Pandas and the Chinese Opera

22/08/09 - Chengdu

Well bloody hell, we are having a smashing time! This morning was another challenge- when Blakey came back up last night we discussed the diary entry he had just written- I got so excited I couldn't switch off and sleep when I needed too, so getting up at 6.30 this morning was a little challenging! Washed and dressed we went down for a pre-ordered breakfast, bacon and egg sandwich for Blakey and yogurt and muesli for me alongside two cups of lush coffee. We were feeling better in no time.

So we hopped on a mini bus with a load of others from the hostel and headed for the Panda Research Centre in time for their morning feed.

Now Chengdu is a two and a half hour flight south of Beijing and the heat in summer here is outrageous usually. We seem to have brought the pathetic English summer with us, but at present that is no bad thing. We took a pleasant stroll through the park in the refreshing morning air and eventually came to a group of four pandas munching on bamboo shoots. They were really fascinating to watch- there was something quite human about the way they held their food and surveyed their environment. After hundreds of photos we were the ones to shoot and leave. We moved round the park to find an extremely active red panda enclosive. The little pokemon type creatures were really playful and mischievious and took even more of our sd card space. After a long time stood here our tour leader encouraged us all to start following again and though reluctant at first we were very glad we did. The final enclosure (although that makes it sound like a zoo- they semmed to have tons of room) was full of about seven panda cubs eating, wrestling one another and playing on a bamboo swing. We stood here for a long time utterly entertained by the cute, playful behaviour of the cubs and the twee "oohhs" and "aaahhs" of the crowd. When we came to move away we walked into a display room and realised that this contained the final enclosure. Behind the glass was a panda nursery and a couple of month old twins. The strange creatures were still like hairless rats- like in 'The Witches'- only very, very cute. After watching a scientist clean up one that was pooing (yum) we watched the cub jostle back towards the warmth of its sibling, so unusual it seemed like animatronics froma low budget film.

After feeding time we understand pandas dont do alot else with their day so we headed back to the mini buses. Here we encountered what could be our least favourite thing about travelling...other travellers! We sat in front of a pair discussing what countries they had already seen in an oh-so-knowledgeable and I'm-better-than-a-common tourist manner. This was made more excrutiating by the very loud, very nasal, very American accent fromone member of the party and the insistant confirmation from the other that he is not nor has he ever been considered by anyone ever, a geek, despite the fact he is a computer programmer when not travelling. We both made promises to ourselves that we will not become bored and boring know it alls and thanked the fact we'd forked out an extra 4 quid for a double room. We headed upsairs for a little lay down!

We spent a very lazy afternoon eating comfort food in the bar (toast for me and burger for Blakey- though I swear a gut with a bandana and no shoes tutted whilst he munched through a local speciality!) and read through all the info we had for the upcoming days.

After a wonderfully indulgent few hours we were due to head out again- this time to the Jinjiang Sichuan Opera. It was a brilliant show- lots of small sketches held together by a presenter. It included Chinese Acrobatics, an amazing Erhu musician, some dodgy shadow puppetry (which wouold have definately got buzzed three times on Britains Got Talent!) and the most brilliant section- fire breathing and face changing. The actors came out in traditional costumes all wearing masks, though one was operating a puppet wearing a mask. The first blew fire over the audience- impressive but I have seen it before. Then extremely quickly, the actors masks all changed even the puppets mask became a different one. This continued in more impressive and interesting ways for the following ten minutes. The actors were dancing, drawing attention to their faces, and sometimes without even masking themselves the would change right infront of us. Most impressive was when one actor's intire costume chaneged 3 times whilst on the stage!

We are now back on our bed for the last time in Chengdu. Tomorrow we move on to Emei Shan.