We have ended up staying in Chengdu for the week and this morning were in the queue waiting for the PSB office to open after the holiday break to lodge our visas for another 30 day extension and we were the second ones to be attended to. They will be ready to pick up on Thursday, 14th October. However it says on the receipt that we are not to leave Chengdu but we have already booked a train ticket to Xi'an for tomorrow night. We have however found out that the hostel we have booked in to are quite happy to accept a copy of our passports as well as the receipt from the PSB about our Visa extension. When we check into our accommodation our passports and Visa are scanned and then sent off to the PSB.
Last weekend we did a fair amount of walking around Chengdu and visited some of the old traditional parts of the city and also the big square with a large statue of Chairman Mao over looking the square. There was an area in the middle where people were lined up and systematically let down below street level into this area. We were very curious as to what was happening down there and wondered if there was some sort of show or exhibition down there. A few days later when not so crowded we went and had a look to find that it is one of the stations on the new underground metro system that has only opened up this year.
On Sunday when down in the centre of the city we discovered that the Russian Ballet were performing Swan Lake for two nights so Joy and I booked tickets and we went to see it on Monday night - loved it but there it was certainly not a full house by any means, although there were a lot of young people and children there.
We are staying at the Mix hostel here in Chengdu and they are very switched on and arrange tours etc. so on Tuesday six of us left in a mini van just after 6am for the 160km trip down to Leshan to see the Great Buddha. We were there just before 9am and already there were thousands of people there. After getting our tickets we waited in queues for 2.5hrs to go on down to see the Buddha. The enormous (71m) high Dafo (Great Buddha) is carved into the red sandstone face of Lingyun Hill which overlooks the treacherous confluence of three rivers below. It was started in AD713, finished in AD803 and is a UNESCO world Heritage site. His statistics are: feet 8m, each ear droops 7m, shoulders span 28m while his nose measures 5.6m. the statue must be restored every decade to survive plant invasion and pollution. To get down to it we had to negotiate what is called the Nine Turns staircase which is a steep, narrow set of steps down to the toes. There are lots of caves and grottoes surrounding the hillside as well as several temples. We arrived back at the hostel just before 4pm feeling exhausted as the little minivan that we went in was not the most comfortable.
On Wednesday Dave and I caught a bus down to the southern area of the city as we had read that in that area you can get prescription glasses for very little cost as when Dave had his couple of falls at the boat he has bent and damaged the arms of his glasses, although still just wearable! We got down there but oh dear was it hard trying to explain what we wanted, even though we had a translation for some of what we wanted. We went into a music shop to see if there was someone there that spoke English and could write down in Chinese what we wanted. A girl there could speak English and in the end she came along with us to translate. The upshot was that we were told that because Dave was "old" they could not give him progressive glasses and that he would need two pairs of glasses and that there was a problem with his eyes. We then tried to get some new frames for his current lenses there plus a couple of other places but had no joy. After having some lunch we then went and had a look through a Computer Megamall - it was huge, just like a Harvey Norman store but with only computers and every make and model that you can think of. Prices were only a fraction cheaper than what they are in NZ but then again you could probably negotiate and as we had no intention of buying one didn't try to get any prices.
Yesterday we decided we would try out the new Metro and so opted to go to the northern most station and have a look at the area. It was certainly in the low socio economic area and we wondered around the market and a bit of the town after doing the circuit on the local bus. Went into a place for lunch - no English spoken but we were the star attraction, tried to order one plate of dumplings which appeared to be their specialty and got two, ordered a bottle of water and got a lychee drink and then Grandma who was the dumpling maker wanted to have photos with us. All rather entertaining.
After doing the Visa thing this morning we have had a quiet day but tonight at the hostel and every Friday night they have a dumpling night which is a free meal for guests here and we all help make the dumplings - Joy and I joined in last week and will do so tonight but the men seem to want to go elsewhere to eat. The dumplings yesterday had a meat mixture in but there was not a lot of flavour to them but the ones we had last week were very tasty with a finely chopped cabbage, cooked egg and ginger mixture inside with a tasty, spicy sauce to dip them in.
The construction that is going on in China is amazing with new buildings, pavements and roads. All the pavements are being replaced here because of the new underground and most of it is all being done by hand with the digging up being done with a pick and coal chisel and the concrete all mixed by hand. Even saw buckets of concrete being hauled up 7 stories in a 5 litre bucket using a pulley system. There are even women out shovelling concrete and breaking up the old concrete. Paving stones are being used to replace the pavements. At pedestrian crossings when the lights go green for pedestrians you do battle with at least 10 cars and 50 e bikes (electric bikes) and cyclists. Cars and buses never stick to their lanes and are often coming at you on the wrong side of the road.

Last Saturday morning we had some exciting news when we received an email from our eldest son Cameron, saying that they had a new baby daughter, Amelie Jane who was born at 11.19pm on Friday, 1st October weighing in at 3275 grams. I am really looking forward to seeing her when I fly from Auckland to Christchurch on 10th November. Amelie is now the fifth grandchild for us.