China is Not What We Expected At All Our First Day
you hear this there's not a single engine sound how is this possible everything is electrical totally silent traffic right now it's a bit weird no this is one of the most fascinating cities that we've explored in a very long time very calm City overall incredibly positive so far a masterpiece almost it's like they really thought about every square cm Blown Away how we are standing in the middle of a Chinese City and it smells like flowers let's give it a try ooh crispy M oh my God that's Dangerously Delicious miow from changu China I still cannot believe that we're actually in China this is our very very first day of exploring around changdu around the Sichuan province of China and we are so so excited to be here and we are currently walking to one of the big monasteries here in changdu and we stumbled into the old part of the city basically and it looks absolutely magnificent there's a lot of hustle and bustle and commerce going on on the side of the roads and it's so beautiful here right this is a very stunning and very old and ancient city that quite literally hasn't changed its name for more than 2,000 years there's a lot to explore and today we're going to be giving you guys our honest first impressions of changu City let's go and check it out I'm very very excited to see what lies ahead of us we're going to be here for a while and there's plenty to see and do plenty of food to try as well wow you guys check out this beautiful architecture how beautiful is this we're actually on the way to the wangu Yuan uh Monastery and uh we walked a little bit down this street and we made it into a completely pedestrianized street but it's actually completely pedest I usually when uh at least from our hello at least from our uh experience so far in Asia when it says pedestrian ice Street there's usually scooters going around and stuff like this and uh it does not seem to be the case here there is a police officer standing at the entrance of this road and uh there's no scooter coming through so it's really nice to be able to walk around and not having to be scared to get hit by a scooter very very odd feeling sort of not having to look out all of the time if there's a scooter coming it's a very nice feeling as a tourist because you can just stop and uh take it all in you can stop open up your camera you can take as many photos as you want without worrying about standing in the way of traffic which has happened so many times especially in a lot of the busier Asian cities that we've traveled in and guys this place again just spotlessly clean everywhere it's so well organized everybody uh seems to be in a very very happy and positive and uplifting uh mood a lot of people have already been saying hello to us and I think people are a little bit shocked that we're even here and I love all of these beautiful old architecture amazing gorgeous buildings like I just want to take pictures of everything yeah you can really see that the uh old architecture here in changdu was really preserved even if it's just sort of the entry way and then a modern building was sort of built around it or maybe even into it um by renovating the old buildings oh look at these guys how cool are they I would like to be able to read what it say and understands the meaning but it's incredible like you have a quite literally like a hybrid blend of the old changu Blended in with the hyper modern new city and it is truly fascinating this is a beautiful place yeah it really seems like here in uh changu at least in the Oldtown from what we have seen so far it really seems like the old is appreciated a lot as you can maybe see so the old is appreciated and sort of uplifted and then there is something new sort of added to it and everything as well is integrated with a lot of greenery so even though it's a very very large city um I believe there's something like 16 million people living here or something like that there is roughly around 16 to 17 million people I'm not sure of the exact number and that number is obviously growing growing and shrinking very often but I think it's somewhere between that this is a massive Metropolis yeah and even though it's like 16 or 17 million people as you can see there's a lot of greenery going on the streets are very very clean and uh everybody seems to really look out for each other here so uh in overall a very very positive First Impressions I get like a sort of nice communal uh Vibe here so yeah I'm super excited for our time in the Sichuan Province and we obviously have quite literally no real expectation of what to actually expect from changu because quite literally we've been here for less than one entire day and this is our first actual daytime experience in this city but I've got to be honest with you guys so far it's incredibly positive we've been out walking around now for the last while and just taking in the atmosphere of this city is just honestly very very positive I cannot say enough good things so far obviously we will show you anything that we run into as always that is negative or anything that we want to say we will be sharing it here honestly and openly with you guys um but yeah this