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PANDAS ARE SO DARN CUTE!
June 28, 2012 · by kevinearl · in Adventure, China, Historic Site, Photography,
Travel, UNESCO World Heritage, Zoos & More. ·
I wrote this as I snaked across the Chinese countryside from Chengdu, Sichuan to
Lanzhou, Gansu on a 21 hour train ride. Chengdu was well worth the trip. The
highlight had to be our trip to the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center
just north of the city. This is home to scores of cute, fluffy pandas.
PANDAS!
A giant panda with her pile of bamboo. They eat about 40 kilos a day for about
16 hours a day.
Pandas are China’s national treasure and severely endangered for a few reasons.
One reason is because they have evolved into sedentary fur balls that sit around
eating bamboo by the kilo. This has made survival in the wild difficult because
of mating habits that have been affected by this lifestyle. They are also
greatly endangered because they naturally give birth prematurely and mothers
don’t always know what to do and may kill or abandon the pink, squealing mole
rat it just gave birth to.
Many of the young pandas were playing about while their mothers were sitting
back enjoying their grass.
For these reasons, China and many partner scientists have invested a lot of
time, money and energy into researching and artificially breeding the cutest
little things you ever did see so this iconic species can survive.
The Chengdu center is spread across the hills in a northern Chengdu suburb with
lots of natural enclosures and air conditioned buildings for the pandas. It gets
too hot for them there so they need A/C through the summer.
I had wanted to volunteer for a day or two at one of the panda bases but found
out too late that you need a medical form filled out to do it. Someday I’ll go
back with a bit more money to spend a few days volunteering as a panda keeper
and also getting a photo holding one. That I could have done without being a
volunteer but it cost 1,300 RMB or around $200 to do it, and I didn’t have that
kind of cash this time.
We got to the center right after they opened at 8 a.m. beating the tour groups
and the heat that would send the pandas inside. First we found the enclosures of
the small red pandas that are just as cute but less doted on than their black
and white cousins. From there we made our way around finding mothers with cubs
and big lazy black and white blobs munching on bamboo or just loafing around. We
saw younglings climbing and playing and the unique eating methods of unsheathing
the bamboo to get to the green succulent part underneath.
Our trip was arranged through the hostel with a bunch of others so we could get
a car directly there since buses couldn’t get there early enough and taxis would
try to scam you. I enjoyed our trip there and loved seeing so many of China’s
national treasure in one place.
Wenshu Monastery
That afternoon we made our way to the Wenshu Monastery in the northern part of
downtown. This Buddhist temple is a Zen temple meaning when it was rebuilt in
the Qing Dynasty it was designed by principles of Zen. The original temple was
built in the 7th century A.D. But like so many other places in China it was
destroyed some time at the beginning of or during the Ming era and rebuilt some
time over the last 500 years.
Hundreds of turtles in the pond of longevity.
The temple itself isn’t anything to gawk at but the surrounding gardens are
quite nice. My favorite part was the pond of long life where there were hundreds
of turtles living and a few over-sized bullfrogs. There is also an elaborate
library in the rear with some nice paintings and statues.
Surrounding this monastery is a series of “old” streets with shops and
restaurants. However, this isn’t a fantastic market when compared with the one
in the Jinli area around the other temple.
SICHUAN HOTPOT AND EAR CLEANING
We finished our Chengdu experience with Sichuan hotpot. We had to do this to
make our trip to the province complete even though I can’t stand spicy food. We
joined a few new friends from the hostel (Shivani from Sydney, Will from Austin,
Simon from Norway, and Eric from Canada) and to get this eye-watering meal and
had a good time with some tasty but tongue burning food.
Spicy Sichuan Hotpot
This hotpot is a special variety, for those hotpot connoisseurs out there, where
you put the bits and pieces in on skewers to cook and then you don’t have to
fish it out when you go in to eat it. They charge by the skewer and have just
about everything available on the skewers to eat including lots of meats, fish
and veggies. Our group of six had about 80 skewers and paid about 25 RMB per
person. I don’t like spicy food but now I can say I’ve had real Sichuanese food,
known for its spicy tendencies, in Sichuan, China.
The royal ear cleaning in Chengdu
One Chengdu adventure we observed but did not participate in was the royal ear
cleaning. I didn’t really feel comfortable having complete strangers poking long
sharp sticks into my ears, and I don’t know who else’s ears they’ve been in. But
don’t worry because you can do it if you want. You can find them all over the
city.
I won’t post this while on the train but as I wrote I was riding for hundreds of
miles to Gansu Province where we’ll ride camels in the desert near the Silk Road
oasis town of Dunhuang.
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RELATED
MY GREAT CHINA TRAIN TRIP
The next several posts chronicle my trip around China over the last couple of
weeks. Many posts I wrote on the train in between destinations. On the trip I
spent just over 100 hours on 7 trains traveling almost 10,000 kilometers. If I
add the excursion to Leshan by van…
June 26, 2012
In "Adventure"
CHENGDU, SICHUAN – CHINA’S GATE TO THEIR WILD WEST
After a 27 hour train ride, Aaron and I arrived in Chengdu, the biggest city of
the western Chinese provinces. I've been waiting for this trip since I decided
to come to China for two main reasons; Sichuan is the main home of the awesome
giant pandas and the biggest…
June 26, 2012
In "Adventure"
LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS AND SO MUCH MORE, PART 2
... Continued from Lions and Tigers and Bears and so much more, part 1 The Funny
So, I don’t know if you’ll think it’s funny, but while we wandered through the
concrete cage section, we were surprised by an all too familiar sound of a dog
barking. Yep, that’s right,…
September 10, 2011
In "Adventure"
Tags: Adventure, Animals, Chengdu, chengdu sichuan, China, ear cleaning, giant
panda, Giant Panda Research Base, Hotpot, Kevin Earl, pandas, Photographs,
Sichuan, Travel, vacation, Wenshu Monastery
POST NAVIGATION
← What big ears you have! – the giant Buddha of Leshan
Lanzhou, Gansu →
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Congratulations to Aaron and Pov!
What a beautiful day to explore St. Louis! Of course, I had to visit Gateway
Arch National Park and ascend to the top of this architectural wonder. I did it
once as a kid, but I don't really remember much from that other than it's when I
beat my fear of heights. I also hopped across the mighty Mississippi into
Illinois to visit one of the 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the US, Cahokia
Mounds. This Illinois State Park preserves the site of the largest ancient
Mississippian community that had between 10 to 20 thousand people in the area
around 800-1000 years ago, allegedly the largest city north of Mexico. The Monks
Mound is the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Americas and is 100 feet tall
at its highest point. I enjoyed BBQ and toasted ravioli. Now, off to Fulton via
Amtrak for the reason I'm in Missouri.
I'd say hungry hippos for trunk-or-treat was a success!
Another fun night carving pumpkins with the cousins! We all did some kind of
animal that likes or lives in water. I did a hippo to match my trunk-or-treat
theme for tomorrow.
My 2024 calendar has gone to the printer! It features photos from adventures in
Utah and some of my international travels. This cover photo is of summer alpine
wildflowers on Mount Timpanogos.
I got a new hoodie! If you don't know how I feel about Utah's new flag, this
should give you a hint.
Autumn has inspired my new wall photos, but that's not all.
Photo dump of beautiful, interesting, and yummy things from the past few weeks
I need your help in choosing the theme for my 2024 calendar! I've narrowed it
down to five. Please share your feedback in a comment, message, or in the poll
in my Adventure Patches story.
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