You might know the Bookworm from some of my other posts, it is a little oasis in Suzhou where we can peruse, scan, skim our English papers and books, sit and chill out while surfing, supping good coffee and eating decent western food. The Bookworm has branches in Beijing, Suzhou and Chengdu and today, as I am in Chengdu, it is the place be; we will get the necessary information on the city and suitably refreshed we will do a little bit of exploring. However, firstly I will calm down after this morning's frustrating exercise in booking a ticket from Shanghai to London through one of the two main Chinese travel agents. Unknown to me you have to fax a signed authorisation and a copy of your passport and credit card if you use a foreign credit card to book your flight. Anyway, there was me having to photo copy and fax things, spending time and, less importantly, money and I am still waiting for the final confirmation that I have the ticket. It is all, of course, linked to China's fiscal policies but one wonders, is it really necessary? Still, it is partly due to their fiscal policies that China has not drifted into the pockets of the IMF and the World Bank. Perhaps, there is a method to their madness but in the case of online bookings it is a trifle difficult to fathom it. Anyway, here we are chilling out in the Bookworm and I am thinking about having another cup of coffee before we take ourselves down to one of the temples and an arty farty street that has been recommended. What I like about Chengdu and about this area of Chengdu in particular is the lack of crowds and, looking past the two Europeans sitting opposite me out of the window across the tree lined street towards an Indian restuarant that is adorned by a motive of Shiva, I might think for a minute that I am already in London.
The picture above is of Chengdu's Bookworm.
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