成都三天遊，巴適！巴適是四川方言，即粵語舒服。
Athree-day trip to Chengdu—Bashi! Bashi is a Sichuan dialect term meaning“comfortable”.
第一天
玩東郊記憶及寬笮巷子。前者是電子管廠，這類舊工廠區改建為年青人文創中心，例子有紐約SOHO、廣州琶醍、香港南豐紗廠等，國企本來就是小社區，各類建築都有，不只變身酒吧、茶館或咖啡廳 Ning Cafe，也有很多年青人「潮店」，售賣熊貓形狀果撻、李寧限量版休閒服、三星堆/ 哪吒IP紀念品，四川不只漢人，故也售少數民族風時裝。打卡點包括蘇聯米格戰機、毛澤東年代的口號……週一下午去，竟接近全場爆滿，飲東西聊天打牌，各適其適地hea，羨煞過開996生活的深圳友人。
寬笮巷子乃馳名遊客區，流連最久是五糧液專門店，見識了由20元歪咀至幾萬元的十二生肖五糧液，其他店有化粧拍照、剪紙、麵粉公仔工藝，土產店賣綠茶、上海名物大白兔糖、鹵眞兔頭、預製火鍋湯底，貴價貨乃金楠木雕。佈局打造得樣樣有，但商業味太重，中外名店多，例如蜜雪冰茶及星巴克。不見按摩店，采耳卻處處有，街頭表演有變臉及長咀壺沖茶。整體感覺不及湖南鳳凰古城。
晚飯吃麻辣火鍋，現今食材包羅全國各種火鍋料：北京羊肉、潮汕牛肉、廣東豬肝、香港龍脷魚、重慶小酥肉、鴨腸、血旺等，陌生菜名有老豬肉（醃里脊）和苕粉（紅薯粉）。我向來怕不辣，麻不怕，不到蒼蠅館，也不擔心地溝油，但蘸碟則怕怕！每人一缸60毫升油，用來降溫，也可解辣云云。
第二天
參觀西博城主展區的糖酒會。中國葡萄酒，當驚世界殊。新疆近年最積極，展位佔地頗廣，相反，雲南、寧夏等僅聊備一格。外國葡萄酒，主要來自前蘇聯。烈酒方面，中國威士忌，不久將來又可當驚世界殊!好印象的有福建大芹莊，用波本桶的十年陳單一麥芽，只售二百餘。白酒貴州醬香摘要是首席合作夥伴，也試到降價的四川宜賓的醬香听花。
晚飯想吃好，去米其林一星的芙蓉凰，由我寫菜，叫了三涼菜花仁兔丁、椒蔴豆筋、胡豆（蠶豆）拌白肉，五熱菜鳳爪肥腸、乾煸牛蛙、藤椒豆花江團（鮰魚）、宮保雞丁、雪花雞淖（蛋白炒雞茸），自忖點得好，以為試到真.川菜百菜百味，結果千人一面，每道配料及辣法接近不變，且切法除雞淖和魚，全皆切粒，數盤下飯菜而已，失望！
第三天
純旅遊日。在成都，自然閒適。吃罷米其林推薦店老成都三樣麵的早餐，遊武侯祠，三國志加三國演義資訊，但我認為太簡單，僅kill time 一小時。再去旁邊的錦里，跟寬笮巷子差不多，但更土，反而另有韻味，聽到川普多，本地人喜歡也，多地道小吃，肥腸包大蔥、豬腦花、鹹甜皆可的蛋烘糕、冰粉……掃街一輪後，買了四川煙都德陽什邡手工雪茄作手信。最後找了一間alfresco dining吃麻婆豆腐、豆辦魚，菜平平，但環境好，不自覺飲完三両白酒，巴適！
Day 1: Settling Into Slow Living
I visited Eastern Suburb Memory and Kuanzhai Alley. The former, once an electronics tube factory, has been transformed into a cultural and creative hub for young people, similar to New York’s SOHO, Guangzhou’s Party Pier, or Hong Kong’s The Mills. State-owned enterprises were essentially mini-communities with diverse buildings. Today, many of these spaces have been repurposed into bars, teahouses, or cafes like Ning Cafe, along with trendy shops selling panda-shaped tarts, Li-Ning limited-edition casual wear, and Sanxingdui/Ne Zha IP merchandise. Since Sichuan is home to not only Han people but also ethnic minorities, you can also find ethnic minority-style fashion there. Popular photo-taking spots include a Soviet MiG fighter jet and Mao-era slogans. Even on a Monday afternoon, it was packed. People were drinking, chatting, playing cards, simply chilling in their own ways. My friend from Shenzhen, trapped in the 996 work shift grind, was seething with envy.
