We pull into Chengdu North Station at 7.30pm, three hours late. It takes a bit of searching to find the right bus to take us into the city centre. The Number One trolleybus mentioned in the Lonely Planet China guidebook doesn’t run anymore. Eventually, however, we find the right bus and are soon rattling through the brightly lit streets of Chengdu. The immediate impression of the city is a Hong Kong clone, lots of new buildings, glass and steel, and garish neon.
When the bus terminates, we walk a short distance along the river to the Traffic Hotel, where a bed in a three-bedroom costs what seems at first an extortionate ￥40 each. However, the cost is offset by the inclusion of breakfast, and the room itself is immaculate with towels, slippers, and crisp, clean linen. Best of all, however, to us culture-starved Westerners, it has satellite TV.
After a delicious meal in the hotel’s restaurant, we settle into our comfortable beds and watch Star TV. Linda is soon asleep, but I become captivated by a live broadcast of Pink Floyd’s Division Bell concert currently being played in Earls Court in London. The room becomes alive with colours and flashing lights as the band plays through some of its standard numbers: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Learning To Fly; songs from their latest album The Division Bell: Good News, Take It Back; and then play through the Dark Side Of The Moon album in its entirety. The songs are choreographed to an avalanche of lighting effects, lasers, explosions, and mechanical effects. Welcome back to the Western world!
CurseOfTheTraveller 