Pandas and Parks in Chengdu

After a really bad sleep on the train I had my laziest day yet upon arriving in Chengdu. But the following morning I was up bright and early for a visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Centre.

It is estimated that there are now less than 1000 giant pandas left in the wild and these are restricted to just five mountain ranges in this Western part of China. For many reasons including scarcity and a certain fussiness, they’re not too successful at breeding in the wild. They're also not too good at rearing their young: we were shown a very interesting introductory video which showed new mothers accidentally sitting on their newborns! Thus the work of the centre in breeding the pandas and rearing the babies is really critical.

It’s virtually impossible to see them in the wild so this is about as close as you can get to seeing them in their natural habitat: they’re kept in huge enclosures with no cages and the centre itself is full of forest.

The pandas were simply adorable. They were like real teddy bears: so soft and cuddly-looking and just flopping around sleepily in a really endearing way. Something about their eyes and the way they sit and lie around made them seem like men in panda suits! And of course the babies were ridiculously cute.

Peeping Panda

Panda Hugs

Just flopping around

This one looks like a man in a panda suit

The littl'uns

Red Panda

Later that day I went for a wander around the city, including a long break in the People’s Park where - as I'm now coming to expect - there were many locals singing, dancing and playing mah-jong. This time I was manhandled into joining in with one of the dances, although I didn't cooperate for very long!

Chengdu: Big City Life

More dancing in the park

There were many tea-houses in the park (apparently the culture of tea-drinking is more alive here than anywhere else in China) and I whiled away a very pleasant hour or so with a pot of chrysanthemum tea and my book. I politely declined the opportunity to have my ears cleaned – a traditional accompaniment to tea-drinking here!

Women playing mah-jong in the entrance to the tea-house

Chrysanthemum Tea

I also visited a couple of quite touristy streets which have been renovated to look old and traditional. (It’s quite a popular trend here: I've heard it called “being given a fake-over”!) On the second day I also visited the Wenshu Buddhist Temple.

Wenshu Temple

Incense Burning

Lions guarding the entrance

It's at this point that I have to start letting out some small rants about China. One of the things which has disappointed and frustrated me most here is the food. I've never really been a huge fan of Chinese food (crispy duck aside!) but I was hoping that visiting China would change my opinion. Sadly that hasn't been the case. Now, I'm not saying that there isn't good food here – it’s more that I feel I keep missing it. Finding a good restaurant is a challenge and picking what to eat is another (due to the lack of English) and somehow I keep making bad choices. Also I feel like a lot of Chinese food is meant to be shared, e.g. hotpot, dumplings, etc, (and that way you can sample a greater variety) so lone travellers are at a bit of a disadvantage! Having a local friend/ guide would really have made the world of difference here.

This was really brought home to me in Chengdu as I was looking forward to sampling the spicy local Sichuan cuisine, but I somehow made the wrong choices and ultimately left feeling like I'd missed out. I love eating out and trying new restaurants and new food and it’s really been an integral part of my travelling experience over the past year so it's disappointing that China hasn't quite lived up to expectation.

Another thing which has been making me grumpy is the motorbikes. In Beijing the roads had special, cordoned-off  lanes for motorbikes and cyclists, which I thought was excellent. However it seems that in the cities where those don't exist (like Chengdu) it's apparently OK for them to ride on the pavements! 

OK, rant over (for today)....

Bikes on the pavement, in Chengdu. Grrr!