A New "Pal" for China Expats: Baopals

I'm working on an article on my top conveniences that make life easier as a Shanghai expat...these are the little things that I will definitely miss when I move away. Life as an expat is infinitely easier today with all the technological help, and no where is that more true than China/Shanghai. In the meantime, though, I wanted to share my latest find in convenience: Baopals.

Baopals' tagline is "Taobao for the rest of us". Yes, Taobao in English so you no longer have to awkwardly translate or ask a coworker for help. There's a little more to it than that...here's a description from their site: "We bring you all the products and shops from China’s Taobao and Tmall, the largest marketplace in the world. We’ve reorganized the products into baopals’ own departments, and added plenty of other tools to make it easier for you to find what you want. From there, simply choose your items, checkout with a variety of payment methods, and we’ll make sure your items get to you!"

For those that don't know Taobao, it is a massive marketplace of products and has just about anything you could ever want. Many Shanghai expats I know use it, but it's tough to navigate if you don't read Chinese. Not only does Baopals make it more accessible but you have a contact who can help if any shipping or other issues arise. They take (and will be adding more) additional payment options as well.

I ordered my first product recently...found just what I needed, saved about $10 over Amazon.cn and it was delivered to my local convenience store within 2 days (this is one of the handy shipping methods, so you can get the items at your convenience rather than coordinating home or work delivery...you receive a text and show the code at the store). We'd been searching for some odd light bulbs for our apartment and also got those for next to nothing in one day.

If you're an expat in China, here's a little gift for you: a coupon for 10 RMB for baopals.com.

Chengdu: City of Parks

After our morning spent with the pandas and a refueling stop over some spicy Sichuan food (actually fairly mild to appease our wimpy tastes, but delicious nonetheless), we made our way to see what life in Chengdu is all about.  And, that life takes place in the parks.  There you will find huge numbers of people enjoying the tea houses, playing Mahjong and cards and generally enjoying some beautiful spaces.

We stopped first at Chengdu Biahuatan Park, which was a large, peaceful park with a great bonsai garden (each year there is apparently a big bonsai competition held here).

Chengdu and its parks are dotted with waterways, with lots of meandering bridges and spots to stop and feed the fish (koi fish have various symbolism related to good fortune and success, so it's possibly more than just a fun and relaxing activity).

Outside the park, we walked along one of the old streets of the city with a bronze statue dedicated to the love story of a musician and dancer who performed here thousands of years ago.

Then, we entered another park with plenty of spots to spend a relaxing afternoon.

We left the park to visit a Taoist temple area next door.  Taoism and Buddhism have an interesting kind of coexistence in Chinese life and many people and traditions now take pieces from both.  Taoism is really more a way of living/philosophy of life (tao literally being "the way").  Some of the rituals you see observed in modern day life include the  food left for the deceased and gods during Qingming festival, the burning of joss paper and fortune telling.

On our own the next day, we explored People's Park.  As our guide had indicated, you hear the noise as you get close to this park. There is a constant bustle of activity, though there are also tea houses and quiet areas.  Generally, this is where you go to be social.  And, you notice quickly that with all the park land in Chengdu most people prefer this loud, bustling spot.  I have to admit, the Chinese people have something here...I'd rather watch all the people and activity too.

Every type of dancing and exercise is available

"The catwalk" hat fashion show ???

A fully decked out singing performance

A musical play complete with costumes and multiple acts

When the noise gets to be enough, there are plenty of areas for a nice rest and spot of nature.

And, you can get your refreshment when the dancing or boating has worn you out for the day.

A favorite with the kids, intricate sugar syrup designs (such as the sign of your birth year)

For a commercialized look at old Chengdu, you can go to Jinle ancient street which has been refashioned in to a tourism area.  It was still quite fun for a stroll, with various shops, plenty of crowds, and a nice food street area.

I am still regretting that I did not get a good, old fashioned ear cleaning while we were there though.  That looks like it would feel so good!  What do you think?

Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng

We made a last minute decision for the second day with our guide in Chengdu to go to Dujiangyan instead of Leshan (home of the giant Buddha) after hearing about the holiday weekend traffic.  The Buddha will have to wait!

Dujiangyan is an irrigation infrastructure built in 256 BC by the Kingdom of Qin. It is located in the Min River and is still in use today to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometers of land in the area.

There was quite a bit of traffic to get out of Chengdu, but the site is a relatively quick drive on the highway.  Our guide had us dropped off at the best spot at the top of the mountain to enter the park and hike down.

Though it was a bit foggy, you can get the idea of the scale of this site from the view.

A map of the entire project/area

We hiked along the mountain stairs to the various temples and viewing points.  Even with holiday crowds, it felt very peaceful.  The mountain is a cool wooded escape from the nearby city.  We stopped at numerous Buddhist and Taoist temples along the way with great historical context from our guide.  

Enjoying a photo opp in the cool woods, after thousands of steps...

About halfway through the hiking, we took respite at one of the Buddhist temples serving tasty vegetarian cuisine.  For about three yuan (.45 cents), we got different styles of rice noodles with a combination of spices and a pungent vinegary sauce.  Even with our guide asking that mine be made less spicy, my lips were completely numb from the Sichuan peppers by the end.  It was a delicious numbness, though.  

After reaching the bottom of our hike, we crossed the suspension bridge over the main river.  It can quite a harrowing experience crossing it, but that did not discourage the crowds.  The Anlan Bridge, also known as Couple’s Bridge is 261 meters long across the inner and outer river.  There have been various incarnations of the bridge but the latest concept was proposed by a man and his wife after prior bridges were burnt in war…thus “couples bridge” in their honor.

Once we got across the bridge, we learned more about the irrigation project.  A simple design diverts the water in to two rivers, allowing better control of flooding and funneling water for use throughout the area.  A simple, yet massive project (especially when you consider when it was created), which has had lasting benefits.  Here is the old suspension bridge atop the "secondary river" which was currently pretty empty during the dry season.

There is some information explaining the project and showing the materials originally used to build the dams.

Bamboo casings filled with large stones and built into a dam structure to control the waters

After crossing the bridge, you could see some great views up the mountain from a new vantage point.  

There is a lovely extensive park area to walk around with a variety of ponds, gardens and structures.

You can stop along the way to feed the fish

This place is so relaxing it can put you right to sleep

Upon leaving the park, there are additional cultural sites to see.  We walked across the intricately decorated covered bridge in to the cultural center.

If you need some refueling from all the steps, there is a great street food culture here.  One vendor gave us a taste of some homemade yam chips and Bryan got a sort of meat pancake/empanada (obviously not the official Chinese name for it).

We climbed up to another temple area and read about the inscriptions about the different gods and mythical creatures of Taoism (many quite spiteful, including the masters of the various forms of hell with some pretty vivid punishment descriptions).

I would be offering some prayers up after reading those inscriptions too.  The trees outside the highest temple were filled with prayer offerings/wishes.

The beautiful calligraphy made me feel ashamed of my lack of initiative with Chinese characters.

The final steps of the ancient city were a mix of old and new, with shops and some modern panda graffiti lining the way.

As we left, we were fully immersed in modern day China (on a holiday weekend no less) with a mad rush of people shopping and holiday deals being promoted everywhere.  Even the traditional parades had been remade in to a commercial for some local electronics shop.  It was a bit shocking after the peace of the mountain and we were ready for the peaceful ride back to Chengdu in the air conditioned car.