area here in particular that we're walking around right now it's truly stunning and you can really feel like I was saying there's a very strong contrast between old and new but they have managed to blend them together in a way that is just very very beautiful and all along this street here you have vendors so you have people selling tons of different things whether that's food bracelets toys even uh you have some traditional food vendors over there as well so you can do a lot of things here they are selling a lot of sort of intricate souvenirs obviously giant panda themed as they should be and I do think that we need to buy something giant panda themed in our stay in our time in changu 100% I'm not going to leave the city without a panda something yeah these vendors here selling a lot of amazing stuff hello oh I can try cool what is it she she what is it strawberry strawberry Strawberry oh wow thank youy it's like um maybe a white nougat or something like a nougat that's what it looks like with cake bits and strawberry bits in it like a strawberry cheesecake nou strawberry cheesecake it's very good quick little sugar fix it's good thank you thank you that's very tasty little a little bit sweet but not like overly sweet very very tasty got jewelry here lady is painting a panda with her feet oh she's painting a panda with her feet feet with her toes it's very interesting to see I could never that's incredible I could never jewelry here oh wow look at the Little Dragons wow I love the dragon necklace yeah amazing wow and the souvenir vendors go on and on and oh my god look you have like quite literally an entire Street of Market vendors amazing I do think we might be like in the main tourist area of uh of changu right now oh yeah that's for sure Town yeah and this Monastery is in in specific was like the number one thing uh the number one recommended tourist thing to do uh in changu yeah so that's why we're here this is uh usually the way that we approach a new location or a new city is the first day that we explore we'll go inside uh to the like most typical tourist stuff tick everything off as quick as possible and then go to the non-tourist area because the non touristy places are are typically our favorite but sometimes things are on the lists of must see or must do for a reason so we obviously have to see them and share our Impressions with with you guys as well we made it to the Wu Yuan Monastery uh there are quite a few signs I'm not really sure what they're saying so I believe we need to walk around a little bit with a translator and try and understand what it says anywhere oh yeah we have a lot we have a lot to figure out that's for sure but this looks like very beautiful grounds in here and we seem to have a lot to explore as well and there seem to be a lot of local and foreign tourist it's sort of a mix of both made it into the Wang Sho monastery and how beautiful is this everywhere you look um everything is sort of intricately designed some of the older pieces of course are protected in their own little cases but other than that I feel like you can walk around very very freely here oh I never saw a a child um depicted under the elephant there that's the first time I see something like that very cool to see wow how beautiful is this here and um there is no entry cost to come to this Monastery and walk around in and it's very very beautiful very quiet even though I don't know you can see so many people walking around and it's still very quiet I don't know how they do that there's so many people why are they so quiet unbelievable it's uh so peaceful here and like we are like we said close to the beginning of this video around 16 million 17 million people in this city very relaxing it's very peaceful doesn't feel like who you don't feel stressed walking around like even in my uh home City home uh Dublin City where I'm from it's only roughly around a million people but it's a lot more hectic than this and right now we're quite literally in the center of changu and it is very relaxing it seems to be yeah very late back here and I also feel like one of the big differences is that the a lot of the vehicles here are or seem to be I don't know it's our first day seem to be electric vehicle so it's not you don't have a lot of engine noises going on all of the time check out this giant giant turtle oh you're supposed to rub him are you rubbing him yeah oh hello maybe uh maybe for for good luck yeah Robin oh but you need to start at the head yeah and then work your way back luk the Turtle rubber that's a new title the best Turtle rubs yeah the best Turtle provide rub provider in the world oh and this seems to be where you can maybe get a tea or something there seems to be like a Cafe Restaurant situation oh I'm guessing uh what are those when it comes to the turtle because like or the tortoise maybe um if you rub it I'm assuming it's to bring like longevity or something like that because aren't they don't they live to be like hundreds of years old maybe yeah and I do believe that the uh the turtle or turtoise has uh as a symbol in uh in a lot of Asian cultures have like something like good luck or healthy life meaning something like I