April
16, Monday
Early wake-up call again; 7 am. We need to be down and on the bus since we are driving north from Chengdu to the “Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding” a world renowned ecological conservation base which is both a panda sanctuary & research centre. Really looking forward to this. Yvette, are you ready for this one?
The Centre was founded in 1987 and first consisted of 6 giant pandas rescued from the wild. They now have approximately 83 bears and have developed family trees outlining their breeding program. “Pandas are naturally solitary animals that live in remote bamboo forests in the high mountains (2600 to 3500 meters). Their habitat has been gradually destroyed and fragmented. The park is located in a beautiful natural setting of over 100 hectares with nearly 400 kinds of trees, including ginkgo, chinars, magnolia and willows. There are also many species of bamboo that giant pandas eat. Hundreds of acres of grass and flowers sprinkle the hiss and border Swan Lake.”
Entering the park
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful. Cecil Frances Alexander
Lost in translation !
This park is incredibly beautiful and peaceful
A family of black swans, among the hundreds of coy in Swan Lake.
They are so cute !
Clusters of bamboo
Finally we get to see our first Giant Panda. And it completely ignores us ! Too busy munching on bamboo shoots
Our second one is fairly well hidden and we only catch a glimpse.
Our third (or possibly our fourth) gives us a show, actually posing for photos ! or so it seems.
Each one as a beautifully arranged enclosure with plenty of play space and areas to hide away.
I kept seeing these beautiful flowers everywhere and did not know what they were. (Japanese irises ! I found out in Japan)
This one was so cute ! Well, they kind of all are. Each panda has his / her own space with lots of green space, trees to climb, platforms to lay on, etc.
Check out the claws ! It may be a sub-adult, but it is a wild animal. Although a vegetarian, a panda will defend itself if attacked.
Before I used the zoom. Check out the pandas in this huge tree.
With the zoom ! Just hanging around.
This one looks like he found the perfect spot for a snooze.
Paulownia flowers
A giant panda adult, near the kindergarten enclosures.
Each baby has its own bowl to eat, just like in kindergarten
Nap time
Obviously, I did not take the original photos. These were showing on a television screen in one of the display rooms. We did not get to see any who were this young.
But here are the ones we did see, with their keepers, and a group of scientist studying their behaviour
The “kindergarten” was the best stop. There were four cubs out that morning, with at least 8 or 9 handlers / caregivers. You have to picture this in your minds: You have 4 human 2-year olds that you are trying to sit in a row, and each time you sit one down the other three are off and running. Now substitute four baby pandas instead of the toddlers and you get the picture. They were running away and climbing trees, where the handlers had to grab them before they could get up too high and be out of reach. Others were trying to get into the underbrush and hide. One little guy finally tried to bite his handler on the leg and the handler had to keep jumping away from him/her while still trying to catch it. We were a huge crowd in front of this enclosure and we were all laughing.
They may be toddlers, but they are big and heavy. Check out this tiny young lady wrangling this little panda. And the second one is right behind the first. They love to climb trees.
Get one down and onto the ledge, while the other three run away.
"I'm almost out of reach; just a little bit highter !"
8 handlers and scientists in this picture but only 4 cubs. Woops, where are they other two?
"OK, I'm ready to give up"
This one almost made it to the underbrush before getting caught.
This is definitely one of the best days of my entire trip.
Other signs in the park:
A couple of babies
Cute and scary at the same time !
Here is a text from the site: “Dear visitor If you were not able to view each of us it may be because some of us were resting after our meals. Some of us like to snooze behind big trees or rocks, while some of us prefer to stay high in the trees or low in the moats. If it is too hot outside, we may rest inside of our cool buildings. At times, some of us may be working with a researcher who has come to learn all about us. We are sorry we were not able to meet you, perhaps we will meet when you return to visit us again! We giant pandas have a very different lifestyle from you humans.” If you want more information on the centre, check out this web-site: www.panda.org.cn or www.pandaphoto.com.cn
“Endangered: There are fewer than 1600 giant pandas in the wild; 80% of them live in Sichuan Province”
Sign near the museum: “The giant panda, which is called a living fossil, is a rare animal peculiar to China. This precious heritage left to people by nature has been regarded as a mysterious creature for thousands of years and now is honoured as the national treasure. Not only Chinese people but also people all over the world deeply enjoy her beauty. .... Their survival is severely threatened. …. May the giant panda as well as we human beings survive as long as the earth survives.”
Huge statue at the entrance to the “Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding”
We leave the centre around lunch time and drive to the Sanxingdui Museum, located in an archeological park which is beautifully landscaped. We have a delightful lunch there and then visit the museum filled with bronze and clay treasures, recently discovered in 1986 in two large Shang period sacrificial pits. Don’t worry, they did not sacrifice humans! Since the bronzes were buried for that length of time undisturbed, some are in mint condition. Archeologists believe that when the site was abandoned (people were relocating to a different area due to changing weather conditions) they broke many of their pottery instead of bringing it with them. The findings also helped to prove that Sanxingdui was the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom more than 3,000 years ago.
