Jaye and I had to get up pretty early today so that we would have time to get to the train station to catch our train. We had originally asked the same driver to take us back to the train station, but he ended up being busy the day we had to leave, so he found a friend to take us instead. We had to leave at about 6 a.m. We planned to leave just after 6:30, but the driver was nervous about the time—I think our train left around 9 a.m., and he didn’t want to get caught in traffic.

I didn’t want to leave that early because the breakfast didn’t open until 6:30, and when we tried to confirm that the night before, the chef didn’t seem very convinced it would be open right on time. Finally, we decided to ask for some boiled eggs (we ate at the same place associated with the hotel so we could get the discount, and it was also the place we could get the free breakfast from). So they agreed to boil us some eggs and we also had a bit of rice left over.

The waiters and waitresses were all very nice. As we left, we were talking to the one waiter that kept trying to sing a song. He told us that he was just 17 or 18 and he was from a nearby area.

“You should really go around and visit more places nearby. There are even more beautiful places that aren’t so touristy!” He told us as we paid for our meal.

“Wow, that sounds amazing!” I said. “But I don’t know how we would find those places!”

“Oh, if you go to my hometown, my uncle can take you around.”

I was amazed by the generosity and hospitality of the locals, although his uncle also might be a paid guide. We exchanged contact information and left.

So after we checked out from our hotel in the morning, we got the boiled eggs from the fridge. We decided to leave the fried rice since we didn’t have a good way to heat it up.

Thankfully, we made it to the train station in plenty of time for our train, and I got in some nice reading time on the way back to Chengdu. It was hot when we got back, but Jaye and I dropped off our suitcases at a hotel that our friends, Jessica and Timothy, were staying at and then we went to a nearby mall for lunch.

After lunch, we picked up snacks for our road trip! There really wasn’t much time at all for resting on this trip.

Back at the hotel, we met up with Jessica, Timothy and Shirley. It was Shirley’s birthday that day so Timothy ordered a cake for her, and while we waited for the car company to bring the car, we cut the delicious Oreo cake and had a little birthday party for Shirley.

The car arrived, and we spent the next several minutes getting things figured out with the rental car. He went through the usual process of checking my passport and Chinese driver’s license while we checked the outside of the car for any damage and took videos and pictures so that we wouldn’t be held responsible for anything that was already there.

I was super excited for this part of the trip. Actually, one of the main reasons that I got my Chinese driver’s license several years ago was that I had heard about how beautiful Western Sichuan was, but the best way to see it was to drive yourself. So I studied the material for the written test (thankfully they had an English version), got all the documents translated and walked away with a Chinese driver’s license.

I decided not to buy a car though because parking is expensive, and renting a car is very reasonable. So sometimes when my friends and I want to go someplace nearby, we rent a car and I drive us around. Driving in China is an adventure, but it’s less terrifying than I used to imagine. I’d heard all kinds of things about driving in Western Sichuan though, and I had spent quite a bit of time praying for safety over the last few weeks. Now, the time had come to set off on this adventure.

We loaded up the suitcases. Actually, Timothy did most of the suitcase puzzling. Our three large suitcases and two small suitcases barely fit in the back of the seven-seated SUV. Originally, we had ordered a five-seater Tank, but Jaye had done some searching and wasn’t sure that all of our suitcases would fit. After lots of searching and calling and figuring, she changed our car to this one several days ahead of time, and we were all very thankful that she did. Our suitcases would definitely not have fit in that car, and they just barely fit in this one. But they did fit, and we even managed to fit in all of our snacks, large water bottles, and backpacks. We climbed into the car, took a picture, prayed for safety, and set off on our adventure!

First order of business was to get out of the city. We had to come to this hotel at the edge of the city because this car had the wrong license plate for the day so to drive in the city, we would have had to pay a 100 yuan fine. The car place said they would take the driver’s license penalty, but I didn’t want to risk it, so Jaye found out that if we left from this spot, we shouldn’t need to go through the city. We did get out without any problems, and started driving along the highway.

