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Published: June 18th 2007
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The entrance to the Wolong Nature Reserve
This is in the valley where the road goes into the nature reserve. The road itself isn't that scenic, because the river is really silty and there is a lot of development, but those hills sure look cool. This past weekend I went with my Emory group to Chengdu, which according to wikipedia (For some reason the Chinese government isn’t blocking wikipedia today, which is great for me) is located in Southwest China, and it is the fourth most populated city in China. I had to go to wikipedia to find out exactly where it is because even though I have taken a lot of classes about China I still don’t have a firm grasp on the geography of the interior of China, where Chengdu is located.
Anyways, we left for Chengdu on Thursday from Beijing International Airport, and the two-hour flight there on Southwest (?) Chinese Airlines was pretty uneventful, except for the completely awful Mr. Bean movie that they played. I would also say that the snacks they served on the flight were way better than anything I have ever had on an American flight (yogurt, fruit, a roll and banana bread, compared to a bag of pretzels). When we got to the Chengdu airport we met our guide, an excitable 23-year-old Chinese guy who went by the name of Duran, sounded like he had learned English by watching “Ernest goes to jail” and was
Panda
This is what a lot of the pandas at the panda reserve are doing. I guess I shouldn't really expect much more, since they're not vicious carnivores or anything, but still, after a little while it got old. used to guiding groups of senior citizens. So for the first day we were subjected to a massive amount of really lame old people jokes, but after that he turned out to be pretty cool. Driving from the airport to our hotel Chengdu looked a lot like Beijing, with cranes everywhere and a lot of people both on bikes and in cars. One thing I did notice about Chengdu was that it seemed to have more of a wealth gap than Beijing, or at least one that was more obvious to me because Chengdu is smaller than Beijing, and I probably saw more of it than I have of Beijing just riding around on the bus. I noticed a lot of nice Mercedes and other cars in Chengdu, and there was a stark contrast between the extremely expensive looking department stores and the poor people sitting out by the street. Of course, Beijing has this same thing going on, but I haven’t spent a lot of time in the high-class shopping districts of Beijing yet, so I haven’t really seen it.
Our first night in Chengdu was interesting. Our hotel rooms were kind of a shock, because even though
Panda on a swing
Okay, so despite what I said in the previous jaded and sarcastic caption, this is pretty cute. they were nice, the wall separating the sleeping area from the shower was made out of glass, with only a curtain to cover it. I guess that would be appealing to lovers, but it made things a little bit weird in terms of taking a shower with my roommate in the room. We also went out clubbing that night, and I had a lot of fun dancing with a Chinese girl who was studying dance at college and could dance way better than me. I should also add here that everyone in China says that Chengdu has the most beautiful women in China. I’m not sure if I would agree with that, just because there are so many beautiful women in Beijing too, but it did seem like Chengdu women put a lot of thought into how they dressed.
The next morning we left for the four hour ride to the Wolong Panda Center, which is the place that provides panda bears to zoos all over the world. The panda center was okay, but once you’ve seen a couple panda bears you’ve seen them all, and I was really bummed out because there were all sorts of awesome mountains
Panda watching
This kind of gives you an idea of what the panda quarters looked like, even though some of them were stuck in much smaller cages. So this particular enclosure is kind of like a panda penthouse. around the center, but there weren’t any trails for me to go hiking on and actually experience the environment in the area. The drive up to the center was probably a more enlightening experience than the center itself, just because I got to see how Chinese bus drivers drive on dangerous mountain roads (like they have a death wish) and also what the Chinese countryside looks like (basically a lot like the incredibly impoverished areas of the Appalachians, except with lots more people and probably less regard for protecting the environment).
The other good thing about going to Wolong was the guys we meet in the town of Wolong. My roommate, another guy from the Emory program and I were drinking with other people from the Emory program when we decided to go out and get some food from a stand that this lady was running across the street from the hotel. She was selling meat on a stick, which is a very common, cheap, and delicious snack in china. Pretty much it is exactly what it sounds like, except it’s not always meat. At this particular stand the lady had meat, quail eggs, vegetables and some other stuff.
dirty river
I don't know the name of this river, but as you can see, it is very silty. All along the road there were construction places making gravel for the new road, and they were just letting all the runoff go into this stream, which naturally should probably be pretty clear. But at Wangfujin (a street in Beijing that specializes in meat on a stick) they have pretty much everything, including but not limited to: scorpions, chicken hearts, squid, snake, dog (maybe… even though they might have been lying to us about that), sparrows, pineapple, corn, silk worms, locusts, and crayfish. I even asked some guy if they had panda on a stick, but he got really mad at me, which is understandable because that is like me asking someone in America if I can buy some bald eagle to eat.
So anyways, we went across the street to get some food, but there was this young guy from Wolong who was getting stuff at the same time, and we ended up talking for a long time with him and two of his friends who came by later (those guys were also police officers, but they weren’t wearing the uniform, they were just driving a police car). Out of my friends and me, I was the one who spoke the best Chinese, and these guys didn’t speak any English, so the conversation was pretty simple, but we drank enough beer to keep it interesting. I also ended up eating a
The mountains and me
It's early in the morning and despite how pretty the mountains look I am at this point starting to regret that I ate so many quail eggs and drank so much beer. lot of quail eggs, because when I asked the guy what his favorite food was he said they were quail eggs, and so I tried them and in order to stay friends I said they were really good, and so he ordered me a bunch, and long story short I ate them all and got a little sick. But it was still a lot of fun, and we got a phone number from one of the guys, so if I ever go back to Wolong (which I would like to do because it looked like some awesome hiking) I’ll know a police officer in Wolong.
So after we returned from Wolong we went to a couple tourist places in Chengdu, which were interesting but not enough so that I actually remember their names (actually, I think one was the cottage of the famous Chinese poet Du Fu), and then that night we went out drinking again. Talked to some Australian guys who were really loud, loved vegemite and rugby and didn’t speak a word of Chinese even though they had been coming to China for 10 years. Then I talked to some Chinese guys in a club who really
Wolong Panda Center
The panda reserve was located in a really pretty part of the mountains. Then again, all of the mountains were pretty. liked rap music, kept offering me watered down whisky, and thought that everyone in America had guns and were constantly shooting each other. So it was a fun night. And now I’m back in Beijing and the air is even worse than when we left. But it’s all good.
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I know that poet's brother, Du Fus
Well Blogboy, I must say that I'm enjoying your photos as much as your syllabalic musings! And I keep waiting for shots of those hot Chinese women, but alas you must be keeping them for you own selfish pleasures. However, be careful of your intemperate remarks regarding the Panda, lest you find another interesting meat on a stick... your own! Adios for now, but shoot like the wind!!