Chengdu Ni Hao!
For the year of 2017, our company retreat destination is to Chengdu, China; the capital of Sichuan province in the southwest. It is 1 of the 3 most populous cities in Western China with approximately 14 million of population. The city is famous for the giant pandas, mountains, historic temples, foods and cultures.
On 6th December 2017, our MD and CEO, together with Eco-Ideal staffs and families from both East and West Malaysia offices departed from KLIA2 Airport to embark on 5 days 4 nights retreat in Chengdu. The flight took us about 4 hours to reach Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.
We arrived in Chengdu at 3 pm and the temperature was approximately 12 oC. Luckily, we kept ourselves warm with proper winter jacket and sweater. Our local tour guide took us to Fraser Suites which was our stay for 3 nights in Chengdu city. Later at 7 pm, we walked to Tianfu Square to have dinner together. It was our first meal in Chengdu and the food was deliciously spicy and numb! After dinner, we went to Kuan and Zhai Alleys which is one of the famous tourist attractions with lots of traditional teahouses, souvenirs stores, and restaurants.
We were free to discover the uniqueness of Chengdu city by ourselves on the second day. As our hotel was just located in the heart of the city, we were able to travel to most of the tourist attractions with ease. We visited the Tianfu Square, Sichuan Science and Technology Museum, Chengdu Museum, People’s Park and Imperial Mosque in the morning. We also had a chance to experienced Chengdu Metro Subway as we travel to Chunxi Road, the most bustling commercial street in the city which is also known as a paradise for shopping. After shopping spree at Chunxi road, we headed towards Jinli Street which is located beside Wuhou Temple to have a taste of the traditional local snacks.
On the 3rd day of our stay, we went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It is the biggest giant pandas breeding center which consists of more than 200 pandas. In total, there are approximately 2,400 giant pandas all around the world and 70% are in Sichuan province. It was fun and exciting to see the rare animals in real life. Next up in the itinerary was the Luodai Ancient Town which is the hometown of Hakka people (Han ethnic group). It is a well-preserved town filled with traditional Chinese buildings and temples. Later that night, we went for Shu Feng Ya Yun traditional show. We were amazed by the various traditional Sichuan shows such as face changing opera, fire spitting, rolling lights, orchestras performance, hand shadow show, puppetry and comedy show. We head back to the hotel and took a good night rest after a long day journey.
On the 4th day, we checked out from our hotel in the city as we embarked to Mount Qincheng, one of the must-visit place when in Chengdu. Along the way, we stopped at a few scenic spots which one of them was Dujiangyan Irrigation System. It is honoured as the ‘Treasure of Sichuan’ since it still plays crucial role in providing water resources for cities, irrigating farms and draining off flood water. The uniqueness of this irrigation system is that it does not required dam and in fact, it is the only surviving no-dam irrigation system on the world. Next, we visited Tai An Ancient Town which is located in the mid altitude of Mount Qingcheng. It was breath-taking as the scenery observed at the town was filled with historic buildings surrounded by mountain views. We were unable to go higher up the Mount Qincheng since it is under construction due to earthquake sometime earlier. After enjoying fresh air of Mount Qingcheng, we checked in to the Transcendence Hot Spring Resort, which was our stay for the night. We had a chance to relax ourselves in the hot spring after a hectic day.
We checked out from the resort in the morning of 10th December and headed to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 10 am for our departure back to our homeland. The 5 days journey was amazing; full with eye-opening and cultural-rich activities. We had a great experience during the retreat and looking forward to more of such trips in the future. Besides having fun, this retreat bonds us stronger together as a part of Eco-Ideal Consulting.
Chengdu Zai Jian!
12 December 2017
