China - Chengdu, City Square

My brother-in-law's brother-in-law tried to get us to go on his trips for years.  He and about 40 of his friends would decide they wanted to go somewhere and see what's interesting in other parts of the world, so they'd pick a place and go as a group.  We didn't make any of them due to work or something else, but the stars finally aligned and were able to join them on this tour of mainland China.  Being in Taiwan anyway for the duration made it a relatively inexpensive way to see a part of the world we'd never visited before.

Must say I was unsure about what it would be like to stay in a communist country, and in the interest of not standing out or making myself conspicuous in any way, elected to leave the Bigger Cahoona home, a decision I would regret at times.  All of the pictures in this lengthy series were captured with an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Our first flight was to the colossal city of Chengdu, from the international airport in Taipei.  The pic above was taken from the 31st floor of our hotel, right on the square of the city.  Note the statue of Mao in the upper background.  I really, really wanted to go down there and wander around taking pics for a few hours, but could not due to the constraints of time; we were kept fully occupied from early morning until well after dark on most of the 16 days in the country.

Another view from the same floor below: