My flight to Chengdu was uneventful. Though I still would have preferred to have taken the train and seen the scenery, I have to admit that it is pleasant to board a plane, and cover in a little over one hour what it would have taken me 16 hours to traverse by train. I even had no problem claiming my window seat! Best of all, after I'd picked up my bag, I literally ran into a man holding a sign that said Mix Hostel. I had been planning to take the airport shuttle and then have the joy of trying to get a cab driver to understand my mangled Chinese to get me to the hostel. Instead, I took advantage of the foresight of Jasper and Pauline, who had actually arranged for airport pickup, and hitched a 20y ride in the hostel minibus. Perfect! Clearly, all that was required by fate was that I leave Xi'an.
At the hostel, I booked my Panda Breeding Center tour, showered, did laundry, ate a huge mound of vegetable fried rice, watched a couple of minutes of Shrek III in English with (I kid you not) Chinglish subtitles, and luxuriated in my first private room of the trip. Ahh, blessed privacy. Silence, security, the ability to sleep knowing that no one is watching me drool. All in all, it was one of the best afternoons of my trip. It's funny how after a month of traveling, what I appreciate the most has shifted from seeing some fabulous UNESCO World Heritage site to washing my clothes in a real washing machine. Priorities.
After a rare 8 hours of sleep, I got up at 6:30am to prepare for our 7:30 trip out to see the pandas. Feeding time is at 9am, and as it is the only point in the day when the pandas will move at all, we didn't want to miss it. Somehow, the rain in Xi'an had followed me to Chengdu, but with the purchase of a 10 yuan umbrella and the attitude of an intrepid explorer, the kind not bothered by a little damp (or drench as the case may be), I set off to see some panda bears.
Fortunately, pandas are far too lazy to be all that bothered by a little rain. An animal that is too lazy to breed really doesn't worry too much about sleeping in a puddle. In all, including the newborns, I saw 11 pandas during my time at the breeding center. This included two newborns (the "season of love" aka artificial insemination was in May), 2 kindergartners, 1 cub, 3 subadults, and 3 adults. After watching these huge cuddly sweethearts, I have to agree with the Chinese government that the giant panda really is the "National Treasure". I went away from the center with an ear to ear grin despite the rain and the lack of photo op for the day. Normally, one can pay about $60 to get a picture taken with an adult giant panda. The day before I went, it was canceled because the pandas had just had shots and were agitated; and the day that I was there, it was canceled due to the rain. So, I can't speak from personal experience as to the viability of the panda photo, but I have seen other people's photos, so I know that it can be done!
We got back from seeing the cuddly creatures at 11. I also really appreciated that they didn't drag it out into a full day tour, like the terracotta tour in Xi'an. Though, where would they have taken us for the factory section? A genetics lab?
After getting dropped at the hostel, I set straight off for the Wenshu monastery (one of the top four zen monasteries) and its Buddhist vegetarian restaurant. Oh my buddha! It was amazing. Hundreds of choices. I wanted to try them all but settled for three wonderful dishes and a glass of gooseberry juice that blended the flavors perfectly and had herbs to aid digestion. Mostly, eating Chinese food day in and day out has reminded me of why I usually only eat Chinese once a month or so. I don't really like it. This meal made me realize that Chinese cuisine really is amazing, the fact is that most fine chefs don't waste their true abilities on tourists. I'm sticking to the monasteries from now on!
After the best meal that I've had in China, I ambled home via the grocery store and then along the river. I love shopping in China. Things are so odd. For example, the grocery store is called TrustMart and is pretty much a Walmart. It's in a 3-story building and in no way resembles a grocery store. At street level, all you see are jewelry and shoe booths inside the building. However, if you penetrate further into the building, you'll find a second entrance in to the grocery section. The fruit is abundant, though I walked quickly past the durian. The bread is a blessing. Western travellers are unanimous in missing bread the most. I miss real whole grain bread. Even the wheat bread here has the texture of white bread at home. Seeing the food that a people buys is as valid a sightseeing adventure as is seeing a monument made 2000 years ago. Even more fun was heading upstairs to the dry goods area. I regretfully decided that the shipping on that duvet cover was going to be too much, looked over the really nice electronics section, and headed back for toiletries. There, I learned that all Chinese face creams seem to have bleach in them - white is in - yet it's very hard to find a day cream with sun screen. Strange. Odder yet is the complete lack of availability of an antiperspirant. There are deoderants. Roll-on liquid deoderants. Ones with the scent of roses, oranges, or mango. Somehow, I've never imagined myself with mango scented underarms. I settled for "fresh scent" and rued the stick deoderant that I'd left at home.
Shopping done, I headed by the Bank of China to find that my ATM card still wasn't working. Then, I settled into my private room to enjoy Diana Wynne Jones' sequel to Howl's Moving Castle which I'd found in the hostel book exchange. Do you know how hard to find that book is??? I swear, hostel book exchanges have the best books. Mostly 'cause they've been left to sit for years on end. No one will ever throw one out, in the hope that someday, some crazy foreigner will buy the shredded up book. This practice also preserves some real gems.
After finishing my book, I watched some Chinese soap opera with two fellow single female travellers, and booked my ride out to the Leshan Buddha for the next day. The soap was set during the revolutionary war. It was interesting to see what's considered romantic in China.
Then, Christine was tucked all snug in her beds (I had 2 twin beds in my room) while visions of panda bears danced in her head.
You can find my Chengdu/Leshan photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandasOhAndTheWorldSLargestBuddha and a special addition panda album at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/PandaFlipbook
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