believe we read something like that before in Vietnam actually we read something like that in one of the monasteries over there so maybe that's why the people rub that turtle and uh what kind of a creature is this I don't know but people are also there's a lady over there that's also kind of like stroking its horns and she's doing the same in the horns too it seems to be like a dragon deer maybe let us know down below what exactly type of uh type of creature this is but it looks very interesting it looks like something that I would like to get as like a tattoo or something maybe it's a mystical creature of sorts you want to rub him beautiful I think I should I think it's my I think it's my turn to maybe you should give him a r need to remove you guys from my arm the rubbing spot was taken they're all occupied yeah the grounds of this place are just absolutely gorgeous big beautiful trees everywhere as well spectacular them were're giving a very thorough rub oh yeah I don't know how to you have to basically I think start from the horns and make your way down yeah there you go I think it might just just be a dragon I think it's a dragon it's a dragon I'm giving him a Massi look at his little to is it a male or a female oh it's a female yeah I'm not touching any male uh male dragons no ma'am no mam no Pam no ham no pineapples nothing beautiful Green Space here and I cannot stress this enough just how calm peaceful and relaxing uh our experience has been already so far today talking about first impression of a city I cannot believe how laid back changdu is I'm quite literally listening to the sounds of birds in trees right now uh this is of flowers in the air as well scent of flowers in the air as well it smells smells amazing smells really really amazing air quality here by the way something I will touch on the air quality is rated as good to excellent depending on which source you look at so keep that in mind that's something that is literally blowing my socks off every day uh it's like you before we arrived here the biggest thing that was in my mind was we're probably going to have to wear masks to protect our health because of the uh supposed from Western media they permanently tell you that the air is not good it's not healthy it's not safe it's not the case here in changdu so I don't know maybe in the even larger cities possibly uh but yeah so far the experience and first impressions uh we've been very positively surprised and uh I there's something in front of me right now and I'm going to turn this camera around and show you because wow look at the Elephant on the top this is jaw-droppingly beautiful look at this beautiful Masterpiece just there it's an elephant on the top yeah yeah there's an elephant up there on the top yeah incredibly beautiful and by the way the original Temple which I'm not sure it could be this one right here but it is roughly around 1,500 years old so try and wrap your head around the amount of things that these grounds have been through look at the Gorgeous Flowers here that are probably freshly placed every now and then oh yeah they're real yeah yeah they're real flowers smell absolutely gorgeous just look at how beautiful this is even the sun is coming out now it was a little bit cloudy before now even the sun is coming out then it you can appreciate the colors way more true the sun is quite literally shining down on this Temple right now and it's making it very vibrant I hope the camera is picking it up there's a c wow yeah this is uh exceptionally beautiful and even the things here that are in front of the temple like this pot that's holding all of these flowers you have amazing sort of Engravings the detail it's one of the biggest things that stands out to us so far here in China the detail that goes into things that goes into everything the creation of these pillars for example just unbelievable like I was just speaking about guys the level detail the detail that goes into this and if you think think about just how old this is just imagine the level of human effort that it takes to construct something so gorgeous and this is why it's so important to preserve historical artifacts historical buildings historical cultures Etc because people have spent so much time people have put so much work and so much memories into these beautiful buildings such as this one [Music] [Music] [Music] we made it to the monastery that is just next door from the monastery that we were just at and the entry here is also free and check out these giant statues wow they're like really massive so impressive a little bit scary as well kind of seem like uh like Warriors I want to say all of these statues here seem a little bit like Warriors oh it's a little bit scary it's called the Hall of heavenly Kings oh it's a sign over there that they basically describes it but yeah it's incredible there's also free tea what you want a free tea yeah oh I not I did not I did not see available tea oh or do you I don't know there's a QR code you pay hello would you like go cup tea yeah sure it's water yeah yeah be careful oh thank you sh thank you so much [Music] hello you're so cute oh she's beautiful that's a really good tea it's good [Music] tea