Continuing the report on my first afternoon in Chengdu, China: after visiting the Jinli Ancient Street, it was time to see the modern side of the city. Chunxi Road offers an entirely different shopping experience with high-end brands and the most giant of all giant pandas, scaling one of the buildings:

Step into the shopping mall and ride a few escalators up to… maybe the fourth floor (?)… and you find yourself face-to-face with the panda:

Obviously a popular photo opp. Heading back down through the shopping center, I couldn’t help but check out the grocery store. Always one of my favorite things to see in any country, this one was extremely posh — but not so posh as to be too good to put everyone’s favorite stinky fruit, durian, on display front and center:

Hungry now, we were off for a “snack” at a local tea house. The “snack” was eventually deemed enough to suffice as dinner and it was time to head back to the hotel to prepare for the actual tourism festival events, which would start with a long bus ride first thing in the morning.