Scenes along the way
Crops are coming in already.
After lunch, we enter the grounds of the archeological park where the various museums are located.
One of the museum buildings
One of the gates.
Beautiful landscaping everywhere you look
Hélène, check out the benches !
and this huge colourful bolder !
Inside the museum are many beautiful works of art, but I will only post a few of these
Elaborate bronze piece
And strange masks.
Even the backs of the heads are beautifully designed.
An ornate urn
This is the skirt of one of the statues, elaborately decorated
From the museum we drive back into the city and to the hotel. We only have about 1 ½ hours to get ready to go out again for supper and then to see some type of presentation in the park. I was very tired and would have liked to just stay in the hotel room and rest, but this is a once in a life time trip, so I shower, get dressed and go along with the group. What a good thing I did; the “Sichuan Opera”(not opera as we know it) was amazing with dancers, musicians, shadow puppets, traditional masked dancers (we could not figure out how they managed to change masks within seconds, which was simply amazing… supposedly they roll up into their hats, but we could not detect how), etc. The costumes were beautiful and colourful. We had been worried about being cold, however the entire production was under a huge tent cover and all four sides were enclosed.
Musicians
The MC for the evening
Elaborate costumes
The main singer. She had a beautiful voice and very expressive eyes.
The puppeteer
Shadow puppets. You can see the man bottom left.
Dramatic portion
Scary blue green mask, worn by red robbed figure
Yellow & red masked figures
Now the magic starts with this black robed man with the changing masks, at the flip of his fan. He starts off with a green mask.
Flip of the fan and now it's a red mask
Flip of the fan and now it's a blue mask
Now it's a white mask
Only half a green mask left
No mask left, just a silly mustache
Such quick action. It really did look like magic.
Back on the bus for the drive to the hotel and again.
Sofitel all lit up
View from my room of the city lights.
I can’t keep my eyes open long enough to read. What a REALLY FULL DAY !
Early wake-up call again; 7 am. We need to be down and on the bus since we are driving north from Chengdu to the “Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding” a world renowned ecological conservation base which is both a panda sanctuary & research centre. Really looking forward to this. Yvette, are you ready for this one?
The Centre was founded in 1987 and first consisted of 6 giant pandas rescued from the wild. They now have approximately 83 bears and have developed family trees outlining their breeding program. “Pandas are naturally solitary animals that live in remote bamboo forests in the high mountains (2600 to 3500 meters). Their habitat has been gradually destroyed and fragmented. The park is located in a beautiful natural setting of over 100 hectares with nearly 400 kinds of trees, including ginkgo, chinars, magnolia and willows. There are also many species of bamboo that giant pandas eat. Hundreds of acres of grass and flowers sprinkle the hiss and border Swan Lake.”
Entering the park
All things bright and beautiful,All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful. Cecil Frances Alexander
Lost in translation !
This park is incredibly beautiful and peaceful
A family of black swans, among the hundreds of coy in Swan Lake.
They are so cute !
Clusters of bamboo 
Finally we get to see our first Giant Panda. And it completely ignores us ! Too busy munching on bamboo shoots Our second one is fairly well hidden and we only catch a glimpse.
Our third (or possibly our fourth) gives us a show, actually posing for photos ! or so it seems.
Each one as a beautifully arranged enclosure with plenty of play space and areas to hide away.
I kept seeing these beautiful flowers everywhere and did not know what they were. (Japanese irises ! I found out in Japan)
This one was so cute ! Well, they kind of all are. Each panda has his / her own space with lots of green space, trees to climb, platforms to lay on, etc.
The adults are solitary creatures and only “visit” each other when females are in estrus. Since this only happens once a year, and since females are picky about who they chose, pregnancy is never guaranteed. The baby is born prematurely and looks like a little pink mouse because of its long tail. First time mothers often inadvertently kill their young since they have no idea what this little pink “thing” is.
While in captivity, if the keepers see that the mother may harm the baby, they quickly find a way to remove it and place it in an incubator. They sometimes have to raise the babies and cubs separately from the adult pandas. If a mother gives birth to twins, in the wild she would only take care of the strongest one and the weaker one would die.
In captivity, if the mother looks like she is taking good care of the one baby, they will remove the second and each day when it is time for feeding, switch the babies so that each one gets a chance to nurse. They ensure that the second cub is lubricated with its mother’s milk so that she does not reject it.Ingenious. “Twins are born about 55% of the time in captivity as a result of artificial insemination techniques. While it is less likely for twins to be born in the wild, a female will only be able to provide enough care for one of her cubs. In captivity, keepers and the panda mother take turns caring for each twin to ensure that both cubs survive. It is very important for cubs to drink panda milk.”
