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Too cute
We've got way too many of photos of these guys, but they totally justify it. They were so baby like, so amazingly cute! Today was Melenie's most favourite day of the holiday - the day we visited the giant pandas. There are apparently on about 300 of the guys left in the world, and the Giant Panda breeding centre is one of the few places in the world where you see them in a nice open reserve chomping on bamboo (as opposed to the tiny metal cages that they are confined to in many chinese zoos).
We made an early morning excursion to the panda centre, which is about a 40 minute drive from central Chengdu. I was a bit dubious, because we spent the first 10 minutes wandering through a big zoo-like place without seeing a single panda. Apparently, the reserve only has 12 pandas, so I started panicking thinking that perhaps we weren't going to be lucky enough to see one.
But then, we rounded a corner to be greeted to 3 huge pandas lying on their backs munching on bamboo. It was amazing!!! They were like huge stuffed toys, only cuter. They moved like little children, wiping their eyes everything they accidently poked themselves with a bamboo shoot, and rolling around on their backs while gorging themselves on food.
Greedy pig
The pandas are completely pandered too (couldn't resist the pun). Every morning they're given a stash of bamboo and they just spend hours laying amongst them and chomping. Fat lazy things - what a life. We were stunned - we just stared at the guys and could have kept staring for hours on end. Before we knew it, 15 minutes had passed, and all the pandas had done was sit there and chomp. Yet we weren't bored, and it was only grudgingly that we moved on upon the request of the tour guide.
For the next hour we got to see a total of 12 pandas. Perhaps the best was the little baby pandas. These babies were so human-like, walking about shakily because their poor feet weren't strong and nimble enough to manuever across the thin limbs of wood that spanned the little houses that had been built for them. One baby panda decided he was bored and so decided to go wake his brother up. He used the most sensible way of waking somebody up - by taking a running jump and falling on top of him, and then proceeding the nibble on his ears and toes. The sleeping baby panda just rolled around, and tried to cover his eyes and ears. Finally, the naughty panda decided that the brother wasn't going to wake up, so he went and sat on the sleeping
We even saw baby ones
Melenie desperately wanted to take this one him. He was just a young baby, so he couldn't even walk properly yet. Its funny laughing at clumsy animals. pandas face. It was so cute!!!
We then got to watch a 45 minute video about the breeding of pandas. This was actually quite educational but importantly supremely magical. The video showed us how baby pandas were born and even showed us one being physically born on camera. It was amazing and sometimes a little horrifying. In one birth, the baby panda actually physically FLEW out of the mother panda, and went sliding across the floor. The first-time mother panda was so confused that she went up to the baby panda and started swatting it like some kind of fly - it looked like she was trying to kill it. Bad panda!!
Some of the guys in the tour group also decided to pay the exhorbitant amount ($6AUD) required to meet a baby panda up close and take a picture. It was quite amazing how calm the baby panda was - it just sat next to him nibbling on an apple, and even turned and smiled at the tourist who was taking a photo with him. Then, when the photos were all done, the baby panda just calmly climbed down off the bench and wandered back into his
Bashing his brother
The baby wanted to wake his brother up, so what better way than to jump on top of him. cage, hand-in-hand with his trainer.
After 2 hours of continuous smiling at pandas, we sadly had to bid farewell to the panda sanctuary and head back to the real world. The trip back to Chengdu was nerve-wrecking, because our next task for the day was to visit to PSB to see if we were going to get our visa extension.
We entered the PSB praying fervently that the official that we got was a nice friendly lady who had extreme sympathy for poor young tourists. Alas, the guy we got was a grouchy looking old guy, that I guessed didn't have time for any sad stories. I presented my current visa and requested our extension. He said 2 words that made by heart stop - 'Not possible'. He told us that visa extensions were only available for individual visas, not group visas, and that this was a common problem that many travellers who entered Tibet from Kathmandu faced, and that alas the government policy was that we couldn't get an extension without leaving China and going to Hong Kong. Oh NO!!!!
But thats when I pulled out all the domestic flight tickets we had booked, my 10-page
Yummy fried stuff on sticks
Who could resist. We couldn't. itinerary that had detailed instructions of our exact travel plans within china and my list of hotels that I had already prepaid accommodation at. When he saw this, he started to feel sorry for us, shaking his head and saying this was a very sad case and that a lot of money was going to be wasted. I just kept looking at him, and Melenie put on her saddest and most worried face.
Finally, after 20 minutes of begging, he decided to make a special exemption for us and give us the extension. We have never been so relieved in our lives - it was like having a death sentence lifted. The next 30 minutes were spent frantically filling out forms and trying to get all the necessary paperwork done before the guy changed his mind.
We left the PSB so happy that we just HAD to have a big creamy ice-cream to celebrate. We then headed over to the main shopping district of Chengdu and proceeded to buy a little snack at every little small eatery we passed!!! Chengdu snacks are really tasty - everything is fried, and everything is dipped in msg and chilli.
The
All this for $10
Need I say more. We stuffed ourselves silly. rest of the day was spent wandering through the modern streets of Chengdu eating and shopping. Chengdu is a very modern city and every concievable shop is there, from your run-of-the-mill department store to exclusive fashion boutiques that you'd expect to see in paris. Thankfully, all the prices are Chinese prices, which makes everything cheap cheap cheap - a shoppers haven. However, my good wife thankfully restrained herself deciding that there would be even more interesting shopping in Beijing and Shanghai.
That night, we flew into Xi'an, a major city in China that is visited for only one reason - to see the Terracotta Warriors - apparently a candidate for the spot of 8th wonder of the world.
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I will pay mucho dinero
non-member comment
Kill baby pandas
My wife tickled me 10 times, and I threatened I would hire someone to kill 10 baby pandas for each time she tickled me. I will pay $100 per baby panda head. Any takers?