The bacon poached eggs and baked beans tasted bloody good last night, unfortunately the loaf of bread I bought was sweet and in the middle had a soft sweet buttery cream, does not go well with bacon and eggs.
Got up at 06:00 left the apartment at 07:00 and took a taxi to the Panda Breeding Center it was still dark and not much traffic on the road. We arrived at the Panda Center at 07:30 as they opened up to the public great timing. Just starting to become light we followed the small crowd to the Giant Panda area’s. Then we spotted our first live panda and the camera was taking video’s and photo’s. I have had people say make sure you get enough photo’s of the Panda’s, that you have. They had a section for the yearling Pandas, male and female area’s, plus two area’s for the red Pandas much smaller the the black and white panda’s. It was very interesting and the staff there were giving out fresh bamboo and shoots to all the panda’s. We watched a video and it showed farmers near the mountains 100 km from Chengdu look for the bamboo cut it, stack it tie it and then carry 60 pounds each of bamboo to their backs and climb down the mountain, if it was not for these guys this operation would cease. Of their bamboo harvested only a 3rd is used the rest is discarded. The Pandas must be the Prima Donna’s of all the animals, all they do is eat 12 – 38 kg every day & sleep and receive very good care and attention. David Attenburgh narrated a video regarding the Pandas here at Chengdu very interesting, they started the breeding programme and now have over 300 panda’s. They decided to bred and when wean the young ones prepare them to be released back in the mountain areas where they live at present. Apparently this cause alot of debate but it went ahead. Countries which borrow Pandas from the center they are charged US$1 million for the privilege and if any babies are born they belong to the Chinese. In the past The Chinese leaders gave panda’s to Presidents, Prime Ministers etc from various countries as gifts, then this come to a stop when they realised they were running out of pandas. The Panda Breeding Center is 247 acres and 10 km from the center of town. We spent 5 hours there and before we departed Penny wanted a Panda T shirt, they do not do them, they lots of panda bear all sizes and lovely prices. Penny bought one from an outside vendor for £2.50.
We found the taxis to go back to the apartment but they wanted high prices as it is NY Eve, so we decided to get a bus to the Wide and Narrow Alley a tourist spot. 30 minutes later we arrived there and it was full of Chinese and very crowded and they don’t walk fast, it was interesting with lots of food places offering a variety of foods which we had some lunch and carried on. We spotted some guys cleaning peoples ears with a variety of tools and they had a surgical light on their head so they could see inside the ear canal. We found some ladies doing it as well further a head and it had what they were doing in English so Penny decided to have here ears done. Took some photos and she said it was very good and she felt great. At the end the lady had a tuning fork and she placed it against the instrument inside Penny’s ear apparently a lovely sensation.
From there we walked back to the hotel a 45 minute walk with the assistance of asking a few Chinese people where our place was. Penny was on the mark as she reckoned it was a turn here and there. Unfortunately today and tomorrow the Chinese only celebrate with family and friends and not in a park or center prior to it becoming midnight, which is a bit disappointing. Shangri-La would be the place to be tonight.
Maurice's Travel 