Chengdu – meeting Mr. Panda

The train from Xi’an to Chengdu was much better than that from Wuhan to Xi’an, mainly because we were the first stop and our beds had not been slept in. J The cabin was also spotless (until I dropped a bag of tomatoes on the floor from the top bunk, but I did pick them all up again). The top bunk though – you get barely any headroom compared to the bottom or middle bunks, so try to avoid this if you’re doing the same thing in future. The bottom bunk is good if you’re at the first departure point, but I think on balance the middle bunk is best, as at least people don’t try and sit on your bed when you stand up!

Chengdu is a bit of a grey, misty city, and for a moment we thought it would be Wuhan all over again – but it turns out you can’t generalise grey, misty cities as murky, miserable cities, since Chengdu is actually a brilliant place to stop for a few days. Apart from (obviously) the Pandas (which I’ll get onto later), Chengdu is a fast-growing city with a subway system that continues to evolve, plus a host of shopping centres and high-rises popping up like rabbits all around the city’s core. This urban sprawl isn’t offensive though, as Chengdu is charming and still keeps its parks at its heart – People’s Park is particularly lovely (near to central Tianfu Square) and there is plenty of greenery lining the streets. 

Tianfu Square is an almost-finished central space with a fantastic Yin and Yang design that you have to see from high up to truly appreciate (we checked this out from the food court in a neighbouring shopping centre). It also has an imposing statue of Chairman Mao on one side, overlooking the square (which may explain the police presence, though we’re hoping they were just stopping people from entering the parts under construction). Once the square is finished and filled with people, it will be amazing, though for now it is just on the verge of being great. 

 

People’s Park is a peaceful maze of plants, trees and stone bridges, surrounding a boating lake and overflowing with teahouses. We visited one where I enjoyed the Jasmine tea (lovely!), while Bradley tried the Green tea (not bad…) and we resisted the urge to have our ears cleaned. The implements employed by the ear cleaners looked way too sharp and pointy for me to let them near my ear drums! But it was quite entertaining to watch some of the locals indulging in some ear-cleaning, and pulling some pained faces.

You can while away a whole day by the lake, drinking tea, especially as they bring you a full thermos of hot water to enjoy your tea to the full. Incidentally, we watched the Chengdu episode of ‘Paul Merton in China’ the other day and he went to the same teahouse as us – it made us quite nostalgic to see it again! He also opted not to have his ears cleaned…

As well as relaxing in People’s Park, you can join the locals for some dancing – if you know the moves! It’s great to think that the Chinese are willing to just throw themselves into this public, social dance on a weekend – I just can’t imagine this happening back home, and it feels like a bit like the Buffy musical episode to me (where a spell causes people to burst into song and dance). I would love to live somewhere where you could just join in something like this in a nearby park without feeling like an idiot (no, really, I would). Who knows, maybe New Zealand is that relaxed and unreserved…

The big sight that Chengdu is famous for is obviously the Pandas.

The Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base is 12km outside Chengdu and you can’t really turn around in Chengdu without seeing signs of Panda souvenirs (even our hostel is called ‘Mr Panda’). When we arrived at the Panda Base we were delighted to find that it is a brilliant reserve, with lots of scientists working to conserve Pandas and help them to breed successfully, to increase Panda numbers while giving them plenty of space and excellent care. There was a great film explaining the work of the Panda Base (we even heard David Attenborough’s dulcet tones on a voiceover, which was very reassuring) and there are several nurseries on the site for both Giant Panda babies and Red Panda babies. The baby pandas are so tiny, considering how big they grow! They start life at around 1kg in weight, which feels like nothing. They look like naked mole rats until they start to grow more than a fluff of fur. Even at three months, they are still pretty dependent, and it can be several months before they are gambolling about playfully in the great outdoors. 

