Chengdu, China, Asia

I got up this morning for breakfast at 7:30am, and then our tour took off at 8am. By 8:30am we had pulled into the panda breeding center. We had to walk about twenty minutes uphill to get to the first panda house, and when we finally got there, I was a little disappointed. This was nothing like the nature reserve where I saw the orangutans in Borneo, this was just a zoo. Each set of pandas had a small enclosure where they could laze around all day and then food was given to them in their pens at 8:30am. They would spend the whole day just relaxing and eating.

I was under the impression before going there that this was more of a nature reserve and they would be preparing the pandas to go back out into the wild at some point. I was mistaken. This was just a place where they were bringing up pandas and trying to get them to reproduce. They artificially inseminate some so that they have babies every year, but I don’t really understand the point in that when they are not releasing them into the wild some day. This isn’t going to help sustain the population at all. The panda babies were cute to see, and the big ones looked pretty cool, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. We saw a few red pandas as well, and they were a bit more active, but they looked more like raccoons to me. I’m not even sure why they’re called pandas, because they are definitely not a type of bear.

We finished our tour in the museum at the panda zoo, which had very limited information on the pandas that were in this zoo. I suppose for 90 yuan ($15) for the half day trip wasn’t a lot of money, but it just seemed like a lot for what we saw. When you consider how much you could do or see in some other SE Asian countries for $15, it was a bit much. We got back to the hostel and I grabbed a bite to eat with an Australian guy named Aymon who is travelling to Pakistan and India from here. It was an interesting chat and by the time we had finished lunch, the rain started. Not cool.

I was hoping to get out this afternoon to see a bit of the city, but I don’t want to go wandering around in the rain if I can avoid it. I spent the rest of the day just relaxing at the hostel and trying to decide how long I can spend in each city for the next few weeks of my trip. The internet is down at the hostel though, so that really makes planning anything difficult. I ventured out to the local supermarket to pick up some snacks, but that was really all I got up to tonight. I’ve borrowed a few DVD’s from reception so my night will consist of Quantum of Solace and Die Hard 4.0. At least I’m not on a train anymore!I got up this morning for breakfast at 7:30am, and then our tour took off at 8am. By 8:30am we had pulled into the panda breeding center. We had to walk about twenty minutes uphill to get to the first panda house, and when we finally got there, I was a little disappointed. This was nothing like the nature reserve where I saw the orangutans in Borneo, this was just a zoo. Each set of pandas had a small enclosure where they could laze around all day and then food was given to them in their pens at 8:30am. They would spend the whole day just relaxing and eating.

I was under the impression before going there that this was more of a nature reserve and they would be preparing the pandas to go back out into the wild at some point. I was mistaken. This was just a place where they were bringing up pandas and trying to get them to reproduce. They artificially inseminate some so that they have babies every year, but I don’t really understand the point in that when they are not releasing them into the wild some day. This isn’t going to help sustain the population at all. The panda babies were cute to see, and the big ones looked pretty cool, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. We saw a few red pandas as well, and they were a bit more active, but they looked more like raccoons to me. I’m not even sure why they’re called pandas, because they are definitely not a type of bear.

We finished our tour in the museum at the panda zoo, which had very limited information on the pandas that were in this zoo. I suppose for 90 yuan ($15) for the half day trip wasn’t a lot of money, but it just seemed like a lot for what we saw. When you consider how much you could do or see in some other SE Asian countries for $15, it was a bit much. We got back to the hostel and I grabbed a bite to eat with an Australian guy named Aymon who is travelling to Pakistan and India from here. It was an interesting chat and by the time we had finished lunch, the rain started. Not cool.

I was hoping to get out this afternoon to see a bit of the city, but I don’t want to go wandering around in the rain if I can avoid it. I spent the rest of the day just relaxing at the hostel and trying to decide how long I can spend in each city for the next few weeks of my trip. The internet is down at the hostel though, so that really makes planning anything difficult. I ventured out to the local supermarket to pick up some snacks, but that was really all I got up to tonight. I’ve borrowed a few DVD’s from reception so my night will consist of Quantum of Solace and Die Hard 4.0. At least I’m not on a train anymore!