Chengdu Conservation of Giant Panda's

---

So our trip was shortened by great conversation we went to sleep late as we were chatting with our new friend Martin until late and he said we should retire for the night as its late and we have lots of time tomorrow....we discussed so many things work, schooling, politics, laws, family,food and preconceptions and culture the main things I got out of the conversations are below again this is my interpretation.

He works for a company that there chinese based in Chengdu so he left Xian and moved there he is married with one child and his company is American owned. He is a hard worker which has allowed his job security and opportunity he has been to a few different places in the world for work one of which he has lived for a while was germany he has explained many people ask why he has not moved to another country for work if he had then he could have a better life...however better is based for these people on a bigger house, more money and freedom of speech...for Martin this is not what life is about although he agree's it is nice to have money and be able to live comfortably he places more in his culture and being able to surround himself by people and the things he loves which is what he grew up with. He mentioned that things have changed in China and back in the time of Mao although people didn't have right to fredoom of speech and choice of what they believed in they were happy with what they had as it was theres and they were friends with people that surrounded them there neighbours and the kids could play together in the street etc.....however now they place far to much into how much money they have they are scared that they have not got enough money incase something happens and they lose there job or they get a major illness, they are not friendly anymore as they are scared of something happening so they keep to themselves....they will not talk to people on the street as most of the time when someone comes and talks to you its because they have something else motivating them and usually this is money they want money for something or some reason.....they need to get a train, have lost there wallet, disabled he tells me usually these people are professionals and even the disabled they have someone the work for and they have to give the money to them at the end of the day he said he doesn't talk to people in the street and even when he was in Germany that he found it strange that people would say good morning...he said they don't do this in China and thats probably part of why when they come into shops in our country that they don't answer us....however possibly the other thing is that alot of the older generation don't speak english....you will likely know that there is a law that people are only allowed one child in dhina I asked him how he felt about this and he said he doesn't like it as he said people don't socialise here and his son only has friends at daycare when he comes home has no one to play with he would like to have another child but his wife works in a government job and if she was to get pregnant she would lose her job and he would have to pay a fine for having two children. The other thing I found really interesting is that they have to change there citersinship from his home town to Chengdu you know that they have not got Citersonship for china or each state but each town I understand its a large place I just have never heard of anything like this before.

We were talking about schooling and how they have to learn what different people have said and stand for through goverment and history and also the current too he said he thinks this is a waste of time its okay to learn history but not when its to do with government as a standard at school he was asking about this in n.z and I explained that we haven't got history like china and not that many people that we can say he said this she said that but also we are the ones that effect what happens in our country and how the voting system works and that we are the ones the overall effect the choosing of the goverment and that is based on what each party stands for to what each person chooses...he was interested and said that he can vote for who in his street represents there vote then that person votes for the person in the district who represents the district vote and so on however the final vote is still not that high up and it doesn't effect the higher government just the lower placement...the hierarchy actually makes the decisions for the upper government...so things have changed a little but they are still a communist country and there is no room for anything else so there is no choice of policy and what the government will do for the country is never discussed as they are the only party available so they have to get what they are given basically.
I was saying how we were told that china was dirty and polluted and we have not found this to be the case and that we have found english hard he was surprised as he said a lot of people now speak english even if not a lot they have some limited words we have found the hardest thing ordering food in a restaurant when they speak no or limited english some places they don't know what rice is or tea simple things they sell all the time are in english...the guide book has come in handy that's for sure.

So Mike in the mean time has met a couple they are from Holland and he has been talking with them for hours and we have swapped details and organise to met up that night for dinner after we settle in hotels they will ring us as we have a set location with a phone number and they don't so off we go the the hotel the same chain as the last place the hotels are simple clean and we are generally happy with the rooms but the service in China at hotels is a little harsh and sometimes difficult with the language although they have simple english its not great english!