I think she is 94 oh 94 wow very healthy that's very healthy such a beautiful lady I can't get over how friendly all of the locals are um since we've arrived in changu only been here for a few hours and then we've taken hundreds of uh selfies and spoken to many many people as well and people are very adamant on speaking to you even though there's uh very obvious language barrier they don't care they'll literally just keep talking and that's totally fine for it's very very nice though um I do believe that changu is not necessarily like the go-to place for maybe Western tourists because you don't really see a whole lot of um sort of Caucasian type people Caucasian looking people let's say it like that unless they are obviously married to somebody that is from China but um other than that I do feel like changu has a lot of um Asian tourism so we did see quite a few people from Singapore so far already and um I believe within China as well that like other people from uh the rest of mainland China basically come to visit changu to see the monasteries to see the pandas and stuff like that so yeah it's a very I don't know very wholesome very nice place and I feel very comfortable walking around here I did not expect this uh I actually feel like I I'm already falling in love with China which uh was not something that I had on my 2024 uh to-do list by the way I found a sign here and it actually says that uh the Wu Monastery is one of the national key monasteries of Chinese Buddhism and it's designated by the state Council and um yeah that's probably also why there are so many people here because this is it says on the sign that this is the key Monastery this is the key for Chinese Buddhism well one of the key so incredibly significant historically probably um yeah I'm quite l speechless to be honest walking around it's a almost like a it's a very emotional experience I think yeah being able to be so deep into the culture of a country and only being here for such a short period of time it's incredible I also feel like everywhere on the monastery grounds there's a very uplifting energy like it's very um positive sort of I don't know if I was to use colors maybe like white energy like uplifting um it's very like very strong very interesting and also um there's so much nature going on around here so everywhere you look there's something absolutely magnificent to look at and I I don't know I'm just blown away by by the things you can look at like how did they manage to design everything so sort of hand inand beautiful um the temple seem to be integrated into nature and uh everything just sort of seems to fit together it's very [Music] beautiful how cool is that looks like maybe there's some sort of a photo uh thing going on here right now with two hi it's a two really nice looking people they seem to be wearing like very traditional type of uh clothing maybe it's like a pre- wedding shoot or something that's what it seems like very very beautiful uh suit that he's wearing and also the the dragons just unbelievable I love it I love that whole costume a the think it's gone they took the dragon off dragon so all along here there's different statues and different symbols of beautiful meanings that a lot of people are taking photos in front of for social media and stuff like that this is one of the most fascinating cities that we've explored in a very long time this here is something that I'm sure we're going to have to Avail of at some point seems like you can use alipe as well so you could actually like scan this barcode here rent some bikes and just cruise around changdu City actually sounds like a very good idea right now it's actually quite hot now that the sun came out but wow that Monastery the Wu Monastery went to Yuan Monastery was absolutely incredible very very special experience and I'm very glad that we got to experience that yeah these bikes are incredible I wonder how much they actually charge for them it's probably like an hourly rate or a daily rate or something like that and there is a lot of people that I can see on these sort of shared bikes that are cruising around changu city oh you guys check this out we found a very very popular looking uh shop here that seems to be selling some sort of maybe uh buns like Savory type of buns you can see they have like a bean jelly uh which seems to be their specialty it says over there on the menu and there's lots of people queuing so I do believe uh we will have to queue as well in order to try this right yeah I have no idea no idea what exactly it is but I saw someone that had like some sort of a sandwich that was like packed full of meat and stuff and it looks really really good so maybe we should give it a try these women actually have sandwiches too so let's see see what we can get and you can get them with different types of fillings as well some are Beef Pork Pig snouts Pig ear so very interesting feelings I think we have to make a decision an educated decision beforehand and then uh get something to eat we haven't really had much to eat today we haven't had anything to eat today I think we're going to uh have breakfast here at this stand it's only quarter to 4 and we haven't had anything