The day started with a very loud knock on the door at
6.45. Now when I say loud, I mean that you could hear
it across the street. Once wasn’t enough to shift
most of our students though and the China Climb guys
banged and banged away until somebody got out of bed
and opened the door. All very amusing as I was
downstairs eating breakfast already.
Chengdu is surrounded by distant mountains and this
has an interesting effect on the weather. It is hazy
almost all year round. The light before dawn was
strange and diffused, making the street outside look
even more like a film set.
Some of the kids don’t deal with the cold well.
Whilst the local Chinese were walking around in shirt
sleeves and pants, the students were appearing in
long-johns and down jackets. Goodness knows what they
are going to do when they get into the mountains. I
had one or two repack their bags after breakfast –
some had more things swinging from the outside of the
bag than they had inside.
First stop today was the Chengdu Panda Base and
Research Centre. Now Pandas are cute. And lazy. They
mainly sit down, lay back and eat bamboo. They are
also extremely well photographed. Kodak never had it
so good and you should look forward to seeing
thousands of rather blurred white and black cuddly
bears. The Chengdu Centre has a very successful
breeding programme. Last year alone they managed to
raise 9 babies successfully. From what we learned at
the centre it is not surprising that the Giant Panda
is an endangered species. They are solitary animals
and, in the wild, live in their own, huge territory.
Once a year they become amorous and decide to go in
search for mate. Even if they manage to find one, it
seems as though they don’t make particularly good
parents. We watched a video of a young mother giving
birth for the first time. As the baby popped into
existence and landed on the floor, it screamed and
squirmed. The poor mother looked most surprised, as
though a large maggot had just popped from her but.
So she smacked it. Hard. Twice. Fortunately for the
baby, a brave keeper dashed into the pen and rescued
the cub before it suffered any serious damage.
In one pen we watched as nine baby pandas were brought
out by their keepers for a bath. They were behaving
like naughty children, none too keen on the idea of
getting clean. In the wild they don’t take baths, but
in captivity it is apparently important that they are
washed regularly. Once bathed they clambered over
wooden frames, swings and bridges; falling about, off
or over anything that got in their way, pausing
occasionally to bite the Wellington boot of a keeper
or two.
Red pandas are much more active than their larger
cousins, and quite the performers too. Whilst the
Giant Pandas had largely ignored all their admirers,
the Red pandas waved, stood on their hind legs and
appeared to be smiling at the audience. Very cute.
From the Panda Centre we had a rather long bus journey
to the Post Office Hotel at Emei Shan. It was a
welcome opportunity for the kids to catch up on their
sleep.
Before dinner we went for a short walk to a pagoda and
fountain where there was a relief map of the mountain
we are going to walk tomorrow.
Dinner was traditional Chinese and enjoyed by all!
