【Chengdu Stroll × Journey's Finale】A Half-Day Tour of Kuanzhai Alley, and a Scare at the Airport

Today is truly the last day of the entire trip. At six in the morning, I got up first to send my mom off on her early flight back to Taiwan. The Chengdu Tianfu Airport Hotel we stayed at this time was extremely convenient — it takes less than ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the check-in counter, and there's even a baggage check-in counter right at the hotel entrance (for domestic Chinese flights), so we could take our time all the way until the very last moment before heading to security. Since mom had already checked in online, we went straight to check her baggage, and unexpectedly ran into some fellow tour members from the Tibet group. So I happily entrusted mom to this group of young people to escort her to the gate. Breakfast was the special drip-bag coffee my mom brought from Taiwan, paired with the half-price bread I bought the day before, giving this day a wonderfully leisurely start. 🗓 Today's Itinerary Chengdu Tianfu International Airport → Drop-off → Check-out → Airport Express Line 2 → Stroll through Kuanzhai Alley → Chengdu specialty street food tour → Return to the airport → Chengdu → Guangzhou (transit) → Guangzhou → Hanoi → Overnight at Hanoi airport (getting ready to fly to Hue the next day) Chengdu morning stroll: Check-out and head to Kuanzhai Alley At nine thirty, I checked out with Shigehara and boarded the Chengdu Airport shuttle bus. Only then did I discover that the airport bus isn't just a single route, but as many as four or five different routes. The one Mom took before was Line 1, heading to Chunxi Road; today we're taking Line 2, heading to Kuanzhai Alley. Since the distance is farther, the ride takes about an hour and a half. Even on a weekday, it was still packed with tourists, and once again I felt just how popular Chengdu is.

Kuanzhai Alley: A Half-Day Stroll Where Old Streets Meet Modern Creative Culture Kuanzhai Alley blends late-Qing and early-Republic-era neighborhoods with modern shops, making it a wonderfully walkable old tourist street. As you wander through the lanes, you'll find well-preserved traditional buildings alongside a colorful mix of creative-culture shops and food stalls, all thoughtfully arranged.

Along the way, we stopped to taste and explore a few Chengdu specialties: Sichuan rabbit head: I remembered that a Sichuan vendor once brought some to the office, and no one dared to eat it, which became a funny memory.

Panda Mansion: This time it was Maohara who got drawn in by the goods in the store. Dragon fruit... no wait, pitaya juice: First time trying it, tastes a bit like starfruit juice.

Bo Bo Chicken: fragrant and numbing, a snack with distinctly Sichuan flavors.

Dog Poop Candy: It's actually peanut candy, but because of its distinctive name and cute packaging, it's a souvenir tourists often buy. Mao Tofu (Furry Tofu): I ordered both the pan-fried and deep-fried versions. The texture was rich and dense, but the seasoning was rather plain, which was a bit of a shame.

By the time we wandered here, both our time and our appetite were about spent, so we got ready to take a car back to the airport. An airport check-in mishap: chaos caused by a document mismatch My check-in went very smoothly, but Maohara ran into big trouble. When he bought his ticket, he used his Taiwan Compatriot Permit, but for exiting and entering Hanoi he needed to use his passport — the two didn't match, so the ground staff couldn't verify his identity. After the ground staff couldn't resolve it, they asked us to go find the duty manager for help. The final resolution was: change the ID document in the system to passport, and manually write the Taiwan Compatriot Permit number on the Chengdu-to-Guangzhou flight ticket along with a stamp to confirm it. After nearly an hour of back and forth, I finally got the boarding pass and checked-baggage confirmation. Then at security I was stopped again, still because of the mismatched document numbers. My passport and ticket were even taken to the back for another round of review, and I was only allowed through after providing proof of ticket purchase. That moment was truly nerve-wracking. A bizarre incident on the plane: a passenger had to get off at the last minute After boarding, I finally thought I could relax, but right before takeoff, the businessman sitting next to me suddenly stood up and asked to get off the plane. After landing, the flight attendants gave us urgent-transfer stickers, and sure enough, ground staff were waiting for us as we got off — they drove us straight to the security checkpoint at the next boarding gate. What worried me most was whether our checked baggage would make it in time. The ground staff asked us to wait to the side for about five minutes, and finally the good news came: the luggage had been successfully transferred, and we could board. At that moment my whole body relaxed. The level of stress I went through today was probably enough to fill a whole short story.

Farewell and the Start of the Next Journey After making it safely back to Hanoi, Shigehara and I each set off on our own separate paths. He headed to Halong Bay, while I got ready for a six o'clock morning flight to Hue. So tonight I'm spending the night at the airport — the second time I've slept in an airport, after London. And with that, this journey stretching all the way from the snowy plateau to Chengdu officially comes to an end.