“A newborn giant panda is premature and weighs only 1/1000 of its mother’s weight.” Think about it !
A newborn panda in an incubator, being fed panda milk from a tiny bottle
“One and a half to five year old pandas are called sub-adults. During these years, giant pandas transition into adulthood. Healthy growth during this stage is fundamental for their later reproductive success. It is during this stage that pandas start to eat bamboo, which is rich in cellulose and poor in nutrition versus the nutricious milk they previously relied on. By the end of this stage, they will be sexually mature. The most active years of a giant panda’s life are between two to three. Besides foraging and sleeping, sub-adults spend the rest of the day playing and investigating. They are excellent climbers and spend a lot of time in trees. The giant panda sub-adult house is made up of bedrooms, two yards and indoor keeper facilities. In order to meet a young panda’s exercise and curiosity needs, the yards have a complex topography, lots of vegetation and a great deal of space.”
While in captivity, if the keepers see that the mother may harm the baby, they quickly find a way to remove it and place it in an incubator. They sometimes have to raise the babies and cubs separately from the adult pandas. If a mother gives birth to twins, in the wild she would only take care of the strongest one and the weaker one would die.
In captivity, if the mother looks like she is taking good care of the one baby, they will remove the second and each day when it is time for feeding, switch the babies so that each one gets a chance to nurse. They ensure that the second cub is lubricated with its mother’s milk so that she does not reject it.Ingenious. “Twins are born about 55% of the time in captivity as a result of artificial insemination techniques. While it is less likely for twins to be born in the wild, a female will only be able to provide enough care for one of her cubs. In captivity, keepers and the panda mother take turns caring for each twin to ensure that both cubs survive. It is very important for cubs to drink panda milk.”
“A newborn giant panda is premature and weighs only 1/1000 of its mother’s weight.” Think about it !
A newborn panda in an incubator, being fed panda milk from a tiny bottle“One and a half to five year old pandas are called sub-adults. During these years, giant pandas transition into adulthood. Healthy growth during this stage is fundamental for their later reproductive success. It is during this stage that pandas start to eat bamboo, which is rich in cellulose and poor in nutrition versus the nutricious milk they previously relied on. By the end of this stage, they will be sexually mature. The most active years of a giant panda’s life are between two to three. Besides foraging and sleeping, sub-adults spend the rest of the day playing and investigating. They are excellent climbers and spend a lot of time in trees. The giant panda sub-adult house is made up of bedrooms, two yards and indoor keeper facilities. In order to meet a young panda’s exercise and curiosity needs, the yards have a complex topography, lots of vegetation and a great deal of space.”
This next series of photos are of "sub-adults" or teenagers in human terms. They are kept in groups since they are very social animals at that age. These have all "grown-up together" in captivity. They were even in Kindergarten together.
Defying gravity ! Look at the size of the branches this little guy has climbed up on. Well, not so little !
Yum, yum, yum. Fresh bamboo !
They bring it in by the truck load from the high mountains every second day, because Pandas are finicky eaters. I can't remember how many types of bamboo there are, lets say 16. They will only eat 1 or 2 types, and even then, just part of the branch. They actually sniff it first to see if it is the right type; then they break it open and sniff it again to make sure it is fresh.
Kind of like Winnie the Pooh with his jar of honey !
This one on the left was a fairly big pandy among the sub-adults. Probably almost ready to go off on his/her own.
Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?
Defying gravity ! Look at the size of the branches this little guy has climbed up on. Well, not so little !
Yum, yum, yum. Fresh bamboo !They bring it in by the truck load from the high mountains every second day, because Pandas are finicky eaters. I can't remember how many types of bamboo there are, lets say 16. They will only eat 1 or 2 types, and even then, just part of the branch. They actually sniff it first to see if it is the right type; then they break it open and sniff it again to make sure it is fresh.
Kind of like Winnie the Pooh with his jar of honey !
This one on the left was a fairly big pandy among the sub-adults. Probably almost ready to go off on his/her own.
Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?
Check out the claws ! It may be a sub-adult, but it is a wild animal. Although a vegetarian, a panda will defend itself if attacked.
Before I used the zoom. Check out the pandas in this huge tree.
With the zoom ! Just hanging around.
This one looks like he found the perfect spot for a snooze.
Paulownia flowers
A giant panda adult, near the kindergarten enclosures.
“Pandas have a false thumb which gives it an extraordinary grasp on bamboo.So when eating, unlike bears who hold and break the food with both of their forepaws to eat, the giant panda can eat by holding the bamboo.”
