This past weekend we went into downtown Chengdu (is it still downtown, if you travel uptown to get to it?) to visit the Science and Technology Museum with Babes. The Museum itself is not bad. There are 4 or 5 floors (we got there late so we kinda ran through it) and lots of hands on activities for the young ones (and us adults) to try out. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon it was not too crowded. Some of the more popular activities were crowded, with little kids zooming in and out constantly, but we were able to do a fair amount, and did not get pushed around too much. There is also a 4D theater, which is supposed to be pretty neat. What's 4D you might ask, well I asked the same thing. Apparently it's a 3D movie with touch added to the experience as well. For instance, if an elephant sprays water, you will get shot with water, or if there's a breeze blowing, they will pipe wind through the theater. Sounds cool, and I think when Babes is off for her 2 week break we are going to head back for a more in depth exploration of the museum.
On our way out of the museum we found ourselves in the midst of some sort of anime convention. At first we saw a girl in a Japanese school girl outfit, and I thought strange, but you know how kids are... Then we started seeing more and more people in school girl uniforms, or with pink wigs, or other costumes on. I don't follow anime so I can't say which one it was, but I think it was a particular series as most people were dressed in similar costumes.
Along with the costumed kids, I saw this
You can't really see it, but it's a bicycle full of crickets. The noise was unbelievable! And when you got up really close you could see giant cricket legs (ok they weren't that big) sticking out of the holes. So creepy. I thought I should buy one so that I could take a picture of the bug inside, but I couldn't bring myself to get any closer than picture distance.
