China Home Land Tour July 2011: Chengdu - Saturday, July 9, 2011 PANDA DAY

We left for the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center at 8:15am. It was a 40 minute drive. The Panda Research Center is quite beautiful. It was built to mimic the pandas’ natural environment. There are about 1,600 wild pandas in the world, 85% of them are located in Sichuan Province. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, and the Panda Center we visited is just outside this city of 6 million people (10 million including the suburbs). The famous Woolong Panda Center is several hours away, is more remote to get to, and it was impacted by the recent Sichuan earthquakes. The Chengdu Research Center is a Chinese project developed with the help of U.S., British, and Australian research and monetary support.

We saw about 10 adult pandas, eating bamboo, climbing trees and lazing about. Then we saw about 5 baby pandas (under 12 months old) climbing trees and frolicking about. I then paid a fee for each of Elizabeth and Rebecca to hold a baby panda (an 11-month old, 48.5lb, female named Ya Yun). A photographer at the research center took about ten photos of both girls alone with the panda, and several with them together with the panda. Great photos, which I will have printed as gifts for my family.

We also saw the Red Panda, a smaller variety of panda, which looks like a very cute raccoon. The visit was enjoyed by everyone.

We then went to lunch and ate traditional spicy Sichuan food. It was delicious – the best meal yet! Then off for an hour walk around Old Chengdu. A very colorful maze of streets, with arts and crafts and food to eat.

Then, a quick dip in the pool for the girls. Then, on to visit one of Chengdu’s main open air food markets. It was great for photos and the girls got an eyeful! Various rows of different Chinese vegetables, hanging meat, pork with feet attached, flopping fish quickly killed and displayed with heads on, turtles, frogs alive one minute, then banged against a table to kill them, live chickens with throats slashed as people bought them, others where the blood was drained, and feathers plucked. Already killed chickens with long legs in the air, various animal organs on display, and food to go, including roasted chicken and grilled fish, both with heads on! I took many pictures. Then we bought some fresh noodles and dumplings for tonight’s dinner of Sichuan hot pot.

The hot pot dinner was terrific! Hot, spicy broth for the adults, and mild broth for the children. One placed many meats (pork, beef slices, duck), noodles (dumplings, noodles, both thick and thin, tofu strips), vegetables, quail eggs, etc. into the respective broth and cooked them up to 5 to 10 minutes, before popping them into your mouth! The girls loved cooking the various items in broth. Everything was delicious, and a nice change from the more bland items we had been eating until then. After hot pot, we all went back to the hotel, to bed.