The direct flight from Chengdu to Osaka (Japan) is going to lunch in the end of March according to Chengdu local Tv News.

If you still have extra time and want to see Chengdu in all different angles, you may check out "Nong Jia Le", a name probably you can only hear in Chengdu-commonly regarded as a city for leisure-though I don't think pretty much so.

"Nong Jia Le" can be literally translated as "Farmhouse" and "Happy" where local Chengdunese happily spend time on weekend with their family by playing province-wide game "Ma Jiang", drinking tea, enjoying healthy food grown up from relatively unpolluted countryside, locals like to forget city for a while in a place not far away from city.

The biggest "Nong Jia Le" area that I'm going to tell you is located at outskirt of Chengdu some about 10 km east of downtown, most of people drive there but "no-cars" can also catch bus at "Jiu Yan Qiao九眼桥", sure, Taxi is another option.

This large "Nong Jia Le" area used to be farming land occupying more than 620 acre, but by selling the crop can be very difficult for people living in rural area to increase their income, so about 4 years ago when local government tried to boast the tourism economy, here became an experimental field. Farmers stopped farming, instead, they converted their houses into guesthouses, restaurants, tea houses as well as the flower planting base-the demand of flowers in market is getting higher, and It's certainly more profitable than selling crops.

Go there when weather is good, see hundreds of people playing majiang together under the shadow of trees or a farmhouse's courtyard, take a walk on ridge of field, specially in spring time, when flowers is booming.

It's also perfect to ride there by bike.

P.s: This large "Nong Jia Le" area is consisted by two "Nong Jia Le", one is called: "Xing Fu Mei Lin 幸福梅林" and another one "San Sheng Hua Xiang 三圣花乡". You can find buses head there at "Jiu Yan Qiao 九眼桥".

Just shortly stopped for couple of days, the cold air from north again coming back and attacking most of north and middle area of China. I opened the window this morning and found heavily snowing rarely occurring, and according to weather forecasting, snowing is gonna be last for at least 3 days.

The roads connect to Gansu and Shaanxi, from Chongqing to Guizhou have temporarily closed due to the frozen dangerous road, just in case you guys are going to travel by bus in those area, check out the latest weather condition before you go. But of course, it doesn't effect train, and by now, the safest way to travel around.

According to the radio morning report, most of highways have re-opened again, but from Chongqing to Guizhou is still suspended.

It's perfect time to see snow now in near by mountains now!

In previous posts, I suggested those who want to get to Cambodia to fly from Chengdu to Siem Reap, I tried on November but was told that flight had been suspended, and hopefully to be started again after spring of 2008. So, now travelers have to jump to Kunming to catch the plane to southeast Asia. However, if you insist to fly, you can still ask travel agency to arrange air ticket to Siem Reap, but need to transit in Kunming. And that's what I did.

In China's old sayings, "A Snow Year, A Rich Year", specially in Chengdu, a place hardly to have snowing, this year in early 2008, we had 3 days snowing continuously though not as heavily as in north.

Chengdu has long been a winter resort for locals and people from southwest China as the mountains surrounding Chengdu are pretty high, and every year, around this time, there must be some mountainous area snowing and some places quite heavily.

West and north Sichuan Plateau are not to be mentioned as some area have already been block by snow storm particularly  where the altitude over 3000 meters high. Meanwhile, some low altitude mountains close to Chengdu comfortably offer tourists a place to enjoy the winter activities or just simply enjoy the "white world". The best places are following (might be most crowded during this time):

1. Qing Cheng Mountain. A famous Taoist mountain west of Chengdu, 40 minutes ride, the closest place that Chengdu locals can see the snow.

2. Mt. Emei. about 2.5 hours ride south of Chengdu, there is a skiing ground opened to tourists during the winter. Also, a famous Buddhist mountain to climb.

3. Snow Mountain Xiling. Less than 2 hours ride, west of Chengdu, has long been the famous winter resort for Chinese. At the foot of mountain, there are many hotels built on the hotspring site, so enjoy a whole day long winter activities on the top of mountain, then back to hotel, relaxing in hotspring pool in evening that's pretty enjoyable. (Could be extremely crowded during this time).