10 months prior to this trip, we booked the 9D8N Jiu Zhai Gou (九寨沟), Huang Long (黄龙) and Cheng Du (成都) at Chan Brother’s headquarters (Fook Hai Building). Upon entry to their office, we were directed to the China desk where we were introduced to the itinerary. This time, we booked the October itinerary, right after the Chinese National Day (1 Oct) so that we would avoid the “Golden Week” travel that runs from 1st to 7th October – as recommended by the service staff. As we were the first to make bookings for the tour, we were able to get the the travel package for 2 at $3,876 or $1,938 per person. As the SQ flight was already $800 for the return flight. The remaining ~$2,300 for 8N of hotel stays, transport, most food, tour guide and arrangement of itinerary was rather worth it.
Chilling at Changi Airport before Flight from Singapore to Chengdu
Our departure flight from Singapore to Chengdu was to depart at 12:35pm and arrive at Chengdu at 5:20pm via Singapore Airlines SQ842. This morning, to enjoy our Priority Pass privileges, we left at 645am. We arrived earlier than the stipulated time of 10am to have breakfast. We were informed by our guide Julian – who connected with us a few days earlier, that we would be able to check-in earlier and get our boarding passes. So it was. We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 3 and headed to Row 3 for Singapore Airlines flights. There, we were able to check-in at the counter (unable to do so via the automated kiosks) and we were also able to add our Krisflyer numbers to our tickets. Remember to do so because the return flight would accrue about 2,000 miles!
Breakfast at Terrace Chinese Kitchen Changi Airport Terminal 1
After retrieving our boarding pass, we were able to visit landside Priority Pass restaurants such as the Terrace Chinese Kitchen at Changi T1. Yup, we took the Skytrain from T3 to T1. As for the breakfast menu at Terrace Chinese Kitchen, we thought it was pretty “meh” -_-“ This is because there are limited choices and the best choice, in our opinion was the braised pork noodles and the egg/luncheon meat sandwich. Although the noodles was tasty, the portion was pretty small. On the other hand, the egg/luncheon meat sandwich was dry-ish for all of the ingredients, including the bread, egg and luncheon meat. Moreover, there’s no sides unlike the lunch/dinner menu. So, it was not really worth much value for breakfasts here – especially not if you’re on a single Priority Pass visit.
At 10am, we arrived at Terminal 3, Row 3 again and we saw a couple of Chan Brothers flags and approached one of the guides, who re-directed us to Julian. There, we had a facial ID of who Julian was – important for our last minute checks prior to entry at the gate. Soon, it was time to enter the transit area (aka airside) for visit to Asian Street Kitchen for our favourite craft beers and moo ping as well as SATS Lounge Terminal 3 for our favourite laksa!
While transiting between the terminals at Changi Airport, we saw this view and we thought we should take a photo of history in the making. Pretty soon, we will be seeing Changi Airport Terminal 5 operating in the mid-2030s.
Singapore Airlines SQ Flight from Singapore to Chengdu
The Singapore Airlines (SQ) flight from Singapore to Chengdu (China) took about 5 hours. There was a meal that included “Chicken or Fish”…
The “Fish” option came with rice while the “Chicken” option was with the noodles. Overall, we enjoyed the “Fish” meal slightly better because of the gravy that came along with it. As for the “Chicken” option, the chicken itself was nice but the noodles was dry and not that tasty in our opinion. Nonetheless, the salad sides was great and there was mini magnum!
During the flight, the entire Chan Brothers group was seated together. So this allowed us to have contact with our guide and they could easily account for all of us and address our concerns if any. During the 5 hours flight, we watched Inside Out 2 and Kungfu Panda 4! 2 movies that we wanted to watch for the longest time! We also watched Sunny in Philadelphia, a comedy starring Danny DeVito – good, clean and fun humour, like it.
Towards the end of the flight, we felt that almost everyone was queuing up to go to the toilet. There were more than 10 people in the queue – something that we’ve never seen before. Wondering if this was due to the demographics of visitors to China or that under the advice of our guides, we were all queuing up to visit the loo. This is probably the time where we’d be wishing we’re in the Business Class or First Class where the passenger to toilet ratio is much better.
Our SQ flight from Singapore to Chengdu landed right on time at 1730. After deplaning (disembarking from the plane), the walk from our plane to the immigration area took about 10 minutes. Julian had prepared our health declaration and handed to us onboard. After reaching immigration, we headed to the foreigners lane and the process was quite straightforward. There was a first gantry to scan our luggage and belongings. Then by random picking, Kate got swabbed and we waited a while before proceeding to the immigration counter. At the immigration counter, we scanned all our fingers and thumbs along with a face scan – talk about data collection to the fullest. Eventually, we left the airport at about 6:30pm – which was actually quite fast.
