CHINA, DAYS 6-8 AND GIANT PANDAS!!!

           It was a little like being back home to see the sign, “Holiday Inn Hotel,” which is where we stayed in Chengdu. We were really exhausted and my itinerary says we checked in to the hotel at 23:20, or 11:20 on day five. Then, it was up and at ‘em first thing the next morning with breakfast at 7:30.

          Breakfast over, we climbed back aboard the bus to go visit the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center. As most everyone must know, the giant panda is China’s national treasure and came very close to becoming extinct. The research center is only a few miles from downtown Chengdu and was built to imitate pandas’ natural habitat in an effort to assist the pandas with breeding and rearing young.

          My understanding is that giant pandas come into season only once a year and breeding is not always successful. Then, the baby, when it’s born, weighs only as much as a stick of butter…4 ounces. It must climb up the mother’s abdomen in order to latch onto a nipple…not an easy chore for something so small. Sometimes, a panda will have twins; and in that case, unless humans assist, one of the twins will not survive.

          The research center includes a fodder room (bamboo), sleeping quarters and a medical station. There is also a museum and training center. There are many plants and as many as 10,000 clumps of bamboo and bushes that are cultivated to provide food and habitat for the giant pandas who live there. 

          There are also red pandas at this location and it was possible to have your photo taken with one of them. I did not do so, nor did John, but other members of our group did so. (photos 1-5 )

 

              From the research center we were taken to Guanghan City where we had lunch with the Vice Mayor of Guangham. After lunch we visited the Sanxingdui Museum. Sanxingdui refers to three mounds. These were discovered when a farmer went to dig a well in 1929. He discovered a cultural relic of the ancient Sichuan and it is an important archeological discovery. This find changed the people’s understanding of ancient history and the culture of the Sichuan area. I seem to have only two photos from the visit to the museum and cannot now remember much about it. (photos 6-7)

          From the museum, we returned to Chengdu and visited the Jinli ancient style street which is where we had dinner. Again, my memory fails me here and there are no photos or memorabilia to assist in recovering a single memory. Then it was back to the hotel and bed…such long days, no wonder my memory hasn’t retained every single thing.

          The following morning, our day began with breakfast at 7:00 am.  Then we got on the bus to drive through the mountains to the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center. It was an amazing drive, made more so by the fact that we were so important and the bus was a government vehicle that whenever we came upon another car or truck, the driver honked the horn and maybe used a siren…in any case, the vehicle in front of us had to move aside and let us go onward.

          This breeding facility was established in 1963 and enlarged in 1975, the area is also home to snow leopards, red pandas, golden monkeys, white-lipped deer and many valuable plants. At one point the reserve held 150 giant pandas and the breeding program was extremely successful, with many cubs born. My memory may be wrong or it may be thinking of a different year, but it seems like they had 16 baby pandas when we were there.

This facility was decimated by the earthquake in May 2008. Five security personnel died, several pandas escaped but were found and returned. Only one giant panda died, crushed when her enclosure wall fell. She had given birth to five cubs, so her genes were well represented. The road we used was washed out at some point, perhaps by the earthquake and I don’t know if it has been repaired or not.

There were many interesting sights as the bus drove the 80 miles up into the mountains and back. Even in the mountains it was smoggy or there was a haze. There was a bridge to nowhere, a damn, electrical producing buildings, farms, little towns, men working to repair or improve the road…one in a suit jacket…farms, and well, take a look at the following photos 8-20. You'll also see a tent because the workers remain until the work is complete.

When we arrived at Wolong, we first had lunch before visiting the pandas. (photos 22-23)

Then, the highlight of the entire trip…a chance to hold a giant panda. Our leader’s wife Chris had done this many times and told me it was like holding a sack of beans. She was correct in that when I held the giant panda, it didn’t feel as though it had a skeleton inside all that fur. It was a most special experience at that point in time, and considered rare. Since then, however, I believe if you want to hold a giant panda, you pay a fee to do so. It may not be at Wolong, but there are several other research stations, and it may be at those that you can hold one. For some reason, our giant panda loved the smell of John's hair and took his head between its paws to get a better sniff. (photos 24-28)

Once each of us, usually in pairs, had held a giant panda, we did a bit more wandering around the facility, taking pictures of these adorable animals. Then, back on the bus which stopped for dinner in Longchaoshou Snack Restaurant…again, memory fails me with regard to this stop and I have no idea what time we returned to the hotel.

The following morning, we breakfasted and were on the bus bound for Dazu Stone Grottos at 8:00 am. Now, besides the pandas, this was the most impressive and interesting stop of the entire trip. It was spared from being ruined during the Cultural Revolution because it was out in the country. The place is amazing as you can see in the photos. I took so many photos I had a very hard time deciding how many to include. (photos 29-40)

There are 50,000 images carved into niches, caves and overhangs in the hillsides. It was begun in 892 A.D. and work continued for 400 years. Some sculptures are set deeply into the rock faces and are best viewed in natural light. There are walkways and paths and the sculptures are comic and realistic, religious, and some tell historic tales. Absolutely amazing and beautiful.

From Dazu, the bus took us to Seattle’s sister city, Chongquin where we had a Chongqing style dinner. I have no idea what time we finally checked into the hotel and went to bed.