Chengdu and Panda Bears

Bamboo is tasty...


I'm camera shy...


Sara's trip is now complete..



Hello,



So we're in Chengdu now and yesterday we couldn't get into our blog for whatever reason, but we're in now. Chengdu is a large city filled with smog and new construction but everything here is quieter and slower, and maybe even less polluted than in Beijing. Even still Beijing was clearer with it's army of street and sidewalk sweepers (not only the vechiles but the people too). Yesterday we had quite the meal for dinner, Sara didn't really enjoy it. We ended up in this resturant in the tourist old part of town. The menu had english subtitles and the choices included everything under the sun, and had pictures. Sara was almost sick at this point and was not in a happy mood. We ordered steamed vegetables and fried beef. All meat in the Schuian (sp?) province is spicy, and this was no different. I really enjoyed the vegetables, but Sara was sure I was going to get sick. The tea was also delicious, and agian Sara thought I was going to get sick. Sara waited till when I was almost done eating when the rice was brought out. You see here in China rice is considered a filler to be served at the end of the meal. Yesterday evening I was feeling a little bit sore in the tummy area, but I ended up being fine. It was really nice to read all the emails we recieved last night from people.

Today we got up and at 7:45 left for the Chengdu Panda Research Center. I've never seen Sara so excited to get out of bed in the morning, not ever, and never at that time in the morning. The research center is only 8 kilometers outside of town, and so we arrived shortly after it opened at 8am. We first went to an enclosure that held 4 young adult males. One was definitely a trouble maker, going around posing for the cameras, pushing over some of the others, and temperatorly waking up the one who was asleep. After about 20 minutes there it was off to the baby panada area. In that enclosure there was 8 panda cubs who were approximately 9 months old. All pandas are born around the same time as pandas only ovulate once a year. They were very cute, following around the keepers with the food, climbing around, falling down, and play fighting. And eating and sleeping which is almost exclusively what they do. They say 16 hours a day they spend eating. They were very cute and we got a few great shots out of the hundreds taken. We couldn't figure out how to hold a baby panda, but we found where you can touch a 1.5 year old panda, and Sara jumped up and down many times. She was very excited, and I think she enjoyed the experience. Yeah i was excited... except just so you know Panda hair is not soft it is bristly like a brush. (sara) After that we went and saw the red pandas, which was not what we expected. They look like raccons, but after spending a couple of hours watching giant pandas you start to notice the similarities, such as how they walk and eat. It was a nice facility over all and the crowds were not bad. We decided to take the afternoon off, while I finished my book. We were also able to make our way successfully through a large store that housed all the goods you would find at Wal-mart. Although there are seperate checkout for the fruit and veges where the price is affixed for the final cashier.

About Tibet. What we are hearing now is that you do need a group permit with a guide attached to go into Tibet. However you do not need a guide while in and around Lhasa. So what we are going to look into tomorrow is whether we can go to Lhasa for a while, do some day hikes around there and then do a short side trip with a guide so that we have a guided permit, although the itinerary needs to be pretty set. Wish us good luck.

Tyson and Sara