However, the highway was not the most beautiful road, and we heard from lots of people that the best thing about Western Sichuan was not necessarily the destination, but the journey. So we left the highway to go along a more scenic route. We also decided to stop at a bridge that was a tourist attraction on the way to our first hotel. We had planned to visit the bridge the next day, but when we found ourselves passing close to it, we decided to just stop now while we were there.

Unfortunately, it started to drizzle, and finding a parking spot was proving to be a bit of a challenge. There were some cars parked on the side of the road, but it was hard to tell which spots were legal and I wasn’t very confident (as in, not confident at all!) in my parallel parking ability.

After driving for a bit, we finally found a little tiny parking garage with a few old people at the entrance who assured us that there were empty places inside and we could park for about 20 yuan. That price seemed reasonable, so we headed in. The parking garage was extremely narrow and a bit ghetto. One or two of the old people came in with us to help guide us to the spot, and I eventually had everyone get out and then I maneuvered our giant SUV into one of the very tight spots. I breathed a sigh of relief, tried not to think about what a nightmare it would be to get out, and then we headed out to the bridge.

Three members of our group were Chinese friends, and Jessica and I are Americans. I’m glad I got to visit this bridge with Chinese friends because I don’t think I could have appreciated it without their perspective.

Before arriving at the bridge, I didn’t really know anything about it, and even as we talked about it, I was a bit confused about what exactly it represented. Basically, according to my research, the Luding Bridge was the site of an important battle in China’s history and in the founding of modern China. The Red Army, led by Chairman Mao, needed to cross the bridge to defeat their enemy, but they had to put down wooden planks that had been stripped away so that they could cross. The bridge is about 100 meters long and it is constructed from large iron chains and wooden boards. Even today, the bridge is basically the same and sways as you cross.

The troops managed to cross the bridge and take the city which was an important victory for them. I enjoyed hearing bits and pieces of this history from my friends and then learning about it later as I searched for information online (https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-06-18/Crucial-battle-at-Luding-Bridge-shapes-course-of-history-11bTUoIeLny/index.html).

By the time we arrived at the bridge, the drizzling rain was coming down steadily. We stood in line and Timothy figured out how to get us tickets so we could walk across the bridge. I had my phone out so I could take some pictures, but I was also trying to hold my umbrella. The bridge had solid wooden boards in the middle, but since there was a line of people coming from both directions, there wasn’t quite enough room for both lines of people to comfortably fit on the boards. Towards the side of the bridge, there were some wooden slats, but there were also empty space between the wooden boards. I looked down into the churning waters of the river as the bridge swayed and wobbled under the feet of hundreds of tourists.

I clutched my phone desperately in one hand and my umbrella in the other. In addition to the swaying bridge and the rain, we also had some wind to deal with. I felt the wind tugging at my umbrella, and I think I eventually just put my umbrella away because I figured it was better to get a bit wet than to let the wind throw me off balance. I wished desperately that I had put my phone in my bag because I had too many things to carry and I tried to push away visions of my phone slipping out of my fingers and falling into the river underneath my feet, taking all of my pictures of the trip so far with it. I was walking like a drunk person, and every step felt like a risk on the swaying bridge.

Thinking back on to this time, I’m thankful that my biggest fear was dropping my phone rather than the soldiers who were in battle who had the bigger fear of losing their lives. I finally made it across the bridge with my life, my phone, and a pounding heart.

We continued walking on the other side of the river until we reached another bridge and walked back toward our car. We stopped for some dinner at a little noodle shop, and thankfully it had stopped raining by now so we sat at a little wooden table outside the shop.

We headed back to our car and after some finagling, we managed to get out of the parking garage and back on the road. The rest of our journey was pretty smooth, although driving up the mountain in the dark was not ideal. I was very thankful when we pulled up to our little hotel. The workers directed me to park on the sidewalk in front of the building, and we unloaded and enjoyed the lovely room.

But the nicest part of this hotel was the hot tub on the roof, so we changed into our swimming suits and headed up to the roof. After a busy day of driving and trying not to fall into the river, soaking in the natural hot water was quite lovely. We chatted and munched on grapes that the hotel provided in a beautiful pedestal bowl. Actually, I felt like a Greek emperor, and it was quite delightful. What a wonderful way to end our first day of our Western Sichuan adventure!