Our guide, Echo, told us we needed to be down in the
hotel lobby at 8 a.m. so that we could get in line early at the Panda Preserve.
Since today was a holiday, Dragon Boat Festival, they expected large
crowds at the preserve. The traffic
getting there wasn’t too bad, and then getting in line was okay. Because
of Cindy McKay being in a wheelchair, they took us all to the front of the line
and let us in ahead of a lot of people.
Actually, there were less people than we had
expected. The Chinese National College Entrance Exam is always set for
June 6,7, and 8, and it just happened to be on Dragon Boat Festival. The
tests are set, and it doesn’t matter that it is a holiday. That was a plus point for us. You also want to get to the preserve before
it gets too hot, because when it is hot, the pandas just lay around or go
inside. They can’t take the heat.
The first two enclosures, the pandas were rather
sleepy. They hadn’t woken up enough yet to want to eat. They weigh the pandas every two days, and if
the pandas have lost weight, they fire the keeper. Keeping them happy and
fed is the main job of the keeper. We
were successful in getting some great shots of the pandas.
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| Cute panda sleeping in a tree. |
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| Panda in the year of the pig. |
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| This mama panda was trying to get her cub to move, but he didn't want to so she gave up and sat down like this. |
It was getting pretty hot and muggy, but we were
able to see a lot of action from the giant pandas. They keep the mothers
and babies in a group, and they can keep some of the yearlings in groups, but
when they are adults, they have to keep them separate. The adults are
solitary and don’t like each other. They
are also grumpy with their keepers, so the keepers have to be careful.
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| Red pandas |
There was more action when we got to the red
pandas. They are smaller, and they get along better than the giant
pandas. It was getting close to lunchtime, and they seemed hungry, but
then ignored the food when the keeper brought it.
When we finished at the preserve, our guide took
us to a local restaurant, and we had a great meal. After we were
finished, we sat around and talked and played with the owner’s baby. There was a little shop attached to the
store, but things were a little more expensive there, so we didn’t buy.
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| David had gone to the shade to wait for the rest of our group to gather. These children found him and wanted to talk. |
When we were rested, we were taken to a market
that had a great variety of things, probably the best variety that we have seen
at any market in China. We walked and looked, but we were really headed
for a small theater that was located in the heart of the market to watch a
“Face Changing” show.
When we arrived at the theater, we were shown to
a table that we all sat around. We could have ordered some tea as we
watched the show, but we’re not tea drinkers.
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| Warrior women's dance. |
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| This man was twirling the long necked teapot around and then he would point it at the tea cup and hardly spill a drop as he poured it in. |
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| Dancer with the long sleeves. I like this elegant dance. |
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| This was a comedy skit. The girl tells the man that he has to do certain things and he has to keep that lit lamp on his head and not let it fall off. We couldn't understand a word they said, but good comedy doesn't necessarily need words. |
The “Face Changing” act of the show was last.
This was the greatest part of the whole show! We loved it.
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| Posing with our group in Chengdu. Niels and Jolene Thompson, Alan and Shelly Holt, Cindy and Cameron McKay and us. |
After the show, we walked around a little more,
some bought some ice cream, and we posed for some pictures. Then we went
back to the hotel for an early evening.
The rest of our group would have to be leaving at 6 a.m., because they
were going on to Tibet. We didn’t need to meet our guide until 9 a.m.
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