We head down the road to go get a bite to eat around the corner and over the bridge...well that was the instructions however what they should have said was around the corner and then through the underpass meanwhile we walked and walked looking for the bridge before we decided to head back on the other side of the road where we came across a group of restaurants...we found one where they spoke not a word of english and used the common dishes for this region in our lonely planet and established they have gongbao chicken sounds great to me chicken with chilli and peanuts and some rice we were away laughing the dishes were massive and extremely delicious and we were happy campers....we head back to the hotel and soon get a phone call and organise to go out to dinner we were to meet in the square that has a statue of Chairman Mao should be easy not so when you are trying to explain what a statue is and the staff don't understand anyway we got there with help from another chinese guest and we are on our way and arrive just on time....they are here waiting for us and we are happy to head off to a little area with no cars,buses its calle Jin Li and so worth going to at night its stunning and I love the lanterns and the little stalls....we watch a chinese man make some noodles stretching them by hand and soon we find somewhere to eat, after dinner we have a bit more of a walk around and I find a cute meaningful gift for my sis and we carry on our merry way and head to a bar for a drink that Mike ended up basically making as they didn't have anything on the menu for us girls so he went and told them what yo use. It was a wonderful night and we go home late and head to bed the next day we plan to head to the panda's and we would like to go to the big buddha....as it ends up we don't do either....the big buddha is to far and we want to see the Panda's when they are awake so we decided that we will skip the buddha and go to the Panda's the next day so we head to some lanes that have no vehicles which was lovely and had a very interesting meal there (not to be done again) super spicy noodles and some strange cold chicken (not sure what flavour but there was some citronella in there for sure!) We head over to some parks and wander around they are so peaceful and we enjoy walking through the hundreds of people playing majhong and sitting chatting happily there is many birds in cages hanging on trees chirping happily (we hear this is common for the men to bring there birds with them) We make our way to the Du-Fu Thatched Cottage this is a famous poet from the Qing Dynasty and we really enjoyed walking around its a shame there isn't more english versions of his work here I would have loved to have read some of his work...they say there is still a lot of interest in his work. He lived in the cottage (they have built a replica) and preserved the sight of where they believe it originally was....but all the same it was worth seeing. We head back to the hotel and miss out of catching up with Linda and Jorge as we get back late and I am shattered and lay down and fall a sleep although I am not sick anymore my energy levels are still low.

The next morning we are up early and off to see the panda's we end up getting a taxi there 40yuan they drive crazy here in Chengdu like maniac's weaving in and out of the traffic....but we make it and get our tickets 68 Yuan pp a bit more than we thought (seems to be the way in china) but was so worth it the first one we see is camping inside munching on some bamboo and I went crazy they are soooooo cute I want to go and cuddle it...we continued on and got to see some fully grown, adolescence and some cubs ohhhhh the young ones are like hanging out eating sleeping some face down (face planted) others on there backs with a leg hanging over the edge of the platform some in trees...then they got up and moved around they are clumsy and ohhhh so gorgeous we loved it and they have lots of room and they are sooo close its a must see if you can get here! Just make sure you go to the right place...don't go to the zoo!!
We head outside to get a taxi but three refuse to take us we went over and talked to someone at the park and eventually a taxi said yes...however during our trip back we struck a bit of a problem...actually it was another car...luckily it was stopped and we were stopping so just a minor bum however we have to vacate the taxi and get another one which means we are late to check out...not such an easy thing to explain...but we get out of the room quickly and head to the train station and head off to Kunming 15hours on the train here we come.!!
We get some chicken and bread for the trip and we are lucky this time there is a power point so we watch some movies and chill...the beds are hard but we make do and soon eat our dinner preparation is the key! The two ladies females in our cabin we assume are mother and daughter and they soon after getting underway went off to the food cart....Mike went down later and said there is a big group but the daughter is in the corner by herself she is a teen and everyone else is her parents age. The night scenes outside are stunning but its in between tunnel (there's a lot of tunnel) and I fail to get any photos but we were at times only meters from oil refinery's, power plants and dams also rock faces lighten up with stairs running up them they would have been at least 700meters to get to the top just totally amazing we watched out the window a lot this evening even while we had movies playing.

---