Eats shoots, and leaves!
Sometimes it's just all too much...
On Saturday 19th October, we got an early start from Chengdu to make sure we got to the Giant Panda Breeding Centre before all of the tourist buses. This plan worked pretty well, as we were indeed amongst the first people there. This is easily the largest and most important panda breeding and scientific research centre in the world. We confess to a little cynicism at the start: is the huge investment in pandas worthwhile, for an animal that seems to be so lacking in adaptability and apparently so lacking in instinct to procreate? Would all this fuss exist if pandas didn't have the 'cute, cuddly' factor? Could we not get a better environmental 'bang for our buck' in other less glamorous areas?
Our heads were turned a little, however, when we were told that pandas pre-exist humans on this earth and that they had proved themselves perfectly able to survive until humans came along and started to destroy their natural habitats, particularly in recent years. Then, of course, the 'cute, cuddly' factor is hard to resist.
In some ways the Chengdu centre is not much more than a zoo, but there is a lot more going on than this under the surface. First of all, the whole site has become a sort of nature reserve, recreating the pandas natural habitat and this has attracted lots more bird and animal life. Did you know that there are over 100 types of bamboo? We didn't, but apparently they are pretty much all to be found here. The center-piece of the site is a lake that is stocked with carp and other fish and black and white swans. Here we found a great 'natural adaptation' story. The black swans get a lot of tourist attention, or in other words they get fed a lot. The carp have sussed this out and you couldn't see a black swan without an attendant entourage of carp waiting to pounce on any scraps!
But back to the pandas. The site is paid for by the volume of tourists (both western and Chinese - we saw many more western faces here then we have seen for a long time) and fees earned from 'loaning' pandas to zoos around the world. Apparently every panda in the world is technically owned by the Chinese government.
We arrived in the middle of birthing season and there are dozens born here each year between August and October. We were able to go through the panda incubator, where we saw about a dozen cubs that have all been born this year. There are over 50 pandas here in total and, though they are kept in pens, they have a fair bit of space to roam in and all seemed in good condition.
After 3 hours at the site, we headed on towards the town of Leshan, which had attracted our attention when we were working on our itinerary. Leshan stands at the confluence of 3 rivers, but is now famous partly due to the efforts of the Taliban in Afghanistan. About 10 years ago they destroyed the largest Buddha in the world, thereby passing that title on to the Dafo Buddha in Leshan. He was carved into the rock-face by the water's edge some 1,200 years ago to protect fisherman from the dangerous waters created by the merging rivers. At more than 70 metres high and with and a 28 metre shoulder, he sits proudly looking down on the river, hands camly resting on his knees. We didn't really have time to do him justice, so to avoid the queues to get right up to him (see the people coming down the stairs to his left in the photo below), we took a ferry across the river that provided great views and perspective and went slowly enough past to get some good photos.
The town itself is also very pleasant and we spent a short time walking along the river where there were some beautiful rock carvings that seemed to go almost unnoticed next to the bigger draw of the Buddha. Back at the truck, we found a game of football going on around the truck, with some of our guys against some locals, which had started to have attracted almost as big a crowd as the Buddha!
Back on board again and we had another couple of hours drive to get to our next stop of Emei Shan, one of China's 4 holiest mountains. We will tell you more about that in our next post, but just to say that we had a great surprise of a modern, stylish 4 star hotel for our 2 night stay.
those babies are the cutest thing ever; must have been hard not to try and steal one xxx,
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise Pandas could be bred in captivity except 1 or so every few years - great that the species should survive after all. Like Sue I had a headache on my birthday possibly down to the margaritas, mojitos, corona, red wine, desert wine, port and bitter, but more likely some dodgy cheese. Wish you could have been there.
ReplyDelete