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Hot Pot, Pandas and the Girl with the Golden Hair
We arrive in China late at night after a most amusing flight where with the exception of one other women we are the only non-Asian passengers and for over 4 hours there is constant loud & getting louder talk and laughter, getting things out and putting things back into the overhead lockers including during take-off, heaps of eating and taking photos of everything including what is being eaten and of course our munchkins. I am not sure what happens to all the photos of the kids but at least they could be considered slightly interesting to someone else but the close-ups of the cold McDonalds smuggled on board or the airplane meals in the foil container surely these don't make the photo album or a frame on the mantlepiece - or do they?
Chengdu is in the Sichuan province famous for it's fiery cuisine and of course the Panda Conservation and Research Base - a visit to which was the impetous for this whole trip. Chengdu is home to over 4 million people and is covered in what is claimed to be mist from being in the
Sichuan basin although I would think that there is a fair amount of smog mixed in from all the constuction and industry activity. Our first day was grey and drizzly and our venture into the city centre did not fill us with excitement - although the Chunxi Road pedestrian area gave us some reprise form the traffic we soon retreated back to one of the large parks near our hotel where the clicking sound of the mahjong tiles was far more enjoyable than the endless blasting of car horns and constant stream of people.
As we wander around Chengdu we don't see another western tourist and we very quickly realise that we really do stand out especially as we have
'the beautiful girl with the golden hair' . Our dear Alice is photographed whenever she stands still and with men and women of all ages wanting to pose and have their photo with her - those without cameras want to touch her hair. She is over it by end of day 1!
Dinner on our first night just had to be hot pot and after wandering around with the spicy tingle in the air we settled on a
restaurant Ged had spotted earlier that has a menu with photos. Unfortunately this had probably lulled us into a false sense of security as the great language divide of we no speak Chinese and you no speak English gave way to what is to become one of many hilarious eating experiences. Our hot pot 'form' was obviously lacking but luckily our audience of 4 waitresses were on-hand to give us helpful advice - in Chinese of course!
Our visit to the Pandas definitely lived up to all expectations and we spent several hours here. The Giant Panda which number an estimated 1000 in the wild are thought to be one of the world's most threatened animals due to habitat loss and their low birth rate. The Centre is home to 56 giant pandas and since 1987 when it was established 124 panda cubs have been born - 1 of whom has just made a home in Adelaide zoo in Australia.
We arrived at the park as it opened and were there to see the pandas start their day with a big brekky of bamboo. It was just fantastic to see them just lying about eating the bamboo shoots
and leaves, spitting the husks out and another yes please. It felt like we could just reach out and touch them and their faces are just so full of character on top of their beautiful cuddly bodies - we wandered about watching them for hours and I could have gone again the next day. Also at the park are Red Pandas which are also endangered - these guys are also super cute and more active than the pandas, although this isn't a hard feat as the pandas dont do a whole lot of moving!
Along with tha pandas is all the panda paraphrenalia one can purchase and although Alice had a whole new wardrobe picked out we left empty handed.
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