Chengdu, Its all about Pandas

By Bea
22-24/04/2019
After an uneventful 7 hour train ride, we arrived in Chengdu. Contrary to the nightmares we had read, usually on sites who want to sell online tickets to tourists, trains in China have proved to be easy to book, reliable, efficient and very comfortable. I must admit, I expected language issues, delays, missed trains, and unclean carriages. China is proving me wrong in many ways. (Although I still really hope one day, the use of earphones just may take on!!). We are booking our tickets online and easily picking them up at the station. Most of the trains are high speed and almost rival Japan for quality and efficiency.

After checking in to Lazybones Hostel early evening, we took a short walk around the area to both familiarise ourselves with the new city and also to get the legs moving again after sitting down for so long. It was a buzz with people in noisy restaurants and delicious smells from everywhere. I was liking this place. We were now in Sichuan and were looking forward to the famous “sichuan hotpot”.

The next day, was a day I was super excited about... my birthday present from Mum was a “panda experience”. (Chengdu is also famous for the pandas). I had chosen a volunteer day at the research centre which was located about an hours drive from Chengdu, so attracted the more enthusiastic tourists.

I was picked up early by my guide, Worley, who was absolutely delightful, a real chatter box, with great English. She was very interesting to talk to and I not only learnt about pandas but life in general, especially about “semi arranged” marriages, the frustration with the older generation (spitting and yelling) and careers that would get you a husband and Chinese government.

Pandas are most active in the morning so if you arrive too late you can miss them totally.
On arrival I was given a lovely bright green volunteer uniform then Worley and I headed to our allotted assignment. A small group of volunteers (pretty much all foreigners) are allocated to each enclosure, today we would be looking after “Yashi”. Lucky me, I was on poop duty! Armed with a long handled pooper scooper and dustpan, I had to fossick around the large outdoor enclosure collecting the poop. I can tell you one bear can poop a hell of a lot in a day!

Following the clean up, the keeper taught us how to break the fresh bamboo in order for the pandas to be able to eat. It was pretty technical.... raise the bamboo in the air and smash it as hard as you can on the ground! It should split into several strands, if not, keep doing it. Turn it around to the other end and do the same while checking to see if the bamboo was ‘healthy’ for the pandas to eat - if it were black inside it had to be discarded. We then took our smashed up pile into the enclosure to lay out ready for Yashi.

The keeper took us inside Yashi’s indoor enclosure to give him his daily vitamins and medicine. We were given several pieces of sugar cane to feed to him, as his after medicine reward! I would have loved to have had a hug... but last winter the Government banned all physical contact with the pandas by non-professionals, as they felt it was inhibiting the relocation program (fair point I presume... but I did so want a hug!). Worley is besotted with the pandas and she had been saving up for a long time, to be able to do the panda holding, but was too late... poor thing was devastated.

We had quite a bit of free time following the feeding to wander around the rest of the park visiting the other pandas and photo taking. They were now all out in their outside enclosures, wandering around and mainly munching away on the newly smashed up bamboo by their respective volunteers. It was great to be up and close to them and see them in such beautiful and well kept enclosures. I wasn’t aware... but pandas are solitary animals, except for mating time, so each panda had its own enclosure (except for a couple of young twins), so it proved to be a large reserve. The reserve also housed a couple of very cute red pandas and a moon bear (who proved to be illusive).

Buffet lunch was provided... in a room full of primary school kids on an excursion all of whom wanted to say hello! (Very common occurrence). Following lunch we took a quick walk around the reserve again to see what was going on, but now the pandas had a full belly themselves and it was hot, so the majority of them had retreated back into their evening /inside enclosure.

We were shown a really interesting 20 minute documentary on the research centre and what they are achieving. It is good to see such a break through in the rehabilitation and breeding program. Hopefully this will continue, and we save these wonderful creatures.

Now it was time for the pandas afternoon treat, so again we headed back to Yashi armed with more sugar cane and yet again we got to feed him. So cool to be able to look eye to eye in these gorgeous creatures.
Our next duty of the day was to make “panda cakes”. These are steamed buns made of corn, starch, wheat etc that would be given to the bears the following morning.
After the cake making, our work was complete. We were issued with the obligatory certificate, souvenir postcards and informed we could keep our bright green uniforms! An hour or so later, I was back in the hostel.

