Exploring the old town

After a leisurely breakfast fruit, yoghurt and muesli in my room, I went out for a 2h+ exploration of the old town. It was more of the same as what I had seen yesterday. I think I’m feeling a bit jaded as I didn’t feel like paying money for the entrances.

There was the Zhangfei temple (peeked and saw his golden statue) and the examination hall. For the latter, it would just have been looking at furniture. There were also a couple of towers which would have offered a view (but I had seen it ore or less from the southern wall already).

Not a good attitude to have but it’s kinda the way it is since I can’t read any of the information or understand any of the guide’s commentaries. But I enjoy just rambling around more than Chinese history about the dynasties or Zhangfei as a famous military person.

As I had had some snacks during the walk, I skipped lunch and had some fruit and nuts.

After a little rest, I went south of the river, crossing by boat to Nanjinguan. This was rated five As (the highest possible grade) by the tourism authority.  It appeared to be a recreated old town which I didn’t appreciate. A walk up and down completed the exploration for me and I was back on the boat to my side of the river.  I thought it was a waste of time regardless of the five As!

I went to Walmart to buy a laptop backpack which I quite liked yesterday. There was another one for CNY100 which was better in some ways but not everyway. As I expected to have spare cash (since some parts of Sichuan are heaps cheaper than Chengdu), I bought a few bits and pieces for Mum, namely shiitake mushroom, goji berries and Xinjiang red dates.

I had an early dinner of Zhangfei Beef Noodles, which the town is famous for. The noodles were good but surprisingly it was in a very thick gravy spiced up with Sichuan peppercorn (but no chilli).