Another bullet train. This time for four hours. It was the normal procedure. Get up way too early so that we can wait for an hour at the station. Then start queuing and eventually get us and our bags onto the train. The rest of the trip is about staving off boredom and hoping the small, uncomfortable seats do not give me haemorrhoids. Main excitement of the trip was getting a packed lunch delivered. They do not serve much food on the train. However, you can ring ahead and get someone to bring a packed meal to the train. Our meals were waiting on the platform as the train pulled into the station. They were handed into the correct coach and then distributed by our guide. Each meal was elaborately packaged in an insulated bag. The main part of the meal was in a second insulated container. Accompanying it were disposable utensils and a hygienic wipe. Unfortunately, the food was rubbish. For us, the vegetarians, it was just a pile of plain vegetables. I wondered a little about the amount of waste. An awful lot of single use plastic. That seems to be normal in China. Single use water bottles are ubiquitous. We did not see any attempts at ecologically friendly packaging at all.
We eventually arrived at Chengdu, checked into our hotel and then went out to see the face changers. The Chinese art of face-changing, known as Bian lian, is a 400-year-old dramatic technique from Sichuan opera where performers switch vividly coloured masks in the blink of an eye. I found it simultaneously entertaining and rather alarming. You cannot see the masks changing. The performers wear up to 15 ultra-thin silk masks stacked on top of one another. Fine threads of silk connect each mask to different parts of the costume. A fast head turn, a sweep of a fan, or a wave of a hand pulls the top mask away into the costume instantly. Expert performers can swap several masks in just a few seconds. Unfortunately, once you have seen a few face changes the novelty wears off and the rest of the show was fairly mediocre.
In the morning, we were up early to see the pandas. As far as I was concerned, this was the real reason we were in Chengdu. Giant pandas once roamed across Southeast Asia from Myanmar to northern Vietnam. Their range in China spanned much of the southeast region. In 2001, it was estimated that the range of the giant panda had declined by about 99% of its extent in earlier millenniums. Today, they just inhabit a few mountainous regions in China. Deforestation and poaching drove panda numbers down to around 1,000. They are now strongly protected and have several dedicate reserves. Even so there are only maybe 2,000 in the wild and some 700 in captivity.
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is a government-funded non-profit breeding and research institute for giant pandas, red pandas, and other rare animals, located in Chengdu, Sichuan. 124 pandas have been born there since it was established in 1987. The declared mission is to “be a world-class research facility, conservation education centre and international educational tourism destination.” It is also a massive tourist attraction. When we arrived, the whole place was absolutely packed with people. There were enormous queues for everything. We needed to be scanned by security and then have our passports scanned. Then, after some more queuing, we were driven by golf cart up to where the animals are. We had to pay extra for the buggy ride. Presumably, we could have walked but it was several kilometres and the weather was scorching sweaty. Even if you made there and back without heatstroke then there would not have been enough time to see anything. There were a lot of little extras like this on the tour. Meals are provided but not drinks. Any drinks. Water, for goodness sake. It is an extra that you have to pay for.
We arrived at the zoo. What is the difference between a zoo and a research base? I don’t know but here were animals in cages, cafes, souvenir shops, ice cream shops, panda statues, panda memorabilia and crowds and crowds of people. The walkways were six deep with tourists trying to spot a panda. Fortunately, I am taller than many of the people here so I could take photographs over the top of them with my telephoto lens. The temptation to rest it on somebody’s head was almost irresistible. If you are small and want to come here then be prepared to fight. We wandered around for a couple of hours and managed to see a few pandas. They are remarkably cute and fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, standing there in the baking sun and pressing crowds it was not a very relaxing experience. The pandas were in large open compounds. Some singly and others in small groups. The compounds looked to be seriously escape proof and even featured electric fences. The bears had trees and smaller plants to make the place seem a bit more natural but not really a lot of space. The viewing walkways overlooked the compounds and just the noise from all those people must have been a big disturbance to the animals.
Along with the giant pandas there were also some red pandas. These don’t look anything like the big pandas but they are still extremely cute. In the wild, there are an estimate 10,000 animals and they are spread over a much larger. Unlike the giant pandas they are still being hunted and driven from their habitat so their numbers are reducing. In Nepal, 121 red panda skins were confiscated between 2008 and 2018. There was also a cage with a golden snub-nosed monkey. He was behind particularly strong wire netting. Shortly before we left, I spotted a small bird in a tree. Not part of the zoo but one of the very few wild animals that I have seen in China. Turned out to be a Yellow-vented bulbul.
Diane bought herself a green giant panda ice cream as we headed back to the meeting place. Then we were done. Another cart ride. A bus ride and we back in Chengdu heading for the park. I was feeling quite sorry for the animals in the panda zoo and quite exhausted from the crowds and the heat.
People’s Park is described in our itinerary as a pleasant respite from urban Chengdu. It is not. It is just as hot and crowded as anywhere else. There are some nice flower beds, bonsai and fishponds. However, you will need to push and shove through the crowds to see them. We were here to drink camomile tea and get our ears cleaned. First, we needed to visit the matchmaker’s corner. Here lonely people hang sheets of paper with their romantic details for others to peruse. You might think that one of the many lonely-hearts sites on the internet would serve better – but that would only be because you do not know the Chinese internet. Next stop was the tables where tea is served. Apparently, this is the local tradition and popular pastime. Meet up with your friends for a cup of tea, a cosy chat and to get the wax extracted from your ear canal. We sat at some tables and ordered tea. Then the ear cleaning men arrived. Each armed with a set of tools and a headtorch. I declined the offer but others were up for it. In fact, if you looked hard in any direction, you could see someone bent over a tea drinker sticking various brushes and other tools into their ear.
