The golden week

The upcoming week starts promisingly because it's vacation time!

Quickly and painlessly, I joined the three guys Matthias, Yannik, and Jan on their trip to Chengdu. They didn't have much time to think and now I'm stuck with them.

While the male creatures of nature preferred the rough means of transportation and chugged to Chengdu by a 14-hour train ride, the lady of the group preferred the refined way and took a flight to the 14 million metropolis of Sechuan.

Before departure, I had to pack my moving suitcases in addition to my travel backpack (which of course became much fuller than planned) and quickly move into my new apartment. However, the settling-in phase was a bit short because we were already heading to Chengdu on the same evening.....

Arriving at 11 pm, I spent a relaxed evening with beer in a very cozy hostel to get in the mood for the coming week.

The early bird catches the worm was our motto, so on Monday morning at 8 o'clock, we were already heading towards Mt. Emeishan. The goal was to reach the summit of the sacred mountain within two days. The sacred mountain was climbed by Buddha number 1 personally and is therefore a must-see for many Chinese people. Contrary to the masses, however, we decided not to take the bus or cable car to sniff the air at 3000 meters, no, we had the 100000000000000000000000000000000..... stairs in mind. So, after arrival and a short break, we set off....

Well, if you can't decide when packing, you have only yourself to blame if the 15kg backpack makes the ascent more exhausting than expected. But why else did I play tennis, volleyball, snowboarding, and more if not to show now that I can easily keep up...

After about 4 hours, it got dark and the four hikers were looking for accommodation. Fortunately, a lonely monk offered us shelter in his monastery. However, the whole thing was not entirely Buddhist and altruistic, and so after an exorbitant price, we got a warm bed and some rice with cabbage. Nevertheless, the atmosphere on the mountain was unique. We enjoyed the silence, the simplicity, and the exhausted limbs after a challenging yet very beautiful first day of vacation.

The motto with the bird continued and the next day, we continued towards the summit with the sun at 6 o'clock. After 6 hours of sweating, four Snickers, three bananas, wild monkeys, and a few rays of sunshine, we reached the goal. Ahead of us was..... fog.

Well, it wasn't that bad, but there was no classic alpine panorama view. Nevertheless, proud as can be, we explored the summit with a large Buddha statue and several temples.

Going down, however, was a bit unspectacular, exhausted and tired on the bus.

Surprised by the planning skills of the guys, we ended up in a simple but very sweet hotel in a small street in the middle of the small town of Leshan on the same evening. Although we should have fallen into bed immediately, the pride of the completed hike overwhelmed us, and so it happened as it had to. Street food-first beer-second beer-third beer-......... continues to the trendy Muse Club in Leshan with about 4 guests (all of course our friends after the evening)-eleventh beer-twelfth beer-..... continues to a KTV place (for explanation, KTV is the hit in China, these are highly professional karaoke bars with private, state-of-the-art rooms)-'I want it that way.....' twentieth beer........ well, you can imagine it was fun and it brought a headache.

The next day was rather relaxed. We slept in, had breakfast, and then quickly and effectively visited the largest Buddha statue in the world with a small speedboat. Then we continued.

The next stop was Jiayang. In the small province south of Chengdu, an old steam locomotive runs on a 19.84-kilometer railway line. It serves not only as a tourist attraction but also as the only means of transportation for the surrounding villages.

Since we couldn't find a hotel room quickly and came from Leshan only to Qiawei, we spent the night in the adjacent town in a small hourly hotel. Not super romantic, but effective and cheap. Still a little hangover from the night before, we had some street food, a couple of beers, and then a tasteful white leather bed....

The next day, we went to the steam locomotive and then, Chinese style, with all tourists through a beautiful but rather unspectacular flower landscape. But obviously, flowers can arouse much more enthusiasm than expected..... After 500000 photos and 'Oohs' and 'Aahhs', we arrived in a small village with the steam locomotive. And because we were already on a tourist trip, we also took the tour of the old coal mines.... A nice excursion.

In the evening, we went straight back to Chengdu. However, the tour was slowly draining our energy, so we fell into the hostel tired at first. However, there wasn't much time, as THE birthday of the year was around the corner. A friend of Jahn (Martin, living in Chengdu) was celebrating his birthday in the evening. So after days of travel and grubby life, we dressed up nicely. The evening started with a larger group for dinner, then we went to a bar..... after 'a few' drinks, we continued to a club. Ahead of us was a 24-story building. Exit downstairs, club with a view over Chengdu upstairs. Fast, good, underground electro beats kept us on our feet until the early hours of the morning. A quick portion of street food noodles and then off to bed....

The next day in Chengdu brought another highlight of the trip. The pandas. Quite leisurely after an extensive hangover breakfast, we went to the national park..... But after little sleep, a headache, and the first two sick ones in the group, the spark didn't really ignite. Well, the animals are still quite cute...

In the evening, the whole birthday group went to a Teppanyaki dinner. One group, one chef, a menu with the finest fish and meat, and all you can eat & drink. Very, very, very, very fine.... While the rest of the group was already getting ready for the coming night, the two sniffing noses Len and Yannik went to the hostel after the feast, playing a game of billiards and enjoying ginger tea....

The last day was rather in favor of the sick and to the disadvantage of Matthias. Jan said goodbye here and drove further to Chonquing with the rest of the group.... We let ourselves drift a little through Chengdu, its parks, tea houses, and old town, but we also disappeared back to the nest early. By now, my nose hardly had any space left to breathe, and I was looking forward to sleep..... In the evening, I went back to Shanghai, completely exhausted and completely satisfied with a great week with great companions, and fell into bed.....