Monday, July 28, 2008

Pandtastic! (Marcus)

So we have been in Chengdu a few days now and it really doesn't feel like we have seen much at all. We have been spending quite considerable time here at the hostel and while we are enjoying ourselves, feel like we've explored less than we have the other cities to date. Why? Easy answer - the weather - it is bloody hot!

When we arrived we had a bit of a climate transition similar to when we arrived in Cairns early last year. In Cairns as soon as we stepped off the plane we were hit by a wall of heat and humidity - and Chengdu was no different. While it's maximum temperature is probably less than somewhere like Cairns, the humidity is waaay up there. We were picked up by someone from the hostel and had to wait around for 5-10 minutes while she looked for someone else. It was that kind of unbearable feeling of - oh my god I gotta get out of this sun!

The sun here when it comes out is absolutely potent. While it's hot most of the time, it's also hazey/cloudy. You can't often tell what the sky is doing as the sky is of course so polluted. We were both surprised I think by how polluted Chengdu is. I think we were both expecting this green city full of teahouses and clearer skies; wrong!

While it's not a bad city - definitely a better vibe than Xi'an, it's certainly just another Chinese city. It is heavy in bicycle and scooter traffic(like Wuxi) and all the roads have metal seperators between the road proper and the scooter/bike lanes. I guess it got to a point where the amount of bikes/scooters that were freely moving into/overflowing into the main roads was causing too many accidents. It's a good idea actually as it does seem to keep the two types of vehicles very seperate.

In Wuxi it's a free for all. I actually feel for the taxi drivers at times - they would have to be the most patient and/or ruthless people in the planet. The amount of times scooters/pedestrians/bikes just randomly go across the road in any direction is an absolute shocker. The longer we spend in this country however the more we come to the agreement that they just should NOT have cars. They do NOT know how to drive - no matter what the vehicle is. You seem some of the most ridiculously stupid driving here - feats of absolute stupidity.

So anyway today we set off on a half-day tour via the hostel to what was easily one of the highlights of our trip to China yet...to see the Panda Breeding Base! It was located approximately 15 minutes away by car in what turned out to be a surprisingly large and dense environment. The grounds were very reminiscent of what the Panda's natural environment might have looked like and i was very impressed with how realistic the individual enclosures were. Of course it's a pity that the haze throughout the place was actually smog - not some kind of gentle mountain mist. Silly they have a place like this in such a smoggy area really; it can't be good for such an endangered animal having to breathe it.

We started off by seeing absolute newborns and they were amazingly small. Little pink things that looked more like rats than baby panda's. We watched a video at the place where when a Panda gives birth, it happens so fast the mother doesn't even know it's happened, it's just like walking along then hey blammo out the back falls a baby like a..well like a number two :) The Panda mothers then don't even realize what it is and start batting it around...crazy stuff. The keepers have to get in there and get the baby out before it's potentially harmed. Supposedly this is common on first pregancies but on the 2nd they're very motherly. The craziness of that first birth kind of fits the whole Chinese theme in my opinion ;)

After this we saw a large enclosure with around 7-8 babies...well small Panda's, around 1 year in age. These guys were what we expected - non-moving, hanging in tree's and structures at all different angles...asleep. The next enclosure had 2-3 larger ones, one that actually came right up to the fence but moved away when a stupid chinese woman came yelling at the top of her lungs in excitement..right beside one of the MANY 'Speak Quietly' signs. All 6 people of our group shooshed her...sheesh.

Actually some of the signs around the place cracked us up, one was like, "Wildlife is not to be used for food!" ..haha yeah gogo China!

So then came the definite highlight, out came a keeper with a big jar of apple pieces. Over the course of the next 20 minutes they proceeded to feed them and this was quite possibly some of the cutest stuff i have ever witnessed in my life. It was so cute that I felt completely cuted out and just started walking around hugging people. Ok that's not true, but it was damned cute!

Initially only one of these youngsters was roused by the food, the others were so uber lazy they had to be majorly coaxed out. The keeper would give this first little fella a piece of apple and it would take it, hold it to the side of its mouth then plonk down on its backside. They are so utterly lazy! When it had finished, it'd immediately pick up and plod its way in the direction of the keeper to get another piece then immediately back down on its rear. It was so so so cute. We took a heap of photos and videos, a pity I can't upload a few from this virusey computer.

One by one more of the Panda's would make their way out until finally all of them were out. As they climb down from things it's in about as unmajestic a way possible, they slip around, grab onto the top of the ladder/platform, plonk their butt down, repeat until they're at the bottom - absolute classic. Graceful these animals are not! They are so amazingly lazy, but hell, I wasn't feeling so energetic in the sun and humidity either!

There was one instance when 5-6 of them were all lined up on a log and that was the absolute pinnacle of cuteness. We got some good shots of this. Wonderful stuff.

We moved on and witnessed 3 larger Panda's in an all in playfight which lasted for absolutely ages which involved them rumbling like playful dogs, trying to push each other down the front of the enclosure into the pit dividing Panda from Humans. They kept getting shoved down where they would slide through the foilage, bang their head on the ground then climb back up and repeat it. Very adorable and surprising at how much energy these sleepy beasts would have expelled in the sweating heat. While we watched these we had the pleasant experience of being bitten by mosquitoes the size of 10 cent coins.

Beyond this we saw some Red Panda's, which were cool in their cat/lion cub like way but not as impressive as the regular Pandas. Then of course we had to watch a movie about Panda's and go through what was the crappest museum display I have ever seen. Complete random crap! It was just a collection of random photos/teeth/panda cock in a jar/books with odd captions then this mind-bogglingly weird stuffed animal display where a Panda sat a few feet away from a sabre-toothed tiger attacking the world's most out of proportioned deer thing.

All in all a good day. I was glad to get home and get cooled down - still a little paranoid after suffering some heat exhaustion effects. We're off to get Mexican tonight and are excited as hell. Really really miss good mexican and indian food. Tomorrow we're going to try and take the two hour trip out to see a giant buddha carved into a rockface in a place called Leshan.

Later!

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