Introduction#
After the Qingming Festival, I caught a cold, which I think was related to working night shifts for several weeks without enough rest. I caught a cold due to the cold wind, and I started to have severe headaches at night. As a result, the next day, I and my department supervisor took a day off and worked from home. This week, some places in my hometown in the north started to snow again, and the weather in Chengdu was also unpredictable. To all the wandering children, please take care of yourselves.
Revisiting Familiar Places#
I once lived in Pengzhou, Sichuan for a period of time due to my father's job. It was my first time in Sichuan, and Pengzhou is only a 20-minute drive from Chengdu. One of my colleagues is from Pengzhou, so my girlfriend and I planned a day trip to Pengzhou.
Our plan was to leave work on Friday afternoon, go home and pack our bags, and I also booked a hotel in Pengzhou for Friday night. We were going to pick up my colleague and his girlfriend and go to Pengzhou together, and the next day, we would go hiking in "Zhongba Forest". However, things always have unexpected twists and turns. On Friday afternoon, my colleague's girlfriend had to work overtime on Saturday and couldn't go with us. In order to appease his girlfriend, my colleague canceled the trip to Pengzhou with us. But it's also fine, the two of us can take it easy.
The traffic situation in Chengdu is quite bad. Due to the popularity of the city, a large number of migrant workers have been attracted, causing the population of Chengdu to rise rapidly and the number of vehicles to increase sharply. The rush hours in Chengdu are even scarier than Beijing and Shanghai. And Chengdu people have a habit of going crazy once the sun comes out, which means that most of the time on weekends is spent on the road.
We finished packing around 9:30 pm and set off from Chengdu. Since we live in the south of Chengdu and Pengzhou is in the northwest direction of Chengdu, it took about an hour to get to the hotel by going around Chengdu and taking the expressway. We didn't go out again that night, we just washed up and went to bed, preparing for the hiking trip the next day.
Change of Plans#
When we woke up in the morning, my girlfriend asked if we still wanted to go to "Zhongba". I asked why, and she said that the residents there had blocked the road and didn't allow cars to enter. We would need to take their own car and pay a fee to go there, and it would also take an hour to drive there. The comments online said that the experience there was not very good. I also searched for some reviews myself and found that the problems my girlfriend mentioned did exist. However, this kind of thing is subjective. In order to have a more enjoyable experience, we decided to change our destination. My girlfriend found a bamboo forest called "Yangping Xuanguan", which is said to be a good place for oxygen inhalation.
After having breakfast at the hotel in the morning, we set off. "Yangping Xuanguan" is located near a famous scenic spot called "Danjing Mountain" in Pengzhou. When we passed by there, there were many tourist buses picking up and dropping off passengers on the roadside, which formed a sharp contrast with the bustling Danjing Mountain. There was no car in the parking lot of Yangping Xuanguan (maybe because we arrived early).
Bamboo Forest#
I don't know how long it has been since I last heard the sound of wind blowing through a bamboo forest, the rustling sound of bamboo leaves brushing against each other. Whether it's the bamboo forest duel in "Hero" or the bamboo forest escape in "House of Flying Daggers," the tall, straight, and dense image of bamboo can be said to be a diplomatic calling card of Sichuan.
Yangping Xuanguan is a Taoist holy place with a Taoist temple in front of the mountain and a bamboo forest behind it. We didn't visit the Taoist temple and went straight to the bamboo forest.
It feels like there is a barrier around the bamboo forest. The morning sun is still relatively strong. As soon as we stepped into the bamboo forest, we felt like we had entered another world, quiet, cool, and isolated from the outside world.
Awkward Meal#
Recommended by my colleague, there is a famous Sichuan restaurant in Pengzhou called "Ju Wei Xuan", mainly because of the documentary "Master's Dishes", which once featured the dishes of Li Yunbo and Li Shu, attracting many people who came for the fame.
The restaurant has two floors, and the decoration is not very luxurious. After we sat down, I kept telling my girlfriend about Li Shu's story. Suddenly, my girlfriend whispered to me, "The person at the table next to you looks like Li Shu." I turned my head and felt awkward. It couldn't be him... Li Shu looked up and saw me, called the waiter over, and took his food to the front desk. He was probably afraid of disturbing our meal.
My colleague also rushed over from Chengdu while having lunch.
"Spicy Beef Tripe" is a dish with unique characteristics. Its uniqueness lies in the tenderness, crispness, and freshness of the beef tripe, and it requires precise control of the cooking time to make a perfectly textured dish. "Spicy Chicken" is a tempting dish. When it is served, the aroma of chili peppers is already mouthwatering. The chicken is well-marinated, and the aroma of the chili peppers accompanies the chicken as it enters the mouth, making it irresistible and making you want to eat more rice. The cooking time and seasoning of these two dishes require excellent culinary skills to create such delicious dishes.
Four dishes for three people, less than 50 yuan per person, highly recommended.
Religion#
Pengzhou is known for its many temples, both Taoist and Buddhist. Longxing Temple, located in the center of Pengzhou, is a holy place for Buddhists. If you have friends who believe in Buddhism, I believe Longxing Temple must be a good place for pilgrimage.
Learning#
Recently, I finished watching Microsoft's free tutorial on blockchain basics, which gave me a general understanding of the process of blockchain development and the tools involved. In the future, I will continue to try to develop some contracts and play around with them on my local private chain :)
Afterword#
Due to the current situation, the company's top management has implemented a series of policies that have caused anxiety among employees. Sometimes, I wonder what the meaning of work really is. I have been working for two years and haven't saved much money. There are many problems that give me a headache every day, and various pressures keep coming. I once wanted to become a developer. When I graduated from graduate school, I solved many LeetCode problems. At that time, I was just entering the workplace and didn't know the unspoken rules of the workplace. I started doing things that had nothing to do with what I originally wanted to do, and I am still struggling now.
On Friday, I asked for a week off next week from my boss. I decided to take a break, go home, completely let go of my work, and think about the next steps in my career.