Cuteness Overload in Chengdu

Chongqing’s railway station was the most modern one we had been in so far…the other train stations have mostly been older and quite crowded, but this one had tons of space and felt more like an airport.  There was even a Starbucks inside serving moon cakes (traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which had just started).

Our super fast train to Chengdu almost hit 300 KM/hour…

Our first morning in Chengdu we slept in (we needed some sleep after a lot of early mornings on the cruise ship) and then explored the People’s Park in downtown Chengdu.  

It was packed due to the public holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival.  There were people dancing, with one dude off to the side doing extreme stretches….

… ladies doing choreographed movements and people riding in small boats (traffic “patterns” looked similar to what we see on the roads)….

…enormous plants (with leaves longer than we are tall) and vines you could swing on…

…as well as a children’s area with amusement rides...

...and a lady making beautiful syrup creations that we had to sample.

We fed koi with baby bottles filled with fish food, and watched old men reading the newspaper, which is displayed for all to read…

…and we were interested by the facilities throughout the park that are designed for an emergency situation, including permanent signs indicating where various services will be.

Finally, we stopped off in a teahouse to drink tea and play cards, just like the locals.  The only other things we needed to do in order to go entirely local were 1. eat sunflower seeds and spit the shells on the ground; and 2. get our ears cleaned by roving ear-cleaning men.  We all find the ear cleaning business to be both fascinating and gross.  Based on much business they were getting, I'm betting there's a lot of ear wax mixed in with all the sunflower seed shells on the ground.  Ewwww.

The next day, we went to see giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.  This facility is dedicated to researching, enlarging, and conserving the panda population in China and around the world.  Not only does the facility assist in breeding pandas, it also rescues injured pandas and helps to rehabilitate them.  The center was started in 1987 with 6 pandas and currently has 147 pandas, the largest population of pandas in captivity in the world.  It was our primary reason for traveling to Chengdu, and it was well worth the visit!

We first came upon sub-adults (1 ½ - 3 years old), enjoying their breakfast (“at the people watching station”). 

We continued walking through the park and came up to this enclosure just as a lady was bringing out panda cubs.  They were about the most adorable things we’ve all ever seen.  The one on the left immediately started to explore (army crawling along, they couldn’t walk yet), while the one on the right was content to just nap.

We saw older pandas relaxing in various places and positions.  Since the bamboo that pandas eat doesn’t contain a lot of energy, the pandas have to rest a lot so they don’t burn through the bamboo’s caloric content.  As one sign said, “Pandas aren’t lazy, they’re energy efficient.”

At another cub enclosure, we saw even younger panda cubs and we were again overwhelmed by panda adorableness.

We watched older panda cubs wrestle with each other, while Mom looked on. 

We went into a red panda enclosure area and saw several of these beautiful animals in the trees above. 

At one point we head quite a commotion ahead, then realized that one of the red pandas had decided to take the easy route (ours).  He passed us by without a glance, but we were excited to see him so close (and a bit wary…while cute, these red pandas are still wild animals).

We finished off the day with a Sichuan Opera performance that included a variety of acts.  We couldn’t follow everything, but there were enough entertaining moments that the language difference didn’t really matter.  The part we all liked the best was the mask changing, when the performer would shake his/her head or wave his/her hand and, suddenly, the color of his/her mask would completely change.  It was so cool!

The next day, before moving on to our next stop, we enjoyed a typical Sichuan hot pot lunch.  Fortunately, we showed up after the lunch rush, because we had no idea what we were doing and required a lot of help.  We picked out different raw ingredients and then cooked them (similar to fondue style) in a large pot of oils and spices.  The small inside pot was not too spicy, but the larger outside pot definitely had a kick.  Then we dunked the cooked food in a smaller bowl filled with oils and herbs.  It was quite tasty!  This kind, kind waitress spent the better part of an hour helping us--first trying to explain what to do, then eventually giving up on that strategy and cooking our meal for us and serving the pieces to us individually instead...all while the other patrons looked on, smiling (and chuckling at the clueless Americans we so stereotypically were at that moment)....