Day 19 continued into our laid back winding down segment of this long holiday: it was spent visiting Chunxi Road, Chengdu’s popular and well-known pedestrian shopping street. It’s a fairly large area, very pedestrian friendly and packed with skyscraper-like luxury malls, traditioal styled streets with goods carrying more down to earth priced fare, and lots and lots of food options. And more Huawei/Mi/Vivo/Oppo shops condensed in a single area than you’d fine anywhere nearby. Heck: there is probably a Huawei store every 50m or so, all carrying the same items.
The iconic panda art installation that you see in a lot of photos is found in the IPS building – you can’t miss it as you’d see the backside of a panda from the ground level outside first! The front of it though is seen via a roof-top garden at level 7, but be warned: there is almost always a queue of people wanting to take their photos right in front of that panda, and as these things go, also photographer touts offering their services.
The wife and especially the daughter when nuts in this district shopping for clothes and apparel, while the boy and myself got bored a little quicker – since once we’d seen the range of mobile tech gadgets carried by one Chinese manufacturer, you’ve pretty much probably seen everything that manufacturer is carrying. We spent 5 hours in the district and checked out of it in the late afternoon to miss the inevitable incoming evitable evening crowds and traffic.