First Time in China’s Most Livable City (Chengdu) 🇨🇳

Hello from Chengdu! Me and Eve have just arrived here in one of China's largest cities for the first time. Everybody has been telling us we need to come to Chengdu because it is a place like no else. We have literally stepped foot out of our apartment which is very cool by the way. Yeah, we're staying right up there in one of those buildings in this main area. Great location. Yeah, it's a cool place and we're going to show you that later. But these are literally our first first first impressions right now. And the first thing I've noticed is this place is the most panda-y place I have ever seen. I feel like everyone has a panda backpack or a panda hat. Or there's pandas climbing up the sides of shopping malls. It's the land of pandas! We arrived here on the bullet train from Guilin today and it's about 5pm now. So we've only got about half the day left. We're going to do our best to have a little mooch around and see what's going on in Chengdu. Get some good food! Panda! Panda! Panda! Panda! Oh, he's kind of cute. Unc is staring at me. He's like, you've never seen a panda before? Unc is following me. It's a Sunday today so it's quite bustling out here on the streets. And god, it feels so good to be back in a big Chinese city. I don't really know how to describe it but it's just a feel. Look at this for example. It's all very nice, very clean. You've got these huge LED screens. And then you just match with this beautiful little traditional building just behind you, Eve. It's a feeling of convenience. Yeah, it is. Have you seen panda pastry? Oh my god, yeah. We told you it was pandaria here. But wow, look at this as well. This building kind of looks like an old factory that's been refurbished. We're going to head out of this main tourist district now. And try and grab some food. Hopefully some authentic food. And Sichuan. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province. And for anybody that's seen any other video of our China series, they will know that I am a lover of the mala spice. The tingling, numbing, spicy pepperiness that is indigenous to this region. So I am absolutely gassed up. You can tell I'm excited, can't you? We're really hungry. We've been on the train all day, so we need some good food. Yeah, you're doing really well so far, Queen. I'm really proud of you. Wow, just look at this overpass, man. These are so much better than other cities we have back home. Right, we're going to go try and take our first bus in China now. So what could possibly go wrong? I feel like taking the metro. I don't feel as confident with the bus. What number are we looking for, Eve? Four. Number four. Oh, this looks like a number four, Eve. That's number four. This is the one. We've been waiting like one minute. That was so quick. So we've got our barcode here. It's the same one that you use to get on the metro, but it does say bus too. That came up with two, so I think that was two yuan. That's 20p, that is very easy. I don't know if it's one price. Well done, Eve. This is our food spot. It's a famous spot here to get dan dan noodles, which is what we've come for. It's actually a Michelin spot as well. You can see on the wall there, it's got Michelin 24 to 26. Oh, hello. Hi. Tell you what, as we've come in, I'm hit with the most incredible smell. It smells delicious. Can we get one dan dan noodle? Thank you. Bye. It's a really nice vibe here with everyone sat out on the street eating their noodles. Also, this bowl of noodles costs 10 yuan, which is literally one pound. That's like one dollar. I'm not going to lie, that's a beautiful, beautiful sight right in front of you. Looks good, doesn't it? So we've got minced pork on the top. There's some chives. I think this is like sesame paste. Not paste, but like sesame bits. And then she told us to mix them, so all the spicy chilliness is there. Literally makes me salivate looking at that, Eve. Wow, that is looking beautiful, Eve. Mixing complete. Let's try these. Were you just on the lookout then for if that was our other bowl of noodles that was coming? Oh, more noodles. More noodles. Okay, these noodles, they taste so fresh. They're wheat noodles, not rice noodles, which I actually prefer. Spicy, yeah, but not really, really awfully spicy. Because I'm not so good with spice. But yeah, these are honestly so good. I feel like it's just sort of simple. There's only a few ingredients. Well, luckily for you, Eve, if they're spicy. We did actually order this specifically because we thought these might be a bit spicy. So, you know, I will probably end up eating these. And you got these, what, these beef tomato noodles? Yeah, noodles in a tomato broth. I'll give these ones a go. Oh, this is weird. You're trying the not spicy ones and I tried the spicy ones. Role reversal. God, the beef looks good. Yeah, it's like chunky bits of beef and tomatoes, big bits of tomatoes. Oh, this is nice. You'll like this. That is really, really tomatoey. Nice. Yeah, like a really light tomato broth. Not spicy at all, but good flavor. I think you'll like that. And what we didn't realize is that you can order the bowls of noodles in three different sizes. So like small, medium, large. I think this is a small. This was a small, which is actually quite a lot of noodles. I mean, it's not a huge portion. This is a