As cute as the pandas are, Pete wasn’t interested in the volunteer day, so he spent the day wandering the city. He made another attempt to cash some of the traveller cheques... OMG it worked! After some confusion (of course) and lots of discussions and being sent to another branch... he finally got to cash some of the cheques! After two months of travelling, Pete took the opportunity to get a much needed hair cut. I must say it didn’t turn out all that bad for a discussion via photos and google translate!

That evening, we went in search of a good hotpot. Pete had done research on the best spots, so we headed to the area, via a walk in the main park, where a few people were still dancing, exercising and just hanging out. I tried to find “lovers corner” which Worley had described as an old school “tinder” site. Parents would write and pin up information about their unmarried children in order to find a suitable spouse, as they felt their children were working too hard these days and had no time to find a suitable partner. (Worley was not impressed about this method!) Funnily enough the divorce rate has risen significantly... go figure.

The hotpot place we were looking for was located in a bustling series of streets, made up as an ‘old town’ and heaving of local tourists. Domestic tourism is certainly alive and well!

After a bit of confusion about the location of the restaurant, where we had a very helpful young guy from another restaurant try and assist us, we eventually found our place and it was heaving with “hotpotters”. Tables full of people dunking assorted ingredients into boiling spicy pots of goodness

We ordered plates of lamb, beef, cow stomach and various veggies, together with a bowl of dipping sauce that we had made up of sesame oil, garlic, shallots, chilli, parsley, peanuts. We ordered both a spicy and non-spicy pot of broth. It didn’t let us down. It was absolutely delicious (including the cow stomach!). We discovered that Sichuan pepper, which is not actually a pepper, has a very distinct flavour and side effects of numbing of the bottom lip. Nothing that a cold beer can’t cure.

The next day we spent the morning on travel preparation housekeeping... it was getting too close to our trans siberian travels and we didn’t have any tickets for the important leg. We were also interested in doing a cruise down the Yangtze, and we planned on doing that close to Chinese holidays so spent some time arranging that also.

We cashed a few more traveller cheques, since we finally found a branch that did it. Then took a wander around the city, stopping in at the museum. The museum was architecturally quite striking and I was really surprised at how well the exhibitions were laid out and presented and how enjoyable they made the place. We wandered further and visited the monastery and a few other sites. Just a pretty general sightseeing day.

That evening, we had read about a Chinese chef who was breaking boundaries with the Chinese cuisine and had attempted a degustation Sichuan meal. Now as we all know, Chinese food is about big plates piled high of food, placed in the middle of the table on a big lazy Susan. This guy had his work cut out for him! I must admit he did it very well. Twenty one courses (dishes) incorporating Chinese ingredients, flavours and methods of cooking... all with a modern twist. This is a new concept in China, so it was bloody expensive!!! It is for the young rich Chinese who have money to burn.

The restaurant was difficult to find, it was like you had to be “in the know”. There were no signs outside, it was a dark street and the door was shut! It was made up of several private rooms and our table was in the “public area” along with another couple (I think the extras or overflow bookings). It was a very weird experience, as we were basically in a corridor or reception area! If this place is searching for a Michelin star, it needs to look at the overall layout, experience and service.

However, it was an enjoyable evening, great to experience this new concept... but sadly.... alcohol free!!!! By the time we realised they actually had a wine list, we opted out and stuck with the unlimited tea! (Yes choke choke... I know most of you cant believe that!)

After dinner, we made up for the alcohol free dinner and headed to a very trendy bar we had read about to indulge in their signature “Sichuan chilli” cocktails! Yup, this was the place to be seen! While Pete sipped on his Sichuan Negroni, I had a Sichuan Mule... brilliant. It was a good night... but it was a harsh reminder of our “old life” in Bangkok and some homesick pains did appear (albeit briefly).

We had originally planned to take the 10 hour overnight sleeper train to Xian, but there was a 4 hour high speed train in the morning... we decided on the latter. Onward to Xian.