The most amazing month ever ... Chengdu

We stayed only briefly in Chengdu. I thought the city was nice and my family all wished we could have stayed there a few days longer!! The city looks attractive because the streets are full of trees. Driving into the city on higher ground, we could see endless buildings with endless greenery in between them. It looks very different in comparison to the dirt and pollution of Zhengzhou.

Our main objective in Chengdu was to visit the pandas! There are a couple of panda research facilities in Chengdu. One of them is a few hours out of the city and in the countryside. The one we went to is in the city. We went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. As the title of this place may suggest, the purpose of this centre is to breed pandas because as we all know, pandas are not good at breeding and their numbers are decreasing constantly.

                                    

We could have easily spent a day at the panda centre but we only had the morning there. It is important to go early in the morning if you want to see pandas moving around. Pandas have a small digestive system therefore they must eat an awful lot. An adult panda will eat up to fourteen hours a day to ensure they get the nutrients needed. They will then sleep for the rest of the day! What a life!! I think in my next life I will be a panda in a panda sanctuary!

When we were there, it was actually nearing breeding time. Therefore the baby pandas were no longer really babies. They had grown quite big! They are very cute! They sleep in the trees and look like they will fall out of them at any minute! The big pandas are huge!

My sister and I were lucky enough to spend time with a ‘baby’ panda. To spend a short time with one is really expensive but it is so worth it! We were in a group of around twenty people. We had about ten minutes of an introduction about pandas. We were told information about them including the fact that they have been on this planet for around 8 million years. (This is crazy when you think how slow they are, how long it takes them to eat, how they don't mate and that they are black and white colouring in a green environment...camouflage is not a strength of their either). Then we were told about the bamboo, the different types, how they find it in the wild and how they eat it. At this point, I had had enough! I was so eager to see a little panda! I was losing interest and just wanted to spend time with the panda!

Finally, we were made to wear blue aprons, gloves and covers on our shoes. We were made to stand in a line and wait our turn! Luckily all the foreigners with us were Westerners. If we would have been with Chinese tourists, it would have been a fight because Chinese people just don’t seem to know how to queue!!! (The dots in the blue square represent the way people queue in the West, the dots in the red square represent the Chinese way of 'queuing'). 

The first panda they brought for us to see had a cold so he had to go to the doctors! Another one came and sat on a bench. He was in his element! He seemed to love eating bamboo and appearing for the camera! Luckily, my sister and I were near the front of the queue!

I went first. It was such an experience! The panda’s fur was rough and the baby panda wasn’t little any more so I couldn’t hold him. Instead I stroked him and at one point his paw mistook my hand for bamboo and he held it tight! It was amazing! However, once he realised my hand wasn’t bamboo he quickly let go!

My face in the photos!! I look ridiculously happy!

(He held my hand!)

(He let go quickly!)

 After the experience, we were given a ‘complementary’ panda pack that included a certificate, photos in a photo frame from the professional photographer, a badge, information magazines, a large cuddly toy panda and a tie. (I assume the tie will be for a future boyfriend?!)

You could tell they were actually looked after really well! The enclosures for the adult pandas were big and they all looked healthy! I was worried as I am often told animals in China aren’t treated as they would be in the West. I was impressed with this centre though!

There were also red pandas. They are my sister’s favourite animal so she was even happier to see them! We were walking and one red panda appeared out of nowhere, walked in between us, turned around, walked alongside my sister, took a long look up at us then disappeared through a hole in the fence. He was a cheeky chap!

We left the panda centre reluctantly and travelled by car for around two hours. The afternoon was spent visiting the largest Buddha in the world. (The biggest one ever was sadly destroyed recently by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001).

The Leshan Giant Buddha is in the Sichuan province near the city of Leshan. The statue is 71 metres (233 feet) tall!! It is massive!! It was just about impossible to fit the whole statue in one picture on my camera!! My mum loves Buddhism and was so happy to see it. The statue is really so impressive! It was built in the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). So the statue is not only gigantic but very, very old! Despite some alterations to the Buddha as a result of pollution and age, it is so incredible that something so big could survive for so long!

(The pathway down to the foot of the Buddha).

(You can see us standing on the left beside the Buddha's huge head!)

It is amazing....if ever you are in Chengdu...you have to visit here...it's spectacular!! 

(My Dad next to the Buddha's foot)

(My family's size in comparison to the Buddha's size!)

Our hotel was situated in the old part of the city. The hotel and area was very traditional! It was lovely!

(Statue in our hotel)

(Spice stall...from seeing my parents reaction when tasting some...they were really, really spicy!)

(Monument like the ones you would find in Nepal).

I also saved a turtle while in Chengdu. He got stuck on top of a suction thing and would not have been able to get to the surface for air if I hadn't been there to prod him off it with a stick and save him!! I hope I get some good karma my way soon!

 There was a Buddhist temple just around the corner from our hotel. Every Buddhist temple I have been to fills me with delight. There is something so peaceful about them. There was a big celebration when we went there so endless rows of candles and flowers and colours had been put on display! It was beautiful! 

Our guide urged us to pray by giving us some incense sticks to burn. My family aren't religious and for a moment we thought we would look silly or maybe offend someone. However, we got serious, copied what the locals were doing and prayed. 

 We reached the back end of the temple and realised a gate was open. We had a little nosey look behind it and saw monks busy playing ping pong!! There were other monks near looking through their mobile phones! It was a funny sight to see!

We passed a woman with her baby selling candy. I was intrigued and so paid her the money. I had to spin the arrow on a board and whatever animal the arrow landed on, she would make it out of the candy. My arrow landed on a dragon. It was very impressive how the woman was holding her toddler and making the masterpiece at the same time.

 I would love to go back to Chengdu! Our guide was lovely! Hopefully I will go back one day!

We passed this sign while on the road. I think this is very true. It's all happening in China!! Big things will happen in this country over the next ten years...

Our next stop was...Xi'an...