold-spell - but today we woke up to blue skies and temperature hike. We're back to average - a nice 16C daytime high, so there's nothing to really fear with Chengdu's November weather. And even during our coldest month of January - the average day tempt lies around 9C. In the 5 years I've lived here, only once have I seen a Chengdu frost. And that snow that occasionally falls - well it never sticks, but melts away as soon as hitting the ground.
However being outdoors is one thing - going inside is another. Even at this time the nighttime temperatures fall quite a bit - dipping under the single centigrade figure to 9C. If you're indoors and don't have adequate heating - and are not wearing at least 4 layers of clothing - this can feel cold!!! For those visiting Chengdu during our colder months - then finding accommodation with good nighttime heating could be rather important if you don't like to wear their outdoor gear while being inside. All good places like Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel - will provide warm accommodation, but its always worth making sure that everything is in order before booking.

Outside Chengdu the situation may be different - here its quite possible that hotel rooms have no form of heating. If the nighttime is cold you at least need a good supply of blankets - and even better an electrically heated under-blanket - to keep you nice and warm. The higher you go the more important this becomes, since, at altitude, nighttime temperatures can be expected to sink bellow zero during the winter.

But enough of that - pictures often speak louder than words - are here are some that illustrate the winter weather of this region.


What better way of starting than picturing today's skies - patches of blue can be seen - were enjoying a November day at 16C. However as soon as the sun sets it'll get colder.


I don't actually live in Chengdu - but in the countryside about 15km outside the city. However this pic from our back balcony shows what kind of environment this area supports - lush vegetation, lots of bamboo, also some banana fronds in there. But remember that although we're bordering sub-tropical areas - our climate is temperate and the few Autumn browns that are mixed into this shot show that we also get the usual four seasons.


Here's a closer glimpse of one of local banana plants. Its warm enough for them to grow - but around here there's not the prolonged heat necessary to produce fruit.


Well its going to get colder tonight - and we want to keep warm. since our house has no central heating system we opt for electrically heated oil-filled radiators. These work pretty well - send off a nice pleasant heat - and are quiet economical compared with other systems.


We also have an air-con unit that blows hot air. It' a system like this that heats most of the hotels around here. We don't like this type of heat so much - rather dry, and it's expensive. we rarely use the air-con for heating. Some hotels will expect you to pay extra for a room with air-con heating.


Here's a more simple heating system - our collection of hot water bottles. These can be great things to warm you up - both in bed and while watching a DVD. They are dead cheap - you can find them in nearly all supermarkets - and in those hotels that constantly supply you with hot water - they're easily re-filled.
A word of warning - buy the better models - the real ultra-cheapies may quickly develop leaks!!!!


Closer to home - a pair of the wife's long-johns. This is the local way of keeping warm - I don't wear 'em - but I'm sure they're very effective!!!


Nearly forgot our fish - now they have central heating.


If you climb you can expect to find winter snow - this is around 2,000m at Qingcheng mountains. However this snow soon melted - you have to climb to around 3,000m before the snow stays put over winter.


Lots of folk find snow exciting - but this individual guarding a Qingcheng Mountain Temple doesn't seem to be enjoying it.


But luckily spring is never far around the corner - this blossom pic was taken in Chengdu Botanic Gardens during January.


And here is spring proper - Rhododendrons, at around 2,000m, flowering during April.

Chengdu Travel Guide - A frosty November trip to Laba He

Chengdu Travel - We've just come back from another trip with a mother and daughter ex-pat team from Beijing. They wanted to see some real live wild Sichuan animals - so where better to go than Laba He Forest Park. We'd driven past the park a couple of days before this trip was due to begin - then it was grey and overcast - but not too cold. However when we arrived last Monday the temperatures had suddenly started to fall - we were in for a chilly visit.


we spent a night in one of the Park hotels - they have electric blankets on the beds - but our guests still felt cold during the night. In such situations its best to ensure that the Hotel provides extra blankets - especially if you have Children.
The next day we were all up and ready for our walk - and as you can see from this pic the lower parts of the park were free from frost and snow.


Here we are enjoying the fresh-air.


However it wasn't that far up the path that we encountered the frost-line - a bit further on and their was a light flurry of snow.


In this pic you can see how the autumn colors contrast with frosty conditions slightly higher up.


Here we come to the end-point of our walk (about 3 km up the track - we adjusted the length of our walk to suite the stamina of our smallest traveler) - although cold the conditions make for a wonderfully scenic landscape to enjoy this kind of nature you need to have warm clothing. After or walk our guests wanted a warmer destination - so having a good transport can also help in these kind of weather challenging situations. We drove them to Leshan and the Big Buddha.


Pine forests in in a frosty setting.


We were lucky enough to see animals - here's a Samba deer that we photographed the night before the walk. The park has an illuminated night viewing area - where animals are attracted down with feed. These deer are quite tolerant of humans so it's possible to get quite close. Since there were very few other guests we were the only ones viewing. Getting to see interesting stuff in China outside a crowd is always a big plus!!!!
On the way to the viewing are we also bumped into a Great Indian Civet Cat, which was patrolling the side of the road. During the trip we twice ran into sizable troupes of Short-tailed Macaque.


Here's an amusing looking character - a Collared Owlet. These are tiny Owls - but the other birds didn't take too kindly to its company - they were busy mobbing this tiny hunter - trying to drive it away.


A picture that sums up the trip - a Black-faced Laughingthrush singing in the snow.