medium. They look kind of the same size, to be honest. These ones are really good. It reminds me of the tomatoey hot pot broth that you get. But yeah, I think the noodles like soak into the broth. Nice. I like that. These are so annoying. These are literally everything I could possibly want in a noodle. This is right up my street. That food was so good. We were actually debating whether we should get another two bowls. This is actually a city of gastronomy. So the food here is really good. And we're going to make a whole video just on that. So if you're a foodie, make sure you subscribe and stay tuned for that video. So we literally walked into the Metro and saw all these beer taps lined up in the window. And you know, we are British, so let's have a look. What do you recommend? Okay. Just reading off this back wall here. Luckily for us, they have it in English as well. I've gone for a Pilsner. I did want to try the IPA, but it looks like a fruity kind of sour IPA. It's a fruity, which isn't what I usually go for. But I've got one. I'm going to try it. That's good. A little try before you buy. So the Pilsner. How is it? That one's actually really sweet. Oh, that's very sweet, isn't it? Yeah, I think I'll stick with this. Can we do two Pilsners? Well Eve, sometimes I really think we have peaked at life. Genuinely. And you know, China is such a safe country as well. This guy literally has his whole laptop and mouse and keyboard out there on the side of the street. Yeah, you can kind of relax when you get to China. It's nice, isn't it? Cheers! Oh, we said that at the same time. We're back at the hotel and I need to show you this place because it is awesome. So come in the front door. We've got this immaculate, lovely bathroom here. Leading out to this huge kind of breakfast bar. We actually have an oven and a hob, which is the first time we've had that in China. Look at this! We've got the huge living room here. Oh, this is actually a projector. So you can sit here and project your films out onto this big screen that comes up. You can't really see. I mean, you can see more of my reflection than you can the view. But we're about 30 floors up here. So you do get an incredible view. There's even this crazy speaker. I've never seen a speaker look like this before. We've not actually worked out how to use it yet, have we? Through here we have bedroom number one, which is absolutely ginormous. And look, this is what we meant when we said we are so close. The location is in the thick of it. So we're excellently positioned here in Chengdu. I love how modern this place is as well. It's like modern, nice, aesthetic. I believe the kids call it modern chic these days. And then this is the top floor. Huge little bed, same as the one below. And you can look out into where you see through there. Look, balcony. We've actually got a projector up here as well, Eve. I didn't actually notice that the first time. It really has like two projectors. There's a bath here. Cute bubble bath here. We've got the his and her sinks, which for anybody that's watched us for a while, they know we love. That's good. And a toilet and another shower. This place is amazing. It's so good. And the location is amazing as well. We're right on the main street. The metro is 30 seconds from us. So it's perfect. Awesome. This place is called Isiya Hotel. If you want to book this room or this hotel, we'll leave the link in the description down below. Good morning, guys. It's bright and early here. It's about half past seven. And the city is just about waking up. We've got about an hour drive ahead of us. And we're going to see something very, very special. So in case it wasn't obvious today, me and Eve have come to see the giant panda. So this is actually a panda research center. So they're trying to rehabilitate the pandas back into the wild when they're ready. So I think it's like the more ethical of the two in Chengdu to come to. Are you excited to find a panda? Yes, I am buzzing. This is one of the things I was most excited to come back to China for. We know that pandas apparently are active in the early hours of the morning until about 11 a.m. We were hoping to get here earlier, but 9 a.m. should be fine. Chengdu traffic at rush hour on a Monday is not to be messed with. But we've got a couple of hours left of panda time. Giant pandas this way. So I don't know if anybody got my subtle foreshadowing for me and Eve watching Kung Fu Panda 2 in bed last night. But the enemy in Kung Fu Panda 2 is actually a white peacock. Oh, the universe is really aligned on that one, Eve. That's a panda. No. That's a real one. What the... What the hell? Why is it sat like that? Is that real? Oh my God, guys. We've seen so many like fake pandas, toy pandas, statues of pandas. It took me a second to click. Like this one is the real one. Why is it just flopped? It's like flopped with its arms over. What the hell? It's a sleepy panda. I didn't actually think I'd be this excited to see the panda. But I actually feel like really, really happy and excitable to see them in real life. Especially this guy. He's just chilling. Oh, he's so small. Look at his little belly just chilling there. He's literally like, it's a Monday. He's literally the funniest looking thing. Look at him just laying on his back there like, hey girl. This is the cutest thing you've ever seen. At