to eat very uh quiet interaction we're just pointing yeah yeah we have to basically just point out what we what we're looking for unfortunately the beef one was sold out I went for we went for two pork but basically what he's doing here it seems like it's a skillet top flat top and he's kind of like frying the bread up and then you have the station over here where the lady is adding all of the toppings in on top of the sandwich and then you have oh a little oven some sort of a sandwich oh he also has a little oven oh so he fries it first then places it into an oven Y and then pulls it out okay that's the way it works and these here are all of the different options that you have different prices as well looks good well guys we ended up getting something along the lines of what we wanted to order it wasn't really exactly what we thought it was we saw a lot of people that are kind of eating like sandwiches that are packed full of meat and that's what we thought we were going to order but I think we got exactly what we pointed at so it's a little bit of a language barrier a little bit of confusion but nonetheless we're very very excited to give these a try they're also very very cost effective and there's a queue out the door constantly since we've been here so they were eight Yuan each so just about1 for uh one of these things that is about the size of my face basically and and they seem to be sort of like maybe um fried like on the stove top they seem to be fried and filled with probably pork because that's what it says on the menu I assume it's going to be filled with pork let's give it a try ooh crispy M oh yeah that's really nice M it's like um sorry I took a very big bite I'm so hungry I took a um it seems to be like a very sort of floofy type of dough oh like dough yeah yeah not quite maybe like rice flour or something like a fluffy type of dough and then there seems to be some leak and onions inside and maybe ground up pork with some spices it's very nice very good like Savory to go type of thing one seems like it's going to fill you up it looks absolutely massive as well it's kind of like the size of my face is it hot very hot very hot okay let's give it a try should be a little bit careful oh my God that's Dangerously Delicious yeah M Pack full of pork beautiful crispy outside deliciously warm this is a winner right here t a little bit like soy house too maybe they mix some soy sauce into the pork or something yeah it's nice and salty and fried it's good really honestly very delicious wow okay I am very happy with this yeah I can I barely like I don't even want to speak because I just want to focus on eating this the dough it's very thin beautiful and crispy slightly oily not too oily and plenty of meat on the inside as well so very good value for money and the perfect street food snack I want to say it seems to be raining just on this one spot I don't understand where it's coming from a lot of water there it seems to be coming from the top somewhere yeah there's rain coming from one just segment of the sky so uh people are cleaning the windows there's actually guys all the way up at the top of this skyscraper Condo building hanging outside the window cleaning the windows and there water is running down the side of the building it seems to be a very unusual thing though because all of the locals are also stopping and looking what's going on so it doesn't seem to be the norm in changu this is spectacular one of my I think one of my favorite street food dishes that I've tried in a very very long time honestly very very good I'm super happy yeah I could have this for the rest of my life every day maybe if they if you get like different variations like one day you get a vegetable one next one a beef next day a pork why not rotate between your ingredients and now we've made our way to what appears to be a large intersection do you hear this there's not a single engine sound how is this possible everything is electric everything is electric so you cannot even really hear the traffic totally silent traffic right now it's a bit weird no you see how many cars like you expect the beep beep and the Vroom voms but there's no beep beep or vom voms it's just W it's silent traffic I one beep I heard one beep W one beep very far in the distance somewhere yep even the public buses are entirely Electric crossing a busy intersection there's hardly any noise it's crazy neither of us can really wrap our head around that just yet it's going to take a while to get used to it the noisiest person is this lady here on the corner and I think she's giving instructions to the people on where to move I cannot get over some of the buildings here in changdu City this one in particular it's the uh opera house this is the opera house at least there was an opera here in 2023 so I assume w wow it's an opera house cool maybe Opera and Cabaret or something theater like a theater Arts type of thing such a beautiful building yeah very very unique even have a red carpet they shouldn't have rolled out the red carpet for us yeah true imagine walking over it nobody knows who you are nobody's going to take a picture a check out how big and vast everything here is there's