Diary on the road Chengdu: 2 hotels in 1 street
cctv.com 06-01-2004 14:14
As adventurous as I would like to see myself, I am extremely cautious even can be seen as captious about hotel selections. Sites and places that fail your expectation, you can always leave a.s.y.p, as soon as you please; but the hot shower and the pillow? It is no laughing matter if they pinch everyday and every night.
Before I left for Chengdu, I was surfing for hotels advertised on the web: all "newly renovated", "Singaporean managing style", "central downtown location" etc. none of their taglines were particularly appealing. Believing a good trip should always involve careful planning while leaving room for spontaneity, I only booked a room for one day in a 3star hotel and prepared to move once I got there. For a city like Chengdu, I knew I could find a place that meets my expectation. Again, It is not my expectation is always too skyscraper-ly high; it is simply different, or more closely 鈥 own-to-earth-ly low" this time...
I stayed in Xiaoguanyuan, a courtyard guesthouse in old town Chengdu for more than 2 weeks.
I randomly discovered the guesthouse while shooting around the old town. This is a place you won't find on the web (at least until now); even many locals never heard about it; Lonelyplanet- loyal backpackers often mistake it as another international youth hostel lying on the same street. But as soon as you step inside, you would instantly realize it is not: lonely planet writers with critical eyes and appetite for things exotic like things exotic on a comfortable level. For Chengdu, they recommend Dragon Town youth hostel that lies in the same street: you can count on to have a blueberry pancake and a cup of espresso to start your morning, group tours are arranged by guides who speak English, (and for your benefit, very eagerly), ADSL and a small courtyard serve to link you with the world both cyberly and socially,
Xiaoguanyuan guesthouse can be found in the same street as the youth hostel (kuanxiangxi alley), as similar price range, also in a courtyard style. But PEOPLE and ambience are completely different. No giggling girls by reception desk shedding shining smile (brighter to blonde foreigners), no eager English- speaking guides trying to buy you into another daytrip. Girls working in xiaoguanyuan are country girls in no disguise, wearing braids, speaking only Chengdu dialect. Some are quiet and shy, some are like MALA hotpot, quick tempered and not fear to show it, even to the guests, e.g. to our lazy cameraman (ha-ha, matt@). Reception service is slow and almost nonchalant, well, When most state-own guesthouses leave way or dress up to be 鈥渋nternational hostels鈥 where you can enjoy as much warm smiles and premium service as you wish, in exchange of dollars, (in some occasions hair color alone will also do), Staying in fossil xiaoguanyuan can feel like a time trip back to the past all of sudden, quite a fresh new experience today.
It is not better; it is simply real.
The International hostel is a small world of its own in a Chinese setting. People "hang around", people socialize, among people alike, mostly Europeans with Europeans, Chinese with Chinese. Xiaoguanyuan is a real Chinese old- fashioned guesthouse, where socializing is a foreign concept, people rarely even exchange eye contact with fellow travelers, AT BEGINNING. Why? Some say Chinese people are not social people but family people. They won't hold the door for a stranger not because they are deliberately being rude, but only because you don't exist in their perceptional world. It may sound disturbing and astonishing, but the brighter side is once you become someone they know, someone with a name, a face, a part of their world, they willingly open most doors, even to the heart and hold it for you. It is not better worse way of socializing, just different.
By the time I left xiaoguangyuan, I had stayed too long for people working there not seeing me as part of the family. There were no electronic card keys to each room, but we had no worries about if the girls would hold the doors every night after a long day shooting. I felt always a bit unease to interrupt the girls chatting in the yard with their sesame seeds or already in bed. But every time, one of them would always literally RUN to me the key ring, in the speed that no well trained service minded hostess would ever could. I simply love their singing voice-- "lai le (I am coming in a minute!)" in Chengdu dialect, half greeting, half assurance,
The garden and suite rooms are the most enjoyable part of the guest house besides their earthy service. Having Birds twittering in the yard to wake you up in the morning, enjoy your coffee/tea/cig/watermelon/hotpot in the courtyard at night, reading Chinese Couplets hanging everywhere either to test your knowledge of traditional literature with your fellow travelers, or simply learn some...Those moments made me really feel fortunate-- a pass- byer who not only peek into the life in this place but also stepped into it. Even my little standard room had a name. "shangxin鈥攑leasant mind" while my cameraman's "pleasing to the eyes". We joked about we should have switched the rooms accordingly at first, then soon realized they fit either of us simply fine.
Address: Kuanqianzi No. 44 Chengdu
灝忚鍥嫑寰呮墍. 瀹藉販瀛愯礬44鍙
Tel. I have to look for; they didn鈥檛 give me a card even. No reservation accepted or needed anyway.
Editor:Zhang Source:CCTV.com
