Day 25
Since today was supposed to be blazingly hot again and the kids were tired of Chinese cultural attractions we decided to go to a water park. We slept in and I woke up feeling human for the first time in ten days. The drive to the water park took an hour and a half through traffic that crawled along a modern freeway. Fortunately, I slept through much of it.
When we arrived we made our way through a spacious lobby with cool egg shaped chairs arranged around 25 for high white teepee things. In the hallway just past the lobby we saw that this was the world's largest water park spa measuring 98060.96 square meters per a certificate provided by Guinness book of World Records.
They gave us each a bracelet with a number. The number corresponded to our locker number, which the bracelet locked and unlocked, when it was pressed against the electronic lock along with an attendants bracelet. I had to buy a bathing suit because I hadn't brought one from home so they showed me various styles, of which I chose the least expensive. They only had suits clearly labeled XXXXL, which I explained would not fit me. When they assured me that it would I thought that we had a language barrier but they were right, it fit perfectly.
The park itself was immense and varied. Unfortunately I can't do it justice with a written description. There were mineral springs, giant hot tubs to soak in, including one about 25 feet in diameter full of "pure tea." There was a kiddie pool that had a slide and a regular pool.
We ate lunch at the spa's buffet, which was a big as any I've seen. The nut pie was particularly delicious and the chocolate fountain had tomatoes for dipping, which I decided that I needed to try. It was not my favorite but it was nice, beating expectations.
Upstairs there were areas for ping pong, pool, and a cinema. There were comfortable bed things to lie and relax on. You could buy a massage, but a back massage was too pricey. Andrea and Zachary got a foot rub, which was cheaper while I dozed off. Afterwards I soaked in tea while they had remora fish eat their dead skin cells.
We headed to an art district, they called 798, after the water park which was really cool. Miles of shops galleries and exhibitions, in an old industrial area left over from the Great Leap Forward. I regret not buying a t-shirt that subtly poked fun at the party but it took me a while to figure out that they had the nerve to do so and it was sarcastic not just propaganda phrasing that was poorly translated. We saw a few galleries and Ari poked fun at modern art. "This plain white canvas had meaning and significance because it represents the essential purity and innocence of art." Sure enough the next gallery had a canvas that was entirely black. However, if you liked at it closely the artist had drawn a forest using differences in thickness of the paint.
One exhibit had a back-lit Chinese traditional scene that looked like it was painted with calligraphy brushes but the back was open to show that the entire thing was done by shining light through colored plastic bags, bubble wrap, and other refuse.
We left the area to go to dinner at a Thai restaurant in a nearby mall. The mall was huge, Western, and had bathrooms even cleaner than the Chengdu panda research center. The food was delicious.
After dinner we walked around the mall a bit. Andrea now wants a Dyson fan. We bought Andrea a double machiatto from Costa Coffee, though there was a Starbucks in the mall. She was pleased. Finally we stopped at a supermarket in the mall and bought expensive (for China) food to bring home for tomorrow's breakfast.
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