Pandas make it all better- Chengdu

The next morning after our arrival in Chengdu was our panda tour. The guide told us to look at the first enclosure until she called us. In half of the enclosure were 3 young pandas happily pulling and stuffing their faces with bamboo. After we took millions of pictures and watched them a while, we were intrigued by another large clump of people, so we headed over and saw a larger panda doing some weird routine.

He would climb into his cave halfway, with his rear sticking out, climb in fully, stay there a couple seconds, climb out, walk around a corner, come back, stand up, and start over. This became less of a mystery as we rounded the bend, where we saw that he was going in and out of his air- conditioned room between bites of bamboo from his feeding area! Our guide called us and so we headed to the next exhibit.

This exhibit turned out to be home ground, and if you’ve read any of my New Zealand blogs, you know what I’m talking about. We turned the corner and saw the unmistakable red panda. A review:

 Red pandas are not related to pandas, but raccoons

 Called pandas because they eat bamboo

 Live naturally in the Himalayan area

 Cute

 Picky eaters

Several of the red pandas were lazing about eating bamboo, but others were climbing into the red panda playground and sitting in trees. Some had ruined tails, and one had no tail at all. This was because the red pandas fight and bite each-others tails.

Soon the keepers brought apples for the red pandas. One stood up on his hind legs and begged, but came down soon after no one threw him apples. The worker set down the apple basket next to what I assume was medicine, and turned around to get something. The red pandas sniffed the medicine, and after judging it to be inedible, crowded around and set to work on the apples. Our guide called us again, and we went to an indoor exhibit. There were about six 3 year old pandas eating bamboo. Some were lying down while eating like a Roman banquet, others sitting like toddlers eating cookies, and one was completely hidden in bamboo. We also heard a pandas three goals in life. Here they are, in Panda and English:

1. Lose Weight(Too Fat!)

2. No More Dark Circles Under the Eyes (Ugly!)

3. Have Color Photo (My Pictures Are Always Black and White!)

1. Rrrm Grrmmf(Rrr Grr!)

2. Mm Grar Rrrg Growll(Grrm)

3. Rarf Rrrrr Ggrfm(G’r Rrrrf arf Rrrrg!)

We admired the pandas, and then headed for the nursery. There were no BABY baby pandas, but young ones. Our tour guide pulled away because we had something else planned. We put on plastic aprons, gloves, and shoe covers, and headed in to the panda holding place. Basically, they stuffed a piece of bamboo or fruit in the baby panda’s mouth, and plunked him into your lap. On my turn, the panda flopped over onto the bench, so I didn’t get to hold it for long. It weighed surprisingly little – I guess they are 95% fur. Its fur was coarse and fuzzy and he didn’t pay any attention to me because he was so busy stuffing his mouth the whole time. Pandas pretty much eat all day long. I snuggled the panda and then we left.

That night we went to the Sichuan Opera and, after they served us tea, the show began. First they played music only, and then they did the dances. They did a play where a guy danced and crawled on his knees with a bowl of fire on his head, a shadow puppeteer (who made a flying and sitting bird, and owl, a horse, a dog, fighting monkeys, a rabbit who got eaten by a dog, and a swan), the flame breathing and face changing,( I alone know the secret) a person who could imitate his flute, and a puppet dance. We got an early night’s rest for our flight to Guilin.