Chengdu - home of the Panda

I'm staying at the nicest hotel! An average hotel is not worth writing about, but a nice one is always worth enthusing over!

It's not one that was listed on my itinerary, but it's the Sichuan Minchan Lhasa Grand Hotel, and it's practically brand new. That and the slightly depressed tourism economy here due to the earthquake earlier in the year has placed me in a room which I wish I could almost take with me - even back to Australia! It's got one rather unusual thing though, the bathroom, which of course is adjoining the bedroom has a clear glass panel which means that if you're in the bedroom you can see right into shower...and vice versa ;) Fun for couples, I bet...!

Anyway, despite Jane (my guide in Chengdu and our driver Mr Lee) insisting that it never rains in the city during the day, this morning brought steady showers as I caught up with them outside the hotel.

I had met them last night when they had picked me up from the airport and we had gotten a chance to get to know each other over a typical Sichuan banquet of spicy tofu, fish, sliced pork with greens, slivered steamed potatoes and small noodles. Seriously, there was enough food to feed a family and with just the three of us I thought it was almost too much. But in China, it's considered good manners to leave a little behind in your plate, it means that the host has done a good job of providing enough for you to eat. If you clean your plate, it means the host has been negligent and deficient in their duties. So don't clean your plate when dining with Chinese friends!

We drove to the Giant Panda Breeding Centre and as we had chosen an early start we caught a bunch of 4 years olds (teenagers, I guess!) having their regular breakfast of bamboo all together. They were awesome! It was amazing to see them so close!

We also saw some newborns in their incubators (so small and twitchy); and one year olds hanging out with their keepers. They were seriously cute balls of fluff and loved to play. You can have your picture taken with one for about 1000yuan, but I didn't need to do that, I thought it was fantastic to just be able to see them so close.

There was also enclosures for the big pandas (mostly hiding out from the rain!) and the smaller, though no less cute red pandas, who have quite a reputation for being very naughty but fun, as they jump from tree to tree and play and tumble with each other. They are actually not a bear at all (unlike the panda which is related to the brown bear) but is closer genetically to raccoons (which explains their naughtiness, as raccoon are intelligent but mischievous scavengers).

Wenshu Temple was next for the morning; a beautiful and very high ranking Buddhist temple in the heart of Chengdu, it had fragrant incense offered free for burning, and a constant reminder that this was a practising temple by the presence of monks praying, working, studying and walking through all of its sections and buildings.

I had a lovely jasmine tea in a seating area close to the central courtyard, very relaxing!

Jane had asked me about lunch yesterday for today and I had said something typical of the region, but maybe not a banquet! So we stopped in at the Lanquoshou Tea House and she said that Menu A had some Sichuan snack-type food, which would give me a overview of the specialities of the province. I loved the little bite-sized portions of everything and was easily able to get my fill without feeling guilty about leaving so much behind.

The final stop of the day was at the poet Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, which is really a series of pavilions, pools (containing turtles or koi), bridges and picturesque trees. The gardens contain a much larger and more impressive model of the actual cottage that one of the Tang Dynasty's most celebrated poets was said to have resided in when he was living in Sichuan. Du Fu often wrote of the plight of the common people in contrast to the aristocracy and of the turmoil of contemporary life. Chairman Mao is famously said to have visited the gardens (there is a picture of him looking at some mosaiced characters close to the entrance) and there are also pictures of Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize laureate - he was actually in Beijing for the Opening Ceremony!), Jacques Chirac (former French President) and intriguingly, a photo of the leader of the Australian arm of the Communist Party and his wife, from a visit they made here in about 1950.

Tonight I'm looking forward to watching the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games and very curious as to what London is going to come up with for their section!