Kuanzhai Alley is a famous tourist area and spent most of our time at the Wuliangye flagship store. Their collection spanned from the 20-yuan “crooked mouth”bottle to the tens of thousands of yuan Chinese Zodiac Signs baijiu. Other shops provided makeup and photography services, paper cutting, as well as dough figurine craftsmanship. Local specialty stores sell green tea, Shanghai’s famous White Rabbit candy, braised rabbit heads, and pre-made hotpot soup broths. Among them, the most expensive items were jinnan wood carvings. While the area was beautifully designed and packed with attractions, the whole place reeked of commercialization. Numerous renowned domestic and international brands, including Mixue Ice Cream & Tea and Starbucks were present. No massage shops were seen, but ear-picking services were ubiquitous. Street performances include Sichuan face-changing opera and long spout tea pouring. In short, not as charming as Hunan’s Fenghuang Ancient Town.
For dinner, we had a spicy and numbing hotpot. Nowadays, the ingredients include a variety of hotpot items from all over the country: Beijing mutton, Chaozhou beef, Guangdong pork liver, Hong Kong sole, Chongqing crispy meat, duck intestines, blood tofu, and so on. Some unfamiliar dish names included “old pork”（marinated pork tenderloin） and “shao fen”（sweet potato noodles）.
I’m usually more concerned about food not being spicy enough — the numbing sensation doesn’t bother me at all. I avoid small, unhygienic restaurants and don’t worry about gutter oil, but I’m a bit wary of the dipping sauce! Each person gets a small pot of 60 milliliters of oil to cool down the hot pot and help reduce the spiciness.
Day 2
The day was spent at the main exhibition area of the Food & Drinks Fair in the Western China International Expo City. Chinese wine is set to astound the world. Xinjiang has been the most proactive recently and has large booth area. Conversely, Yunnan, Ningxia etc have minimal participation.Foreign wines mainly came from the former Soviet bloc. For spirits, Chinese whiskey will impress the world soon. Daqin Distillery in Fujian left a strong impression with its 10-year-old single malt aged in Bourbon barrels, priced at just over 200 yuan. Baijiu Zhaiyao, a Guizhou’s jiangxiang, is the chief partner. I also tasted decreased price Tinghua, a Sichuan-made jiangxiang baijiu.
For dinner, I indulged at Michelin-one-starred Fu Rong Huang, ordering three cold appetizers （peanut and rabbit cubes, spicy tofu skin, broad beans with sliced pork） and five hot dishes（chicken feet with pork intestines, dry-fried bullfrog, catfish with bean curd in peppercorn broth, kungpao chicken, snowflake chicken mousse stirred with egg white）. I thought I’d ordered well to experience authentic Sichuan’s “hundred dishes, hundred flavours,” but everything tasted surprisingly monotonous — same spicing, same dicing（except for the mousse and fish）. They were essentially just a few plates of xia fan cai – dishes that went well with rice, nothing more. How disappointing!
Day 3
It was a day entirely for leisure. In Chengdu, relaxation is natural. After the Michelin-recommended Old Chengdu Three Kinds Noodles breakfast, I visited Wuhou Shrine. It offered some information about the Three Kingdoms era, but I found it a bit too simplistic – barely enough to kill time for an hour. Moving to Jinli Street near the shrine. It was similar to Kuanzhai Alley but more down-to-earth, with its own charm. I heard a lot of Sichuan accents there, which was clearly a favourite among locals. Street snacks were everywhere: scallions wrapped in pork intestines, pig brain, sweet or savoury egg pancakes, ice jelly… After strolling around, I bought some handmade cigars from Deyang Shifang in Sichuan as souvenirs.
For my final meal, I found an alfresco dining spot where I had mapo tofu and fish in chili bean sauce. While the dish weren’t particularly remarkable, the atmosphere was delightful. Before I knew it, I had polished off 150 mililitres of baijiu. Bashi!
