Chengdu and photographs

[vik]

I'll be coming ot live in Chengdu from September and was wondering if anyone can point me to some places where I can meet people - English speakers, Chinese and Expat.

Also does anyone know of a photo shop that prints good copies of pictures in Chengdu? What do most people do with their camera films? I've heard that used film can be taken off you at the airport upon leaving, and that most shops tend to be of poor quality. I'm not sure what to do - any advice? Is a digital camera better than an SLR (which I currently own)?

Thanks for reading this. If anyone can help itwould be much appreciated.

Vik

[meisje]

Firstly, it is no doubt that you will meet english speakders, chinese most of places in Chengdu now, like the parks, the schools, the teahouses, even in the streets.

Secondly there are many photo shops now in Chengdu, so you may bring your digital camera or SLR.

I live in Chengdu, and then I would like to show you around.

See ja

freya

[chengdude]

Compared with other cities, there are fewer "western" places where expats hang out in Chengdu; in no particular order, they are: Shamrock Bar, Roo Bar, Dave's Oasis, Reggae Bar, Peter's Tex-Mex, Carol's, Grandma's Kitchen (2 locations). I'm probably missing some...but not very many. Otherwise, the Little Bar (Yulin area) is locally famous for Chinese Rock and in roughly the same vicinity, along the Second Ring Road between Yulin and Jiangxi Roads, there's a popular club/movie theater complex. One of the clubs is called Mix, the other escapes me.

For photos, the lab with the best reputation is Mingjia Digital Picture Services; they have a couple of locations now...the first one is on the First Ring Road at the corner of Dongfeng/Shuinianhe Road across from the Chengdu Hotel and diagonally across from the Chengdu Arts Center. There's another good shop whose name escapes me; it's located along Renmin West Street between the Mao statue (Tianfu Square) and Renmin Park...it's almost across the street from the Sichuan Exhibition Hall of Fine Arts (corner Renmin West and Dongchenggen Road). Both of these companies are Fuji-branded stores.