Gentle Giants

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We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving Monday with a much anticipated visit to the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the big black and white bears, and that they are an endangered species with an estimated number of only 1000 left in the wild.

The facility in Chengdu is beautiful. They have done a really great job in giving these captive animals a wonderful home as close to their natural surroundings as possible. As pandas are not very active animals, our tour left the hostel early to ensure we arrived in time for morning feedings, when the bears are at their most lively.

We learned that pandas have been in existence for 8 million years!! They are very symbolic to Chinese people, but little is known about them. For instance, they used to be carnivores many many years ago, but now eat only bamboo. Researchers do not know what caused the bears to change their diet. Pandas are also very picky eaters. They eat bamboo, and there are 70+ species of bamboo in the wild, but most pandas prefer approximately 27 different species. This has caused many pandas to starve to death in the wild, due to changes in environment and their food source being lost.

The Research Base has been open to the public since 1996, and has been very successful at breeding pandas in captivity. Since being established in the 1980’s they have had 77 captive births (sadly only ~45 have lived, which is still an impressive number considering how they are dwindling in the wild). Pandas only mate once a year, and only have one cub (if they have more than one cub they do not know how to care for the second cub and will usually kill it), and there is a small window of just a few days that they are open to accepting a mate. Pandas do not just mate with any old bear either. They have to find their “one true love”, so you can imagine that doing all this in captivity is difficult.

All pandas hold “Chinese citizenship” unless they have been born abroad. Also, a country must pay China 1 million dollars a year to keep a panda in their zoo or wildlife facility. This money is then put back into the breeding and research of these noble creatures.

We saw 5 panda bears awake and eating (and many others “panda napping” in trees). They have opposable thumbs like humans and primates which help them to grip the bamboo stalks. They seem quite lazy even while eating, laying on their backs with a mound of bamboo piled on their furry bellies. Being in their presence seemed very calming, despite the throngs of tourists around us all trying to snap the same photo!

The base recently had 3 sets of twins born (autumn is when pandas give birth, if they are pregnant), so they remove the second cub from it’s mother so it can have a much better chance of survival. We were fortunate enough to be able to enter the nursery and see all three babies in their incubators. 2 of the cubs were roughly the size of a 25lb dog, with the third cub being only as big as a small kitten. They all had their black and white fur already, but when they are born they are hairless and pink. No pictures were allowed in the nursery, but it was captivating to be so close to little baby pandas. While we were oohing and ahhing a nurse came in and removed each cub and sat with them on her lap, rubbing their bellies. They seemed so small and cuddly, I definitely would love to have a job like that.

After the giant panda enclosures we moved onto the red panda enclosures. These guys were much more active and playful. They are much smaller and resemble raccoons with red fur and white markings around their eyes. Again, their enclosure was very nice, with ample trees and swings for them to play around in. There were approximately 7 red pandas in once enclosure and they were frolicking and wrestling with each other.

At the end of the “tour” we stopped by the base’s cinema to watch a movie on the breeding that goes on at the facility, and purchase the obligatory panda souvenirs. I was disappointed with the hostel tour we signed up for, as we only had 2 hours at the base to wander around and see the animals, but as I’ve read after the morning feed the activity level goes down and all you see are sleeping pandas in the trees. Despite that, I easily could have spent all day wandering around and watching the gentle giants.

In the evening we signed up for a Sichuan Opera Culture show through the hostel, tickets were only 80Yuan compared with 120 if you bought them directly from the theater. We weren’t expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised! The show was very entertaining, featuring different cultural acts that are famous in China. There was a young acrobat who juggled a large urn and then a table on her feet. It really was as impressive as it sounds, as the girl looked no older than 15. We were talking quietly amongst ourselves in the audience, wondering how it is that you find such talent? I’ve never had the urge to juggle a table on my feet while lying on my back…Then there was a stick puppet performance, where Chinese women held stick puppets above their heads and acted out an opera. “Rolling Light” was next which was a comedic opera about a couple who is arguing and the woman tells the man that as punishment he must balance a bowl of burning oil on his head and crawl under a bench (I’ve gotta try this one with Devlin the next time we argue!). The man of course balances the bowl of oil and crawls under two benches, turns around at the end and crawls under them facing the other way! Again, impressive, but I can’t help but wonder how hard it is to begin practicing something like that!

There were a few musical performances, and then a shadow puppet act. We’ve all made birds or bunnies with our hands on a wall with our shadows, but I had no idea you could contort your fingers to make such magical images! Following this was the highlight of the night, the fire blowing and changing faces show. Men in very elaborate costumes danced around on stage with masks over their faces, and somehow with the flick of a wrist or foot were able to instantly change the masks to a different one! One of the performers even came up to our balcony and shook hands with the whole row, changing his mask right in front of us! I still don’t know how they manage to change the masks so quickly.

We stopped for a snack at the BBQ stand on our “street” (alley) on the way home. For 1Yuan a piece you pick out various skewers of meat, fish (entire fish, head and all!) and veggies which the cook then brushes with chili and oil and grills over the open flame for you. It was very spicy, but also quite delicious, and who’s going to argue with 14 cents for a skewer?!

Today was our last day in Chengdu, and we didn’t have much more to see on our list, so we headed downtown to wander the shops and take a stroll in the People’s Park. In the park there were groups of people everywhere dancing! Some were doing tai chi, one group looked to be practicing a dance routine for a stage show, but there were a lot of groups of older people just dancing with each other! It was so refreshing to see, I wish more people in Calgary got out and interacted with their neighbors and strangers like this. There were teahouses spread out all over the park, a small lake where you could rent row boats, and old men flying kites high above the park walls. Our guidebook listed an old funhouse as one of the attractions, it was built in a converted air raid shelter. I think we found where the funhouse used to be, but whatever is left is now boarded up and long gone. Too bad, because the guidebook made it sound rather interesting and full of quirky displays. In one of the teahouses there was karaoke set up and a huge crowd gathered ‘round watching the “performances”. For 5Yuan each we rode the bumper cars in the kid’s section, although we were the only ones we had a ball smashing into each other. The operator and his girlfriend/wife even hopped into cars and joined us in driving our cars into each other. We figure this made up for the lack of funhouse!

Chengdu was a lovely city, and I wish we had more time there to explore and see the sights around the city. Nearby is Mt. Emei where the largest seated Buddha in the world is. It took 90 years to carve, on his feet you can fit approximately 2000 people and his ears are 2.3 meters long! Tibet tours are also arranged in Chengdu (you need a special permit to enter Tibet, and it’s quite difficult to obtain as an individual), and there was a 4-10 day horseback riding tour to scenic Songpan. The pace of the city seemed quite laid back, with many green spaces and parks, cosmopolitan shopping areas and delicious Sichuan food.

Next stop, Tokyo!

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Photos

So Cute!
I've decided I need a Panda Bear of my own...

Getting Comfy
Here is the popular way for the bears to relax, with the precious bamboo food supply close at hand (er...paw)!

Mine! All MINE!
Don't even think about it, this pile of bamboo has my name ALL over it...

Panda Napping
Exactly how this giant somewhat awkward bear manouvered into this tree to lie like this I'll never know...

Red Panda, or Raccoon?
You could swear these guys are just raccoons with a dye job!

Stick Puppet Opera
These women had one hand supporting the puppet and the other hand controlling all the hand movements. It was pretty cool to watch!

Construction Pit?
Or quaint alley? Hmm...the alleyway in front of our hostel.

Comments

[Vishu]

Pandas are so cute !!!
Looks like your rollicking time continues ....the pandas look so cute .... have a great time.... vishu