http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Chengdu en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:44:59 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:44:59 BST Hello everyoneHere we are in Chengde. We are not positive if it's the same place as Chengdu.... Anyway from the title you might have thought we were staying at a Resort haha. If only that were the case... We went and saw where the Emperors of the Qing dynastry went for their summer holidays. Posh place. It took about 100 years in the 1700's to build all the buildings and the gardens. I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-303092.html June 20Having finally and emotionally finished our teaching there were many tears mostly the kids however we started our freedom by making the possibly risky trip to Chengdu home of the Giant Panda. Chengdu is in the Sichuan province that was hit by an earthquake on the 12th May. However after much research into where the earthquake had hit we decided that it was still worth a trip. The Si http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-302083.html So we arrived in Chengdu its a cool place we all wished we had more time here seeing it was so cool. so we checked in and then went to this cool tibetan street which was just around the corner from where we were staying. it was a cool little walk way street place. like a mall or arcade back home. we had some food and then decided to jump in a cab and go to the peoples park. it was a really nice http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-298440.html Right i have not put any photos up for a while but now i shall as i am in hong kong and the internet works fast. Here are some photos from Chengdu......Im getting increasingly pissed off with this country as the internet and computing technology is very very VERY poor. It wont let me upload photos for soem reason it also wont let me upload them onto kodak photo storage so i might have to find an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-297961.html Dear father Im sending the rice aid now we must not let single mothers do a days work that would be unBritishso where was I...I arrived in Chengdu the other day and since i have been here I have been to a toaist temple a buddist temple an old quarter seen the statue of moa and a central square wandered around been to see some pandas make some friends drank some beer woke up late for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-296507.html Right then Im talking to you from Chengdu in Mix's hostel for the sake of Alex. I shall firstly respond to the comments as I cant any other way.To father I knew that you would mention spelling but I am often typing in busy places where it is hot and i am sweaty and tired so i shall try my best. Well done on instructing Svetlana and the degree results are fine but dont send me over the moon. To http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-295242.html Hello again readers and welcome to what should be my last travel blog entry. I say this because I will be leaving China to return to the United States in a week and the only further trip that I intend to make is to Shanghai for a few days to wrap up some sightseeing odds and ends and possibly to eat dinner at an American restaurant on the Fourth of July. My British friends and I have joked a lo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-293154.html Travelling FiveHello one and alllast time I emailed you I was in Shenzhen which is just on the border with Hong Kong The plan was to go to Guilin but we couldn't get a ticket on the day we arrived so we had to go to find a hostel so we did that with out any problems and that was where I last emailed from. The next day John and myself booked a hostel in Guilin and had a nice chat to both the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-293029.html Travel restriction has relaxed a bit around the country side I managed to drive around and took some photos. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-284902.html There are still many after shocks day and night. Today we had one about 5.0 which was very loud and violent. I heard noise from the house structure being under stress despite having the TV running. Luckily it was only very brief around two seconds and we were just at the stage of staring at each with fear in our eyes thinking whether we should be running out of the house or not before it stoppe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-284542.html After our great time in Xian we found a really cheap flight to Chengdu. There weren't many tourists in Chengdu because of the earthquake but we really wanted to see the sights and the pandas. We woke up early the first morning just in time to see the pandas eating at the Breeding Center. They were soooo cute We saw 19 pandas in total Dave counted and the babies were adorable eating and playin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-283717.html This blog entry is meant to be a bit more reflective to share some of the impressions I was left with after this trip to China. I used some of the nearly 1100 images I took this trip to capture some of them....First off China is far away. Even though we live in a shrinking world travel to the other side of the globe is tiring and takes time no matter how we try and divert and entertain oursel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-283049.html Fantastic trip from last year to China. Took the cheapest flight option from London with Aeroflot via Moscow. It was a bit Easyjet Long Haul but nevertheless got us to Beijing in one piece although our luggage prefered to stay in Moscow for an extra 24hrs. Remember if you need to buy clothes from the local market in Beijing get it a few sizes bigger as the Asian frame tends to be a bit small http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-282979.html