Barbara and I had been to Chengdu before and would have been happy to give it a miss this time but we needed to arrange our Tibet travel documents which were difficult to come by following anti Chinese pro Tibetan demonstrations at Everest in advance of the Beijing Olympics.  Raine however was keen to see the Pandas and buy a train ticket to Lhasa while Barbara and I preferred to fly

Checking in at Sims Cozy Guest House in Chengdu we couldn't help but see the 3 day weather forecast.  Cloudy with little sun in the offing but not much rain either, things were looking up

Sim and his wife Maki have created a wonderful guesthouse, it was the perfect accommodation and location for us.  Situated on the edge of a pedestrian area around Wenshu Temple

The Autumn Festival was just around the corner and everywhere people were getting ready.  Making all kinds of decorations from the smallest to the large characters which would adorn the arch at the end of the street.  We left before they were completed but it must have looked splendid 

At Sims recommendation we dined at a local restaurant with no English menu.   He had written down the three dishes we were to order.  A delicious bowl of dumplings, something brown and tasty and finally something bright yellow and best described as interesting.  A Chinese couple who had lived in Canada came to our aid and helped us understand the  15 Yuan ($2) tab.  Our purchase, consumption and reaction to the meal had been their evenings entertainment

This venerable author, an honoured son of Chengdu arrived to tour the district with the architect.   With few Western visitors many of the press cameras seemed to be turned on us in spite of his very beautiful entourage

In 2007 there were few Western tourists in Wenshufang or Wenshu  Fun as this cute little message from the local police would suggest.   The newly built fun district has only been open for a year and Westerner visitors may just not have caught on to it yet.   At this time of year with 40% of the population of China taking the opportunity to travel along with a similar number of Taiwanese and Koreans it is perhaps as well