Kuanghaixiang Alley - The Forgotten Alley In Chengdu

Been very sick over the weekends and not able to blog about my trip in other places in Chengdu yesterday. But now I'm getting a little and while watching Scott Pilgrim VS the World now I think maybe I can blog a bit what I did after the visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple. I missed out something in the visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple, I did not even realized that I stepped into Jinli Ancient Street until my sister told me. How silly is that.


Our agenda did not stop only at the Wuhou Memorial Temple and Jinli Ancient Street. We also visited the forgotten alley in Chengdu, known as Broad and Narrow Alley or Kuanghaixiang Alley in Jinhe Road.

The alleys were built in the beginning of Qing Dynasty (1644 C 1911). After the Qing troops arrived here, they built some cities and some hutongs to the north of the Tai City become residence, and was forbidden for Han people. Officers lived in those broad alleys, while the Eight Flag members lived in a narrow alley that was parallel to the broad one.

Some might asked, if the alley is with historical value, why the alleys have been descended? The reason is simple, the alleys are so unnoticeable. Anyway, it is a good experience walking around the alleys as the admission is fee unlike visiting Wuhou Memorial Temple.

Guess I want to stop now. Seems like Scott Pilgrim vs The World movie is like game movie only. Is that guy dreaming or sees everything like computer game or what? I have no idea. So, back to watch movie. :D


Photos are uploaded to my facebook profile at Jason Toh.
Direct links to the Broad and Narrow Alley photos that I took.

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Visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple

I have not been blogging over the past two weeks as I find it a hassle to have to keep logging onto the blogspot or facebook using my office laptop as the China government has blocked the Facebook and blogspot. Anyway, here I am again, blogging what I did last 3 weeks.


I will continue where I stopped last post on Touchdown at Chengdu. On that Saturday, we were planning to go out early in the morning, well not so early, but still early, maybe about 9am to 10am timeframe, but in the end we have to push it out because it was drizzling at that time.

Anyway, we (me and my two colleagues) did actually manage to visit one of the "Must Visit" place in Chengdu - the Wuhou Memorial Temple. Wuhou actually means Martial Marquis and the temple is dedicated to Zhuge Liang, the Martial Marquis of Shu in the Three Kingdoms.








The temple is about 400K square feet and is next to the Temple of Liu Bei. We can see a lot of the statues of the characters and stuff from the Romance of the Three Kingdom like Liu Bei.


Ok, guess that is all for now. Wanna watch the King of Fighters now.

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Touchdown at Chengdu

After a tiring whole day walk in QingChengShan yesterday, I'm having a relaxing Sunday in my hotel room, just watching TV and surf net. While I'm watching Iron Man 2, I'm thinking, maybe I can write the experience once I've touchdown at Chengdu.

As I posted on my previous blog entry - Sightseeing at Hong Kong City Center, I have touched down at Chengdu late night on Thursday. So, the two colleagues of mine and I rushed to get a taxi to the hotel and check in late at night. The ride to the hotel took about thirty plus minutes.


My first impression on Chengdu is that, wow…..everything here looks big; cars, buildings etc.... I mean the buildings that I saw is like huge, malls are connected – you can just walk from one malls to another without having to repark your car or getting a taxi ride. The next thing that I noticed about Chengdu is that it is foggy…..well, not exactly fog, but haze. The air pollution here must be extremely bad. Next, I noticed many people; including those driving very luxury cars like a seven series are driving with open window and not to use the car air-cond, could be for fuel savings.

Next day, we had our breakfast here in the hotel and then we report to work. We grab a taxi from the hotel to Intel. To be honest, the taxi ride here is horrifying and I’m sort of like having a culture shock. Even if we are to get our own car rental, I’m pretty sure that the three of us would still prefer to get a taxi. It seems like there is no rule or just that we are not used to the driving condition here.

Everywhere we go, we can hear the honking sound from cars, and cars are coming in from all over the directions. We are not even sure when the cars are supposed to stop, and sometimes we can see cars from the opposite directions are coming towards us…….eventhough it is our turn to move. However, I really salute the drivers in Chengdu, or it can be in any other place in China as well. They drive so aggressively and dangerously, yet, they give priority to the pedestrians and bicycles and motorbikes. These people drive cars like riding a bike, swaying here and there as if they own the road, yet it is so efficient and effective here.


Ok, guess I better continue watching Iron Man 2. Will blog about some of the places that I have been visiting in Chengdu soon.

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Sightseeing at Hong Kong City Center

I fly from Penang early morning last Thursday, and I only reached Chengdu late at night. The flight actually not long, just 2 hours plus from Penang to Hong Kong, and then another 2 hours plus to Chengdu. However, we got quite a long layover in Hong Kong, so, me and my colleagues decided to go sight seeing in Hong Kong with the 5 hours plus that we have.
























After checking out from the Hong Kong International Airport, we took the Airport Express (I think that is what the train is called) to Hong Kong city center, although passenger from the train can stop at Kowloon as well. At the Hong Kong city center, we took the bus ride to explore some of the more popular places around the city center. We stopped by Bowrington Road to have our lunch - which is quite costly, but I knew all along that the food in Hong Kong is not cheap. Well, seriously speaking, the food is not bad and I kinda like it. Before we know it, after the whole sight seeing stuff, few hours gone, and it is time to go check in back to the airport.

It was tiring after the whole sight seeing in Hong Kong city center. We reached Chengdu airport at about nine plus at night and then by the time we checked out from the airport, it is already late at night. We get a taxi to go to the Crowne Plaza hotel and then go to our respective room. I had my shower late late night and then sleep as I need to report to work the next day. The next few posts will be about Chengdu.

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