Advertisement
Published: August 1st 2010
Chengdu Exploring a dry part of China
After a lot of confusion at the train station and a sad goodbye to our cabin friends, our guest house eventually collected us and took us to our pre-booked room (The first one of the trip). We checked into Sims Cozy Guest House, a very comfy spot with all the help a traveler needs available.
It was quick and easy to book our outings over the next few days to the Panda sanctuary, Leshan for the Giant Buddha and the Tibetan markets.
We took several taxis around town exploring the temples, heritage markets, antique shops and Tibetan quarters. Chengdu is a large, modern town with a charm of its own. With it's own style of crazy driving and a thousand bicycles jostling for space under the much needed shade of some beautiful old trees.
The Chinese seem to love their food, and you never found yourself more than a few steps from delights such as rabbit heads, quail, duck heads, chicken feet....yummy!! A very bad place for vegetarians! We sampled some tasty dishes of recognisable chicken with peanuts and very hot chilli...much more up our street.
Giant Panda Breeding Sanctuary We reserved a spot on a tour out to the panda sanctuary. However when we realized that 50 others had done so as well we had to take action ( we are NOT group people!!!). We managed to lose the tour on arrival, (oops walked the wrong way!) allowing us to wander the park on our own. A very good move, most tourists are not natural wildlife watchers, and tend to point, shout and get so excited the poor panda often disappears to safety soon after he's spotted.
Just the two of us, and we sat watching the Giant Pandas for hours, climbing trees, eating bamboo, sunbathing and even taking a swim.
The centre is well laid out and the pandas have all the space they need and a great bushy environment. There were jungle gyms and platforms where the pandas could be viewed easily.I was suprised how a big fluffy black and white creature could sneak into the bush and not be seen, even from a few feet(we must have gone past hundreds unnoticed) They are not so clever though, and we watched one climb a tree after it's tasty flowers to the point where the branches would broke,
causing the panda to fall several stories, with a crash and a bump to the ground. We laughed out loud, and knew now why they were so rare in the wild ...daft things! Meanwhile the rangers went into a panic and dashed in to check that their precious beast was OK, and tidied up the tree in double quick time.
We were fortunate enough to see the nursery area where infant and newly born pandas where raised with care. It meant pushing and shoving our way through the throng, with sharpened elbows we made our way to the glass wall where we saw a tiny week old Panda. Looked more like a naked pink rat to be...but at least they grow up pretty!!!
Red pandas made an appearance as well and were a great little extra to the day. They were much more cheeky and active than the others, and had a raccoon-like quality to them. They were excellent at climbing trees, and would scamper up them to hang out (literally) in the branches, trying to catch the breeze and cool off. Liff secretly liked them more than the big ones.
Leshan - Giant Buddha Park On
our last day in china we decided to take a jeep with 4 other travelers to Leshan. A 3 hour drive from Chengdu its a spot where the largest sitting Buddha statue in the world resides.
A stunning 'complex' of temples, pagodas, walkways and view points, all in the beautiful traditional Chinese style, nestled under the canopy of ancient trees. From the top we could see the convergence of three rivers, each a different colour, mixing and swirling far below us. We glimpsed the massive 71m stone Buddha's head before joining a ridiculously hot crowded queue for several hours, as it seemed that half of China had come along too!Finally we were able climb down the narrow rock cut staircase into the valley to find him. A mission well worth it as the Buddha was HUGE! We stood dwarfed and transfixed at his feet for as long as the increasing crowds would permit, before tackling the long steep climb back up the cliff.
We wandered the misty forests surrounding the Buddha sweating something chronic. We once again experienced the humidity of south India in full force, it must have been 40' and 100% humidity!!
Exhausted we headed back to Sims
to hide in the A/c. (yes, we'd treated ourselves...too long in the tooth and too tired to battle the heat)
Due to the Chinese Floods, road closures, heavy rain, and landslides and our ever increasing desire for a swim in the sea we have decided to get to Thailand ASAP rather than going overland.
Packed, racked and ready to go! Time to mission once again and we're off to Thailand.... next update from there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.175s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 10; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0827s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
annielei
non-member comment
lovely picture
hi ,the panda is so lovely,how great if you can touch it