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.