On the tour bus, we were introduced to our local tour guide Xiao Zhu, while Julian added the “Singapore flair” by speaking in Singlish – soon we were pretty much at ease and on our way to our first stop for dinner.
We love it that Xiao Zhu is very knowledgeable. Throughout the trip, he would be sharing snippets of information about Chengdu. For instance, he started by sharing this about Chengdu:
一流人文
二流机场
三流火锅
What this means is that
一流人文 (Yi Liu Ren Wen). Refers to first-rate name of Chengdu, because it is one of the few major cities that had never changed its name. Even Beijing had been given different names such as Dadu, Yanjing and Beiping.
二流机场 (Er Liu Ji Chang). Refers to the 2 flows of people through the Chengdu Airports because there are 2 airports in Chengdu. One of only 3 cities with 2 airports after Beijing and Shanghai.
三流火锅 (San Liu Huo Guo). Refers to the 3 “streams” that will flow from you when you eat the spicy hotpot here. Your sweat, your tears and of course, the runny nose!
Xiao Zhu then went on to share a few things about Chengdu geographically,
1. The Rise of Tea Houses. Because of the flat lands and good weather, harvests were always good. This led to 2 or 3 harvests per year. As a result, people were getting affluent and in their free time, they would play mahjong in tea houses.
2. Land of Abundance (Tian Fu Zi Guo – 天府之国). Besides being a great place for harvests and affluence, geographically, it was a great place with Northeast facing due to the 2 mountains to the northwest (Longmen Mountains) and east (Qionglai Mountains). A setting of northeast to southwest for Chengdu (i.e. 东北西南的布局). Hence the name Tian Fu Zi Guo – 天府之国, given by none other than Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮)
3. Qing Zhang Gao Yuan (成都青藏高原).The area also has plains all the way to highlands. From 300m to 3000m. Hence, if you were to travel from Chengdu (500m) to Jiu Zhai Gou / Huang Long (up to 3000m for the trip) you may experience high altitude sickness (高原反应)
It was at this point that Xiao Zhu started to sell this drink known as Hong Jing Tian (红景天西洋参) – ginseng drink. He went on to say that while Western meds are effective, there would be side effects like hand numbness, red face, faster heartbeats and urination – which doesn’t really match what we Googled. So he moved on to introduce Hong Jing Tian, saying that it should be taken 3 to 5 days prior to visit to high altitude areas. As we only had 1 day till we visited Jiu Zhai Gou, we were supposed to take 9 vials per day, instead of the recommended 3 vials written on the box. However, we decided that (1) since we were already late, it would not be effective to take Hong Jing Tian and (2) certainly not more than the recommended dosage on the box. Hence, we only bought a box of 10 vials for 100rmb. Even though Xiao Zhu passed 2 boxes to each person, we returned 3 of our 4 boxes received as it would be additional weight for us to carry. As it turned out, our decision was right because Google AI told us that:
“According to one study, the effectiveness of Hong Jing Tian (Rhodiola rosea) for altitude sickness depends on the time of intervention, the method of ascent, and the altitude. The study found that while Hong Jing Tian was better than a placebo for improving altitude sickness symptom scores on days 1 and 3, it was equivalent to a placebo in terms of the incidence of altitude sickness (i.e. rate at which altitude sickness occurs in a given population)”
After taking our 10 vials shared by the 2 of us (i.e. 5 vials each), we didn’t experience altitude sickness. From our experience from visiting Leh Ladakh (3500m altitude), we found that the main thing is about acclimatisation. So to go to a higher altitude, you need time to get used to an altitude before proceeding further. However, we flew direct into Leh Ladakh where we essentially arrived at 3500m almost immediately. This was why we had bouts of headaches and breathlessness. However, the Jiu Zhai Gou trip is designed to first go to an altitude of 1500m then on to 3000m. This gives you a little bit of time to acclimatise. The other consideration is not to over-exert yourself. We could feel it especially when we were climbing the seemingly “endless” stairs at Huang Long – but we took effort to rest whenever we felt tired, so as not to over exert – even if it means resting after climbing just one flight of stairs.
Dinner at ShunXing Old Tea House (顺興老茶馆）Chengdu
Chengdu Zhong Shui Jiao (钟水饺)
Panda Dim Sum!
