Chengdu and the Pandas

After the thin, arid climate of Tibet, Chengdu was like a breath of fresh air . . . well, more like a breath of thick, humid air. As we stepped off the plane, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my trips to Florida from a cold Michigan winter, feeling a heat wave, humidity, and lots and lots of green assailing one’s face.

Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, one of China’s southern provinces. It is most renowned in the tourist world as the home of the Giant Panda Research Center, but also serves as the fifth largest city in China, and–in my opinion–just an overall nice place to stay for a few days. However, the Sichuan province is also world renowned for its extraordinary spicy cuisine, so guess who didn’t eat much at the local dinner? That’s right–me! I was fortunate enough to go out with much of the group after that “dinner” to Pete’s Tex-Mex and chow down on a bacon cheeseburger.

The next day was the big trip to the panda facility. Located about six kilometers northwest in the city, it is a U.N.-award-winning environmental and animal research center. We spent the morning there walking through the preserve for the giant panda, and it’s smaller “cousin,” the red panda. I will let the photos speak for themselves.



Chengdu as a city is also nice, as a few of us headed to the downtown to look around in the afternoon. We saw a fairly attractive downtown park–with the marked exception of the giant Chairman Mao statue overlooking the city (in front of the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum, nontheless!), as well as a smaller city park, and some of the streets. Trouble only came when we went looking for a taxi, at rush hour, after work. We found none. Literally, we were walking around the downtown of Chengdu for well over an hour, and with the exception of two taxis that ignored us completely, and three taxis to which we were beaten, we couldn’t get a ride. The taxi we finally landed three hours (and one dinner) later, of course, was a “black” unlicensed taxi, who had to stop for directions on the way to the hotel. At that point, armed with a map, I could have driven us there faster.