Pingle: Inertia can be delicious

Sesame-coated candies and patties, which also come in an incredible variety of flavors and shapes, are a favored snack as they stay fresh and crisp all year round.

Roasted chunks of meat hang from hooks at shop fronts, like frilly decorations. A decent eight-course meal for four people, complete with one's chosen fish netted from the giant aquariums and fried or curried instantly, with a mandatory overdose of red hot chili pepper, costs around 140 yuan.

There's lots more one could do in Pingle with a little more time on one's hands, such as hiking to nearby Jinhua, Huaqiu and Qilong hills, for example. Legend has it that wishes made on the Jinhua summit are usually fulfilled.

Alternatively, one could take a stroll down South Silk Road Culture Garden, to learn about the trade route that connected China with the Mediterranean in the late 19th century and walk the stretch that passed through Pingle before veering off toward Kashgar in the northwest.

Or visit the oldest tea garden in the area and the Li family courtyard next to it. The latter is a typically affluent civilian household from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) era, with pronounced Sichuanese characteristics. Artistic types could try their hand at weaving strands of bamboo over porcelain.

Shopaholics hunting for souvenirs can find anything from ornate silver Miao headgear to cheerful straw figures in the stores and kiosks surrounding the octagonal pavilion.

Or one could just sit beside Leshan bridge, held together by a series of pillars merging with one another to form Gothic arches, and watch the world sail by in a pagoda-roofed bamboo raft, along the Baimo River.

Give in to the languorous pace and understated the charm of Pingle. Inertia can be delicious.