legitimately 1 2 3 4 5 6 78 eight lanes and one go can you believe it it's so beautiful by the way we we just made it to Tian Fu Square just here on the right hello and H it's so so beautiful no no Chinese sorry very very bad you speak English little bit it's just enough to say hello same as we speak Chinese just enough say enj and uh yeah we just arrived in Tian Fu Square as you can see locals are very cheddy very happy sort of to interact with uh other people especially with foreigners uh I feel like people are very interested in why we are here and what we're doing but uh very very happy easygoing people and uh yeah this is on the left is tanfu square and then here on the right you see there seems to be some sort of a monument which they're currently working on but so many flowers you see pink and orange red and orange there's so so many flowers everywhere that you look it's really really nice to see and uh yeah there's a lot of people sort of out and about with their families with their kids it's uh very nice to see and everything is so vast wow so many beautiful flowers oh I H I also saw online that uh changdu is known for for flowers so yeah this is probably where you can see like a little bit of an exhibition of some of the flowers that you can find in changdu it's super beautiful no on unbelievable quite literally again uh the common theme I think of the videos that we're going to be putting out here is just going to be me being speechless uh I don't know I don't even really know what to say words can't really describe this it's a very beautiful Square very calm City overall incredibly positive so far uh on our first impressions and yeah like Naomi said before the city is so easily walkable you can walk quite literally anywhere you can also take the metro quite literally anywhere it's convenient to the Max and that's the one thing that really jumps out about changu it's also just so incredibly relaxing here too it's so crazy to think we are standing on the main square and then there is four lanes in each Direction and here is four lanes in each Direction and uh it's so quiet how is it so quiet in any other city in the world this would be like so loud so loud with so much traffic and it's also by the way just to mention it it's a very very safe city as well you have quite a bit of uh police um presence uh for example here I don't know if you can see it there in the distance I don't want to really film it uh Too Close there is uh police sort of setup so if you do have any issues for example as a tourist or even as a local whatever issue that you might have there's always uh people around that can help you and that's very calming and nice to know you also have in the center of Tian Fu Square you have the Met Metro station so that's incredibly cool hello hello you do have a metro station that's quite literally slap bang in the center of tanu square so if you do want to Traverse around the city and get out here or leave from here and head back to for example where we're staying it's incredibly easy to access and like I said just the convenience of it all is really amazing yeah and also the amount of skyscrapers around is crazy to see as well and uh not like not like small skyscrapers actual skyscrapers they're huge buildings and uh everything just seems to be very sort of I don't know it's a weird mix of very calm and relaxing environments but still hustle and bustle of the city but like in a positive way so sort of interesting so here we're still by the way in the middle of theanu square underneath here is the inner workings of the metro station so you can see down there people coming in and out of the metro and all the way around here you have a McDonald's a Burger King a uni a Starbucks you have a miniso you have a whole bunch of different stores in there and it wraps the whole way around how insane is that I feel like the city is infrastructurally if that is a word in English I don't know infrastructurally so interesting how did like how do your PL something like this it's literally the tanu tan Fu Square then you have another layer of just shopping and then there's another layer of Metro like must be so difficult to build something like this I don't know it's quite literally like a a masterpiece almost it's like they really thought about every square cm of this city when it was being planned there's really big flowers in the middle do we have a flowers over there yeah sure impressive very impressive wow this is massive unbelievably beautiful these are all real flowers by the way obviously not the structure on top but everything around here is real and it just smells incredible I'm just blown away how we are standing in the middle of a Chinese City and it's smells like flowers yeah and not artificially like real flowers yeah it's real flowers it's a real smell of flowers I don't know I don't my brain cannot comprehend in the middle of a massive concrete City this is uh yeah something very very special for sure and just take in for a second the sheer vastness this is just a square Tian Fu Square it's massive roughly around 17 million people yet here we are very very peaceful and with the smell of flowers it's amazing
2024-05-12 19:47
