Chengdu day 2? Say that ten times real fast.
The bulk of Chengdu feels similar to every other Chinese city with one or two iconic towers. The tall pointy one here is the West Pearl Radio and TV tower. An ocean of 30 story apartment buildings. Aiyun calls it pigeon living. When I say an "ocean", that's not hyperbole. They just stretch on for as far as the eye can see in every direction. They go for miles and miles. Chengdu is like Hangzhou in that it has more people than the entire state of Washington. However, Chengdu is an ancient city like Xian or Beijing. It was developed with a command and control military focus. It's surrounded by concentric rings that are the modern roads. Hangzhou isn't exactly a young city, but most of it has been constructed in more modern times. Chengdu was developed thousands of years ago.
Speaking of pigeon living, I find these sorts of pictures interesting. There are huge developments of apartments that are empty. Each of these two developments have about 50 of these identical towers. This is the area where they border each other.
The apartments on the left are full. You can see the "lived in" aspect, but the ones on the right are abandoned. China has a real estate problem that's going to get worse. People have been buying apartments for fifty years, but they don't really own them. They purchase leases for around 70 years. What happens when the leases are up? People don't really know. Also, property values are crazy low. The government keeps building so many new places that nobody wants to buy a used apartment when they can buy a low priced new one. Adding to the dynamic is that the population is decreasing due to the one child policy. I don't know much about lease transfer programs, but I've heard a bit. Build a new apartment complex. Transfer everyone from an old set of buildings into the new ones and their lease goes with them. I'm not real clear on the details and might be misunderstanding the concept. This might only be when eminent domain comes into play.
Okay. Enough about Chinese real estate. Today we get to see pandas. After breakfast we met our guide at our hotel. His name was Tang (Tony). I prefer to call him Tang. Its bizarre to me that every Chinese person has both a Chinese name and an English name. Why? To make Engliah speakers feel better? I was talking to my friend Jenny at lunch this past week asking about her two children. When I asked their names she gave me their English names, Lincoln and Emma. Granted, properly pronouncing their names was difficult. Maybe it's just easier for them to give us something they know we can say without making it too much of a challenge for all involved.
We arrived at the Panda restoration area in Chengdu and immediately found a line. And another line. Not for the impatient. I had a similar experience in Harbin this past winter. This picture best tells the story.
Shout to my buddy Jeremy for being the first to complete the Where's Waldo task of identifying the five girls (and one guy) looking at my phone. Good luck. The most "Waldo-like" girl is the toughest to find.
Pandas are a relatively new thing to the animal kingdom world wide. They were first introduced to the western world just under a hundred years ago by a couple from the states. China has become VERY protective of their pandas. They've become a pawn in a game of international diplomacy. Want a panda leased to your zoo? Maybe. What are you willing to do for our government? The species itself has a fossil record that dates back 8 million years. That's crazy. They were here chillin while we humans were still figuring how to take Grog's stuff using a club. Not much has changed.
As a species pandas have a rather unique demeanor and routine. Super slow. They eat, sleep, play a little, mate, and then sleep some more. I think the average middle class American can relate. Eat. Scratch yourself while lounging. Sleep. Mate. Eat more. Sleep. Yeah, the panda might be my spirit animal. They have a fascinating digestive system. Very short intestines combined with eating bamboo that offers little nutrition. This means they have to eat a lot. Fortunately, there's plenty of bamboo to go around. The stuff grows crazy fast and can take over like dandelions. Note to Shane: Is that a dandelion I saw in your front yard?
We arrived early enough to catch a glimpse of a few pandas chowing down. I love the posture on this bad boy as he munches on some bamboo. That's living the good life. Even better, check out the scraps just littered across his belly. Dude is like the honey badger. What-eva.
We saw many pandas not moving much. It says a lot when people get excited to see a panda lift it's paw in the air. You know there's one in motion when the crowd sort of erupts and points. Wish I had captured that video of the crowd. I didn't, but I did catch several pandas in motion which caused the crowd to get excited.
Rough pace of life there bro. As he turned away from us Aiyun immediately comments, "now that's a big ass". They seemed interested in showing off their booty. Perhaps a disdain of being ogled all day. More evidence of that here.
There was a cool museum at the end of the panda experience that got into their evolution, distribution, and preservation. I was surprised to learn that there aren't that many in the wild.
Another odd note about pandas. They're typically born as twins, but the mother can only support one of them. In the wild there's a 50% mortality rate among pandas. Sad banana (bamboo). Further, in captivity the females often fight off the males. Artificial insemonation is the name of the game to try and increase the population.
After panda world we jumped on a bus and headed to Sanxingdui, an ancient excavation site where they've uncovered evidence of civilization perhaps as many as 4000 years old. The majority of excavation work digging this stuff up has happened in the past 40 years. This civilization had little to no contact with imperial China. They were here. The had a Bronze Age. They made stuff very different from other concurrent Chinese areas. They disappeared like the Mayans. They are referred to as the Shu.
The museum at Sanxingdui was crazy packed just like the panda habitat. It's a holiday week for most of China connected to tomb sweeping day. Your honor, I would like to submit this photo into evidence. Yes, it's dark, but that is a solid wall of people trying to get a picture of a giant bronze tree.
The thing that stands out to historians are the bronze masks the Shu people made. There were lots, and they had a distinctive bulging eye design unlike anything else in China.
After about two hours of roaming through the history of how these items were found and how cool they are I was getting burned out. My back was hurting and I was getting tired. Aiyun's back is doing very well thanks to her mobile suitcase. She hasn't had to walk much and that plan is paying off well.
Back to the hotel to crash for a couple hours before dinner. I've got a group of 10th grade boys from Hangzhou that invited us to dinner tonight. They're here in Chengdu on holiday just like us.
When we arrived at Sanxingdui and got off the bus there were several rows of food stands and food trucks. Purely local food. I had to try something. I settled on a round sort of fried roll that had some meat and veggies in it. Here it is half eaten.
It was like a replay of dinner yesterday. First few bites and I'm thinking good choice. It was fried crispy bread on the outside with goodness inside. But then the heat started to build. I'm half way done and think, yeah, this is a story in the making so I better take a picture. Apologies for not getting a photo of the bandits that secretly planned to steal my tastebuds. Before we entered into the museum I had to find a beverage to soothe my tongue and lips. Aiyun called it a Xianbing (Pie-cake). Tang referred to it as a Chinese burger. They're generally not so hot, but here in Sichuan you can expect most food to sneak up on you and scorch your tastebuds. Call me a glutton for punishment, but it was good. I could eaten lots of those as long as I have something to give my mouth some relief. Glad to say my stomach is handling Chengdu very well.
Dinner was fun. Aiyun and I joined a group of six of my 10th grade students. Jack, Kaden, Jerry, Oscar, Justin, and Jiade. I completely spaced taking any pictures. Rats. Dinner was Cantonese. It was awesome. Jack said they needed a break from Sichuan food. I could relate. A bit of an eye opener for me. One would expect the boys were in town with someone's parents. Umm. No. The six 16-year old boys were here by themselves. No parents. Not in the world I come from. Truthfully, it's a sign of how safe it is here in China. They can't find trouble like they could in the states and the streets aren't dangerous at night. Could you imagine a group of sixteen year old boys getting in a plane and spending a few days in any major American city with no parents? Would a hotel take them in? Rent them car? I'm just can't see that. A different world I guess.