first I was like, who's throwing all that stuff in there? I think he works here. What the hell? That can't have been the easiest way for him to get down. They have red pandas here too, but it's a bit more of a mission to find them there. I think they're a bit more elusive. Oh, he's there. Oh, he's so cute. He's so far away. You know, it's pretty easy to find where the pandas are. You just look for the huge crowd of tourists. All right, guys, we're going to assume there's a panda here. Well, bye bye pandas. I think it's safe to say it is getting really quite busy here now. So I think time to go. Definitely come early. Yeah. I'm glad we're on our way out because the swarms are coming in. It's not as enjoyable with all the people. Pandas. Very cute, though. Definitely worth coming to see. So we've come on down now to the People's Park, which is a big open green space here in Chengdu. And I think it's going to be really beautiful here. I mean, we escaped the rain at the pandas. I'm hoping the weather stays dry for us now. Yeah, there's a little bit of sunshine. Perfect park weather. I'm trying to break through. Although it's quite busy in this park, it's really quiet, which is something I've noticed in Chengdu. It has quite a slow pace of life, which surprises me considering it's such a big city here. But nobody seems to be in a rush to do anything. They definitely don't seem to be in a rush. There's been so many times where me and Eve have been walking behind someone and they've been walking like a tortoise. I feel like we're just used to a fast pace of life. Go, go, go. But I like it here. I enjoy it. It's refreshing. It's really refreshing. And it fits with this park, being slow paced, taking in the nature. You don't want to be rushed in the park. Well, there's lots of people having tea here. Let's see if we can grab a spot. It's busy. Yeah, I think everybody's had the same idea as us, but I've never seen so many people drinking tea. There's table after table after table, but every single one is full. This is crazy. Right, this lovely lady saw us looking for a table and flagged me down. We found a spot. Oh, and we've got a good view here, actually. Right, on the river. Best table, best view. So we've just been given this menu. This is a card. It's written in English. Oh, should we do gentleman? Ah, okay. So this is what we want. This is the tea dance. Maybe I can help you. Maybe I can. Oh, thank you. We want to have this. Yeah, but do we just pick... Is this like... This is black tea. Okay, can we do this with any of this? Yes, you can choose. If you choose this, this is 300 RMB. Okay. It's with music. Oh, with music. But it's a little more expensive. Okay, yeah, we won't do that one. Okay, you just choose this Kung Fu tea. Yes. Okay, yeah. If you want to see the Kung Fu tea, you only can choose this price and that price. Okay. 40 and 50. Okay, which is the best one? Best one? Yeah. Okay, yeah, we'll do that one. 50. Okay, fine. Okay. Thank you. Very good. You don't like to walk, do you? No. Very relaxed. It is like very slow here. Yeah, yeah. But Shenzhen, they're very busy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shenzhen people are very busy. Yeah, it's like walk, walk, walk. Yeah, they walk quickly. Yeah. Here, it's so slow. Slowly, slowly. Right, what's happening here then, Bobby? The tea master. Just a regular cup of tea in China. Oh my God. Found again. Look at the shoulder. Can I tell you what? I've got my shorts on. It's a bit hot. Oh my God. The teacup is filling up now. Thank you. This one. Okay. Thank you. Wow, that was exciting, wasn't it? Yeah, the whole experience. The tea cup got really full. I thought surely he can't do it again, but he did. Yeah, this is what I was trying to say. My legs. Obviously, it's made with quite hot water, so any little splash that came off went straight onto my shorts, but we live and learn. I think this might be to say that we paid. So we got two teas. I think this one here is the jasmine tea, which is in this. No, so this is hot water. Oh, okay. So you can just keep topping it up however much you want, basically. And then this is the funky tea. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't actually know what kind of tea this is. It was all ruddy confusing when we ordered this. Thank God that lady has helped us. Yeah, what would we do without the kindness of strangers, honestly? Okay. Genuinely, I'm being serious when I say this. It's not really my cup of tea. Pun intended, but it's not really my kind of tea. Yeah, to be honest, I don't love this either, but I've actually seen people walking around with cups of this as we've been walking around the streets. I can see now when the leaves are in there. But when we were just talking to that lady, we were saying it's so busy here, and she said it's because people in Chengdu don't like to work, so they come here and drink tea. We said it was a very relaxed way of life. You said we were getting a local feel of life, so we've immersed ourselves. Yeah, do you know? We actually might be some of the youngest crowd here, to be honest with you, Eve. It's looking a bit senior citizens over here. Let me try the jasmine one. I think I need to add some more water to it, but I'll just try it. Nice. That's much better. Right, I have to say, I did feel a little bit claustrophobic where we were just