Beer from Tour Guides
Durian in a swan?
ShunXing Old Tea House (顺興老茶馆) in Chengdu was to be our first restaurant in Chengdu during this 9D8N trip with Chan Brothers. First impressions? It was grand. Also, it seemed to be endlessly HUGE. Upon entry, there was an entire corridor to the left with many many private rooms. If we were to wager a guess, maybe 40? Then, we were led pass a hall where diners could dine in a more elegant and luxe environment, albeit in the open. Then, we came to our area, 2 tables along the corridor. In this section, there were probably another 15 tables. But next to us, was the old tea house setting! We peeped across the curtains and saw a stage where there was to be performances and also tables, below that stage – just like a traditional Chinese tea house. This place is huge!
In terms of taste, we’d say that it was palatable. We asked our guides and they informed us that feedback would be taken from each group and adjusted to better suit our tastes. So, most of our meals during the trip were actually like that – adjusted to be less salty and less spicy. Not that we’re complaining. But if your impression is for authentic Sze Chuan / Chong Qing tastes, it would not be during these arranged meals enroute.
Still, we enjoyed the food this evening that ranged from Zhong Shui Jiao (钟水饺) that was only slightly spicy and more of a sweet sauce mixed with sesame sauce. The Panda dim sum turned out to be a mochi with marshmallow inside! The swan was a durian pastry. We also had 3 types of dumplings including one with meat, one with cabbage and one with Jiu Cai (韭菜 – garlic chives). Our guides also brought along some beers, complimentary for guests during meals. Overall, a good start to the trip! 😋
First Night in Chengdu – Antai Jinyun Jinjiang Hotel (安泰锦云锦江宾馆）
As we walked into the hotel lobby of Antai Jinyun Jinjiang Hotel Chengdu (安泰锦云锦江宾馆), we saw a spacious and grand lobby. Our key cards were distributed by our guides and soon we were up at our rooms. Our guides would also spend the first 10 minutes going from room to room to ensure that we were satisfied with our room. No issues with all our rooms during this trip. A good gesture nonetheless. During the trip, we either stayed at International 4 stars hotels or Local 5 stars hotels. We were actually quite satisfied with all our hotels during the trip. One interesting thing you’ll notice during hotel stays during this trip would be your passport would be “collected” on the first night, then only returned to you the next morning. Apparently, this is because the passport information needs to be shared with the local police before it can be returned to you.
Our room at Antai Jinyun Jinjiang Hotel Chengdu (安泰锦云锦江宾馆) was spacious and clean. Hot water was readily available. However, because of the Great Chinese “Fire Wall” , there were a few things that you’d need to take note of – especially if you’ve been pampered by international hotels worldwide.
Firstly, you’ll notice that even after connecting to your hotel’s wifi, you won’t be able to access all your “Western” apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Map and the likes. Even your browser would not be working. So throughout our entire trip, we were using our data roaming. Alternatively, you can check out Klook for their China esim.
Secondly, you will not be able to find any international channels. ALL our hotels were showing CCTV channels or China Regional TV channels. Nope, no HGTV or History channels this time.
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@2bearbeartravel Booked our 9D8N trip to #JiuZhaiGou with @chanbrothers.sg During this trip, we visited Jiu Zhai Gou, #HuangLong, #Chengdu #giantpanda Research Base, #Emei, #Leshan , #Kuanzhaialley , #jinliancientstreet, #chunxi #IFS and also had the iconic #malahotpot before shopping at #taikooli and flying back via #tianfu international #airport It was a well paced, well planned and thoroughly enjoyable trip. If you’re thinking of visiting China and not really sure where to start, going with a reputable travel agency like Chan Brothers would definitely be a good start. Alternatively, visit 2bearbear. com for more information about what to expect for things like metro and digital payments in China! #travel #chanbrothers #traveling #traveler #travelvibe #travelblog #travelblogger #2bearbear ♬ Oh my life – Langlang
We enjoyed our first hotel at Antai Jinyun Jinjiang Hotel Chengdu (安泰锦云锦江宾馆) and so far, it has been smooth. Thanks to the efforts of our tour guides (Xiao Zhu and Julian) in coordinating our transport, restaurant and hotel arrangements on the first day. Check out day 2 of our 9D8N Jiu Zhai Gou, Huang Long, Chengdu trip as we check out some of the attractions in Chengdu before taking the High Speed Train from Chengdu to Jiu Zhai Gou!
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