What an incredible day I had When we got to the airport at 10am work had already started. Volunteers from all walks of life have been loading up the trucks bound for the disaster area. Even 20 days after the earthquake many people are still without a home it is just impossible for China itself to find the three million tents needed immediately despite being the manufacturing centre of the world http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-282666.html In the last a few days I have found a few local families to whom I have provided some financial help. A total of 900 yuan 135 was given to two families who have had their houses damaged during the earthquake. Their houses are leaking water but they are unable to fix them because they don't have the money.Today I meet a man called Mr Kong from Dujiangyan which is still closed to the outside. I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-282154.html May 29 2008 Chengdu We woke up at the crack of dawn and headed out to the panda reserve to get to them during the morning feed before the weather got warm and they got lazy. When we arrived Dr. Robert greeted us and the President of the Panda Reserve joined us. Apparently Dr. Fam had coordinated this and arranged for free entry and a guided tour. We headed to the new lake area to see the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281704.html May 30 2008 Chengdu Folks of the TravelBlog nation...I apologize I haven't had the time or bandwidth internet bandwidth to finish off the blog from the area to the earthquake zone. We were up at the crack of dawn and headed to the Panda Reserve here in Chengdu and now are frantically packing to make our 1 pm trip to the airport and head out to Hong Kong. We have some time to decompress ther http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281652.html May 29 2008 Chengdu This is a map of the earthquake zone marking out the fault line and the key geography. We headed to Dijianyang and then did a loop in the mountains around there. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281586.html May 29 2008 Dijianyang and surrounding area In an attempt to help you with the setting I wanted to give you a glimpse of what life might have been like before the earthquake. Sichuan Province is large and there are many large cities. However there is a very large population of rural villagers in moutainside villages. Driving up the hills we realized why someone might be motivated to live http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281576.html May 29 2008 Chengdu Today was a day we've all been anticipating but with a bit of trepidation. The entire team 2 van loads and our supply truck set out to explore the quake zone to find villagers in need of assistance. We used some of the intelligence gathered by other rescue and supply teams that have gone out using the information that is collected in the Emergency Operations Center. Dr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281569.html Some photos of Chengdu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281247.html May 28 2008 Chengdu Brian and Pauline Robinson are HearttoHeart staff located here in Chengdu. Brian is a family physician and immediately after the quake was proactive in providing support services to the ravaged communities. He related a story in which their truck was blocked by boulders on the road and they put water on their backs and started hauling it up the hill. A convoy of vehicl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281233.html Today I visited the widow of the Teacher Wu who died in the school building near my parent's house. She was very thankful for our visit she now lives in a tent without a job. Another school has promised free education for her son she now lives by herself as the boy is away at school some one hour's drive away. She is very sad and appears at a loss and numb about what is hapenning around her even http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281232.html May 28 2008 Chengdu At the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital SPPH the ophthalmology department was granted a wonderful wet lab by ORBIS. There are four operating microscopes two phaco machines video monitoring capabilities for the residents to practice on animal eyes. Yesterday the Ophthalmology team and the residents did a techniques exchange where our team showed them phacoemulsifi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281221.html May 28 2008 Chengdu This evening Dr. Fan hosted a large dinner at a large open air restaurant Brazil BarBQ and treated his team and our ophthalmology team to a celebratory dinner. Despite the challenges of this trip most of us and them feel that we achieved more this time than on previous trips. We formalized and they adopted many of the ways in which we train residents in the US an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281213.html Hello from the countrysideI have safely arrived at the countryside after 2.5 hours drive from the city of Chengdu. It appears Chengdu escaped the earth quake largely unscathed. I did start to notice lots of aid trucks ambulances and military personnel as I was getting deeper into the disaster area though.Travelling around is restricted because of fears about disease our house has been sprayed wi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281040.html This afternoon several of us went out on a shopping spree to get additional high demand supplies to take to the earthquake region tomorrow. We plan on getting a large team to go out and distribute tents clothing hygiene kits and fruit...all commodities that the displaced persons really appreciate and can use. So we split up into a few groups and took a 500 donation someone gave to Dr. Farris http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Chengdu/blog-281015.html