Twin Daughters of Different Mothers

As the Rock Star Tour continues we find ourselves in Chengdu. Our goal was to visit Du Jiang Yan, home of the 2200 year old irrigation project of Sichuan Province.


I had contacted Tang Yan who is the daughter of our Quality Manager of our plant here in town to be our guide for the day. Du Jiang Yan is outside of the city is somewhat more remote, so I figured we would need the language help. Her father agreed to serve as driver extraordinaire.

Another good tour guide choice. I dubbed her our Ace Tour Guide! She is a third year at the Chengdu Technical University studying Construction Management.

As you recall, this dam controls most of the water entering the region to prevent flooding in the wet season and to allow more water in the dry season. Built by the self taught Civil Engineer Li Bing over two millennia ago it still serves the region quite well.

The place was zoo! Since today was a holiday (the Qing Ming “Tomb Sweeping” Day … Memorial Day to us) it was jam packed and I was surprised to observe that we were indeed the only westerners in the place. Only about 60 miles from the sprawling ExPat-Laden city of Chengdu it would seem as though these folks have never seen foreigners before, so Milly did her stuff and drew the crowds. She is a magnet. Unbelievable how the people just flock to her.

But in between all of this, Milly and Tang Yan talked about boys, music, movies, boys, TV shows, make-up, maybe some boys, too (including, perhaps, one special not-to-be-mentioned young man whom I am sworn to secrecy not to tell her Chinese Mother). They hit it off excellently and in no time at all Marty and I thought we were talking to Twin Daughters of Different Mothers. These two sisters from different worlds watch the same shows and movies; listen to similar bands; and apparently find the Chinese boys cute. The boys find them pretty cute, too and several just walked up and wanted photos. Milly will be REALLY hard to live with back home now!

The weather continued to threaten rain, but never materialized and we benefitted from the cooler temperatures and overcast skies. The walk was terrific and we saw all of the sights except for the Temple at the top of the Mountain as this area still remains closed and off limits courtesy of the disastrous earthquake back in May 2008. The boulder in the photo was one of the rocks that fell that day and the local government has engraved the date in memoriam.

As the tour comes to a close, the path leads to an open market where all of the street hawkers are vying for your hard earned RMB. As we swam like salmon through these throngs looking for a lunch spot, even more kids were swamping us. Like a rock star band we slipped into a more out the way place for some lunch. Tang Yan’s dad was ordering when Tang Yan more or less took over and completed the ordering. This reminded me of having dinner with her mother who always insists on letting me order, but then takes over saying “you won’t like that” or just changing what I order without my knowing. Like Mother like Daughter.

Lunch was fabulous as always and we then just wandered through the crowds “chatting” with whoever would stop and talk which was pretty easy to find. We even made friends with the Ambulance team sitting around on stand-by in case needed. Not because we needed medical assistance, but well, just because they were there and we could.

We drove back Chengdu for a quick refreshing and then re-met Tang Yan, her dad, and now Lin Yan, her mother, for dinner at a local Hot Pot restaurant famous for their productions of the Chinese Mask Changing Dance and Opera. It was great to see Lin Yan again and yes, she asked me to order and then changed everything I picked … at which point Tang Yan and Milly burst out laughing based on the earlier lunch events. Like Daughter like Mother.

So we ate good food, watched the opera, and then walked back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we head out to the Panda Research Park and then just bump around Chengdu for the afternoon. Not sure how Milly will do without her sister along, but I think she’ll manage just fine. It should only take about 5 minutes for word to get out around that the tall American Girl with the bare legs has arrived and then BAM – new friends!