The bus started moving again just after 5am and when I checked the map we didn't seem that far from Chengdu considering the speed we'd been going at. I slept a bit more until around 7am then ate a bit and did some more research on places to go as I wanted more than the 2 days I might currently have in Beijing. It was light so I read some and when I checked the map at 9am we were in the suburbs of Chengdu. I wasn't sure which bus station we were going to so I got my things ready but then we drove all the way across town to the north bus station arriving at 9.36. It was a bit further from the hostel so from the map I would walk to a main road and get a bus. I headed off through the bus station but there was no exit that side so I went out the front entrance and across the road and tried to walk along but there was road works. I had to change direction to go round them and then go in the right direction again only when I checked the map a few minutes later I'd gone south instead of east. The suitcase was getting stuck every now and again with the last 2 surviving wheels being used too much and I ended up dragging it further than the 40 minutes maps had first said it was to walk. I was close to the hostel and the suitcase wasn't moving well at all so I checked and another wheel had gone, the suitcase was finished. I part carried it the last but but at least the hostel was where maps said it was. I went inside to check in but they told me it would have to be later so I left my suitcase in a corner near the pool table and got my things sorted and headed out. I thought about going to Walmart but I decided that could wait as I still had some food so I got on a bus and got of at Tianfu square. The science museum was closed as wikitravel had said but the square was quite big, mainly paved but with fountains and a statue of Mao. After a bit I went to the Chengdu museum and noticed that the fountains had stopped so I'd been lucky. I needed to get a ticket for the museum for security reasons as it was free but they checked my passport. The place was packed and small replica rooms of grotto caves were full of people even though the real thing was not that far away. It was a temporary exhibition though and I think maybe Monday is a holiday like a weekend. The exhibition that was part of on the silk road I didn't think was that good mainly because it was just lots of copies of cave paintings and replica statues but I might not see the real thing and they were all over 1000 years old. They had a permanent exhibition over 4 floors on Chengdu through the ages with it being part of the Qin unification a bit later and then an important part of the later empires being possibly the 2nd city to Yangshou until it got attacked and burnt down. It was rebuilt and stayed a state capital but wasn't quite the same although during the Japanese war a lot of universities relocated there as it wasn't conquered yet. Lastly they had a bit on shadow puppets which I wasn't so interested in. I left and went to the nearby peoples park which had a busy tea pavilion with lots of people playing games and some acupuncturists looking for customers. The park had a section where lots of paper that looked like job applications or something were laid out, I translated one and it seemed to maybe be about somewhere to stay. There was a monument as well to one of the revolutions, 1911 I think. I headed north towards the next bookmark and got a couple of pastry things on the way. The next place, wide alley was busy and at first it looked like it might be an arty area as there was a horse Sculpture partway into a wall but it turned out to be lots of old buildings with mainly food stalls and restaurants. I did see 2 acupuncturists at work and another had translated their sign using google translate as it didn't make proper sense. The area was too crowded and there wasn't really any thing in particular to see so I moved on and stopped at a 7-11 where I got s box of rice for 2.50 and a ham and egg sandwich for 7.50. It had been a while since my last sandwich and I enjoyed it as I crossed to an Chinese arch that turned out to be a shopping street more in the style of Regent street in London's west end. From there I walked into a park which had another busy tea house by a small lake. In the corner was a temple that was 10 yuan but apparently it was all modern reconstruction so I headed on to the Sichuan museum that was closed although I couldn't tell if that was a one day or more permanent closure. There was a park next to it that was partly boarded up but it had a big lake with lots of birds, many that looked like storks but a noticeboard told me were egrets and further along there were some art works like a big cauldron. I walked along the river and then headed through town towards another park and stopped to pick up some biscuits and a couple of discounted bananas. I love that they discount older fruit as its just how I want them as long as they're not bruised which they sometimes are. I noticed the bins had the recycling part the colour blue here and green was other waste, in Yunnan green had been recycle and yellow or brown other waste. The park had lots of people there for some basketball event that had finished and I walked through to get to a tomb and in the way a group of students wanted a selfie with me. The tomb was for a general who'd died in the 1930's so probably did his thing during the first revolution period. Nearby was Jinlin street I found out with old buildings and even more tourists than wide alley had had. There was also a tomb area that was 60 yuan which I skipped. It was getting a bit late and most places would be closed so I found a bus stop and got on a no.1 bus which turned right at the first turning. Thankfully it did go in the right direction and took me all the way to Walmart past a suitcase shop on the way. I bought quite a few things in Walmart like 1.5l water, 3 big pears, a pot noodle, some other food, yoghurt, cakes and an ice cream. I put my bag on and part of the seam ripped, I was just having one of those days. I could still carry the bag and was just more careful and I ate most of the ice cream going to the nearby temple. I went and looked around and it didn't look very impressive and I was considering leaving but I saw a big building that was nice but closed. Then I headed back round to the front and there were some good sections there as well and a ceremony going on. I tried to leave through the north but realised there was no exit there so I ended up going all the way round and out the front. I finished off my ice cream and headed back to the hostel. It was past 6pm and I checked in but couldn't see my suitcase and it turned out I'd left in in front of the luggage room door so they'd put it inside. I went up to the room and got lucky with the bottom bunk. One girl was there and I changed from tracksuit trousers to chinos and left some things so my bag was light. The hostel had a food tasting tour starting at 7pm but I had things to worry about so I headed to the luggage shop to try to sort that out and after a few minutes I realised I'd left my tape measure. I decided to carry on and got there just past 7pm and some shops on the way were closing but it was still open. I looked at a few suitcases and none looked great but a few were 160 yuan which was not that bad a price. The woman showed me that one suitcase expanded a bit which I find useful so I negotiated on price and got it for 140. I headed back to the hostel and the food tour had left so I had some of the hostels food, a spicy tofu I'd seen someone else eat and I tried to work out if I could fit in Jiuzhaigou park. It was looking difficult as there wasn't an easy route from there to Xian and if I went there and came back to Chengdu I would have to leave tomorrow which would mean repacking all of my things by then and I still wanted to do a wash and the machines were busy and their drying area full. I half decided to stay in Chengdu longer and try to make things easier for myself and I went to talk to a European couple who were doing planning. Turns out they had just arrived in China so couldn't help me much but still I hadn't talked to that many people so we discussed their plans a bit. I saw some Chinese playing Mahjong and went over to find out how the game worked. After 1 game the winner explained the rules and it was like a kind of Anaheim rummy where you have 13 tiles and gave to make groups of them 3, 3, 3, 2 and 2 I think. I left after a bit to have a shower and organise a few of my things and I booked another night at the hostel. I came back down and the couple were leaving so I joined another table which had an older Catalonian and 2 young students one from Germany and the other Sri Lankan. They left after a bit and I talked to the guy from Barcelona who had traveled all over the world and was off to Tibet soon. I went upstairs for bed around 11 and there were 4 girls in the room sorting their things out. I had a few things to do like sew my bag but they didn't finish getting ready until 12 which is pretty bad for a hostel. I read a bit while they were messing around before finally going to sleep.
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