There are more challenges than we realised to breed pandas… not only are there problems getting pandas to breed successfully due to short windows of opportunity (pandas are in heat for a very short period of time), but it seems that first time mothers are not always that maternal! We saw an alarming video of a new mother pawing at her newborn cub before it could even stand, so the breeders have plenty of challenges on their hands! After their first cub though, the pandas seem to get the hang of it, and become very cute with their little ones. 

As well as Giant Pandas, those recognisable black and white behemoths, they also breed Red Pandas, which look like a cross between a fox and a raccoon (and are much more their size, too). We didn’t realise this until we arrived, and it was great to see the cheeky Red Pandas darting about through the trees! (check out the 'scent marking' at the end of the video below!).

While watching the Red Pandas, we heard possibly the funniest declaration by an incredibly loud American couple next to us - the man turned to his partner and said in a loud drawl, 'Tell me honey, did you ever hold a real panda bear?' Considering that everyone was supposed to be quiet so as not to disturb the pandas, and they were actually shaking things to make the pandas 'do' something and throwing sticks into the enclosure, we felt it was perfectly acceptable to be both annoyed and entertained by that statement. We did however have to walk away quickly because we were laughing too much. 'Tell me honey, did you ever hold a real panda bear' is now our Chengdu catchphrase!

On our way out of the reserve, we noticed a sign asking for comments and suggestions - Bradley wanted to put 'More pandas'! :)

It was such a lovely place to spend a day and even though it was a bit rainy and misty, it was a real highlight of our trip so far.

The next day we visited the Wenshu Temple and Monastery, one of the best temples we have seen so far as it seemed so genuinely loved (it probably helped that monks were in training here).

We even saw some of the monks off-duty, playing table tennis! J There were several golden buddhas of course, but the buildings were also particularly beautiful, with fresh paintwork and some striking calligraphy across the doorways.

The last big site to see before we left Chengdu was the Grand Buddha in Leshan. We thought we’d seen plenty of big buddhas after Thailand, but this was something else! The Grand Buddha is carved into the cliffside next to the river in Leshan, and is the largest buddha statue in the world, as well as being the largest pre-modern statue still in existence. Apparently the statue took 90 years to build because they ran out of funding part way through… one monk was alleged to be so passionate about the project, he gouged out his eyes as a sign of dedication to the cause in order to encourage donations!


The queues at the Grand Buddha were ridiculous, but we soon realised why we were better off being patient and part of a lengthy line of people. Once you enter the cliffside walkway to experience the Grand Buddha from top to bottom, the path becomes very narrow and no matter how few people are allowed through at once, the crowds can be quite overwhelming as you descend the walkway. Things get a little better once the path narrows to single file, as there really isn’t anywhere to push forward (though one man still found a way to edge past me!) The views of the Buddha as you head down are quite spectacular – to put his size into perspective, his ears alone are longer than the height of the average human being, so he is pretty darn tall! When we finally made it to the bottom there was plenty of room to get some photos, before heading back up the cliffside to explore the rest of the area.

There are several other viewing points from which you can view the top half of the Buddha, plus some caves and temples dotted around this ancient site.

We took a walk across a fantastic fantasy of a bridge and out to the distant Wuyou Temple, which had a great view of the river (even though it was another misty day) and was unique in our temple visits so far by being full of potted plants! It looked very pretty and it was a shame to have to rush off and not explore it more thoroughly, but we had a bus to catch. Leshan is a bit of a trek from Chengdu and we needed to get back anyway, plus the buses didn’t run all that late and the trip was a popular one!

It was our last night in Chengdu so we decided to find somewhere yummy for dinner, and got pretty lucky with a small restaurant near our hostel. We’ve had some hit and miss meals in places like this, as usually you’re ordering from a photo menu and hoping that what looks good in the photo tastes good in reality – and often, the meal you are presented with looks nothing like the one you expected anyway! But this time we filled up on spicy pork and green beans, and some chicken dish that we’re not quite sure of, but at least the meat was recognisable J

Next stop, Chongqing!

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