Free-form traffic, Unfortunate confusion, a Deal with the Devil

Today's theme was to explore Chengdu. Chengdu sitting in the dead center of China, has 7 million people and is the center of Szechuan, which is now spelled Sichuan, some of the time. Jin Li Street is a wonderful spot, I was told, so I bundled myself in a taxi and off I went.

Getting there is half the fun. I don't know any way to describe traffic patterns in China. Lane markings are on the road, but they might as well have a picture of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (Dwarves?) for all the attention that anyone pays to the markings. Right turn on red is allowed, as is pretty much anything else on red. The streets have cars and buses, also plenty of bicycles, motor scooters, 3-wheeled cycles (motorized and non-), occasional animals, and other various surprises. Drivers stay on the right side of the road, unless they feel like being on the other side. Anything that's paved, or remotely flat, is fair game. And pedestrians might as well have targets painted on them. But it all seems to work, somehow.

Jin Li Street is sort of a Chinese faux Quincy Market. Reproductions of old buildings, filled with shops and eating places. It looks kitschy at first glance, but it is very much an area where people seem to enjoy hanging out and walking around. Some of the food stalls looked downright terrific (though, admittedly, most were serving up stuff that looked frightening to this Westerner).

Jin Li didn't hold my attention for very long, so it was off to Chun Xi Road, the main downtown shopping area and roughly the equivalent of Boylston St or Fifth Avenue. Lots of shops, lots of pedestrian streets, lots of people window-shopping down the sidewalks, groups of women and men and teenagers doing their respective things. In short, indistinguishable from any similar street in Boston or Brussels or Johannesburg.

One major difference was the complete absence of Western faces. Now I saw plenty of blue-eyed devils at the panda center yesterday, and there's a smattering of us at the hotel where I'm staying. But I saw exactly 0 in Chun Xi. Around this time I needed to buy a bottle of water, found a nearby stand, and handed over 5 Yuan for the 2 Yuan bottle. No deal, said the shopkeeper. Now I had vaguely heard that some shops do not like to give change, that they need exact amounts, but this seemed odd. Anyway, I abandoned that place and headed over to the WoWo, which seems like a local 7-11 chain. Got the same response!! Feeling completely at a loss (look, the burden is on me to speak Chinese, not on the Chengdoobies to speak English), I skulked off, found a Starbucks (!), and bought a coffee for 15 Yuan (about $2.25).

Took a cab back to the hotel, fare was 9 Yuan, and I gave the cabbie 2 5's. Now I get histrionics from the cab driver! I have him drive me around to the entrance where there's a doorman, who I know can act as interpreter. And the cheerful doorman informed me that the 5 Yuan notes that I'd been trying to use are actually worth 1/2 of 1 Yuan. Oh.

I was confused. See the 5's on the left? They're halfs. The ones on the right, with the smiling Chairman, they're the real 5's.

Chengdu is the main city of Szechuan, and that means that it's the capital of Szechuan cooking. And I have had some great food here. The signature Szuchuan dish is Mabo Dofu, which is fried tofu in an incredibly spicy and mouth-numbing sauce. The sauce includes some type of "meat," and it's almost surely best not to inquire further. They have a fantastic sense of knowing how to create foods that are viciously spicy while at the same time being insanely delicious.

And that's where the Faustian part kicks in, the Deal with the Devil. You eat this stuff, it is delicious beyond all wild possibility, and you know that you will pay the price. But that price will be paid later. (Not a whole lot later, but later.) And the deal is done.

That's it for today. Glad to see that the Sox have a nearly insurmountable lead over the Yankees and Rays. Off to Japan tomorrow.