sat, but all in all, a very nice experience with a beautiful setting. Look at that. We'll talk about getting a glimpse into local life here. We've got all these ladies sat down playing games. It looks like we've got the same over here. This looks like a game of cards going on there. And then what's this? Yeah, we've got people dancing over here. It feels like a big sense of community here. This is what's nice in China. It's like people get out and do stuff, especially when you're older. Yeah, do you know? I think in the UK, when you retire, that a lot of people tend to stay indoors and they're not out doing stuff like this. Like, look, this is beautiful. Dancing, what a way to keep yourself feeling happy and just enjoy life. Yeah, what do you say, Eve? Can I... Eve? Can I interest you in a dance? Oh, she's off. This is actually crazy. We are still in the park and we've come across what is called a marriage market. Let me show you how this works. So we have all of these pieces of paper put on these boards and this is basically where parents come and put their children up for marriage. So these say everything about a person. You can come here in the park, read about your future husband or wife and decide if they're for you or not. I think I've found my dream woman, Eve. What do you mean? So I've just done translator 1. Have you been doing some in-park dating? I've been doing some online dating. Oh my God. So this is a lady, she's born in late 1988, 1.68 metres tall, has a bachelor's degree, mid-level manager at a listed company and has worked at the same company since graduation. She is seeking an unmarried male with a stable job that is responsible, with no bad habits and sound values. I didn't realise you were looking for someone so much older than me. Well, you know, throw in some things out there, see what sticks, you know. Oh my God. This is crazy. This is literally blowing my mind. So these ones are pink but there should be an area that's for men and they're blue. Are we going to find me something now? Yeah, let's find you a man in. Well, I feel a little bit sad to be leaving the park now to go back out to the real world. It was really nice. Yeah, I feel like I've enjoyed my time there. I want to stay in here. Well, when the sun's gone down, I really am reminded why I absolutely love these big Chinese cities after dark. Just look at how beautiful this is. Such a nice area. Yeah, so we've come down to an area called SKP, which is just kind of a shopping area. But wow, look at these lights. We in the UK would not have anything like this apart from maybe at Christmas time. This building just in front of me here is actually very special. This is the biggest single building in the entire world. And just look at the lights on that as well. It's looking very cyberpunk-esque actually, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And you can see all the skyscrapers lit up around here. It's really, really cute. It's beautiful. Honestly, China just does infrastructure different. I mean, I'm not even sure what I'm looking at here. Is this a shopping mall? Is this a golf green? Is this a flower garden? I don't know. But it's about half past seven now and it's not really too busy. We've come down here on a weekday. There's a couple of people mooching around, but we're going to make our way over to this glass wall over here because I actually don't think I've seen something like this before, but it's kind of like a facade just with water running all the way down the front of it. Wow, just look at this. This is incredible. Inside there is literally just escalators. It takes you down inside the shopping mall. It's a blooming fancy-looking set of escalators, isn't it? But we've not come all the way over to this area to look up some automatic stairs. We've come to see something very special, which I think are just going to be around the corner. Look at this! Oh my God, these are so cool. This is actually really, really cool. This is just as cool as I thought it was going to be. So these are, this is like a water fountain. They're 36, 39 metres high and when it gets dark here, they come on and it's a light show. They've also got water coming down them and we're actually getting quite wet here, aren't we? We're getting sprayed a little bit. Yeah, people have umbrellas over there. You can't really go too close to them. Wow, but isn't that just incredible? Multicoloured. So they're obviously, they look like bamboo. It's a bamboo structure and they're called the Tower of Life and the bamboo is meant to symbolise growth, which is just really nice, but more than anything, they look cool. They look flipping sick, bro. Look at them. I don't think I've actually seen a water tower with lights and the water coming down as spray. They are so unique. I'm really glad that these lift up to the height. And there's people here, but it's not really crowded. You can see behind me, I think because people don't want to get wet, you can actually take them in properly. Yeah, so it's a blooming good job you got your jacket on, Sunshine, because it's a bit spray-like. Yeah, look, this girl here has got a bloody umbrella. This is the perfect end to our first impressions in Chengdu. Thank you so much for watching. If you did like the video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe. And we'll see you next time. Bye.