“Giant pandas of less than one year old are called yearlings, and are just like human infants growing into toddlers. At this age pandas are full of vigor and energy and experience several important changes: One or two weeks after birth their black markings appear. Within a month they will have black ears, eye patches, legs and shoulder bands. Around six to eight weeks their eyes will open. Around ninety days old the first baby tooth will appear. (Pandas have two sets of teeth, just like humans.) Around one hundred days old, their limbs will support the body and they begin to crawl. At four to six months, cubs grow stronger and more active. At around one year they will start to eat bamboo. At one and a half, all teeth have grown in. During this time their average daily weight increase is about 100 grams. Diet: primarily milk (panda mil or formulated milk).”
Each baby has its own bowl to eat, just like in kindergarten
Nap timeObviously, I did not take the original photos. These were showing on a television screen in one of the display rooms. We did not get to see any who were this young.
But here are the ones we did see, with their keepers, and a group of scientist studying their behaviour
The “kindergarten” was the best stop. There were four cubs out that morning, with at least 8 or 9 handlers / caregivers. You have to picture this in your minds: You have 4 human 2-year olds that you are trying to sit in a row, and each time you sit one down the other three are off and running. Now substitute four baby pandas instead of the toddlers and you get the picture. They were running away and climbing trees, where the handlers had to grab them before they could get up too high and be out of reach. Others were trying to get into the underbrush and hide. One little guy finally tried to bite his handler on the leg and the handler had to keep jumping away from him/her while still trying to catch it. We were a huge crowd in front of this enclosure and we were all laughing.
They may be toddlers, but they are big and heavy. Check out this tiny young lady wrangling this little panda. And the second one is right behind the first. They love to climb trees.
Get one down and onto the ledge, while the other three run away.
"I'm almost out of reach; just a little bit highter !"
8 handlers and scientists in this picture but only 4 cubs. Woops, where are they other two?
"OK, I'm ready to give up"
This one almost made it to the underbrush before getting caught.This is definitely one of the best days of my entire trip.
Other signs in the park:
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world – John Muir”
“If we do not permit the Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will, in the end, not produce either – Joseph Woodkrutch”
"Love me, don’t bother me"
From the Giant Panda area we moved over to the "red panda" area. Although these are named pandas because of some similarities, they look more like racoons. All except for that black tummy and legs.
“If we do not permit the Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will, in the end, not produce either – Joseph Woodkrutch”
"Love me, don’t bother me"
From the Giant Panda area we moved over to the "red panda" area. Although these are named pandas because of some similarities, they look more like racoons. All except for that black tummy and legs.
A couple of babies
Cute and scary at the same time !Here is a text from the site: “Dear visitor If you were not able to view each of us it may be because some of us were resting after our meals. Some of us like to snooze behind big trees or rocks, while some of us prefer to stay high in the trees or low in the moats. If it is too hot outside, we may rest inside of our cool buildings. At times, some of us may be working with a researcher who has come to learn all about us. We are sorry we were not able to meet you, perhaps we will meet when you return to visit us again! We giant pandas have a very different lifestyle from you humans.” If you want more information on the centre, check out this web-site: www.panda.org.cn or www.pandaphoto.com.cn
“Endangered: There are fewer than 1600 giant pandas in the wild; 80% of them live in Sichuan Province”
Sign near the museum: “The giant panda, which is called a living fossil, is a rare animal peculiar to China. This precious heritage left to people by nature has been regarded as a mysterious creature for thousands of years and now is honoured as the national treasure. Not only Chinese people but also people all over the world deeply enjoy her beauty. .... Their survival is severely threatened. …. May the giant panda as well as we human beings survive as long as the earth survives.”
Huge statue at the entrance to the “Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding” We leave the centre around lunch time and drive to the Sanxingdui Museum, located in an archeological park which is beautifully landscaped. We have a delightful lunch there and then visit the museum filled with bronze and clay treasures, recently discovered in 1986 in two large Shang period sacrificial pits. Don’t worry, they did not sacrifice humans! Since the bronzes were buried for that length of time undisturbed, some are in mint condition. Archeologists believe that when the site was abandoned (people were relocating to a different area due to changing weather conditions) they broke many of their pottery instead of bringing it with them. The findings also helped to prove that Sanxingdui was the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom more than 3,000 years ago.
Scenes along the way
Crops are coming in already.
After lunch, we enter the grounds of the archeological park where the various museums are located.
One of the museum buildings
One of the gates.
Beautiful landscaping everywhere you look
Hélène, check out the benches !
and this huge colourful bolder !
Inside the museum are many beautiful works of art, but I will only post a few of these
Elaborate bronze piece
And strange masks.
Bronze masks:Two of the largest bronze masks unearthed at Sanxingdui.
Legends of the ancient Shu people.
Legends of the ancient Shu people.
Even the backs of the heads are beautifully designed.
An ornate urn
This is the skirt of one of the statues, elaborately decoratedFrom the museum we drive back into the city and to the hotel. We only have about 1 ½ hours to get ready to go out again for supper and then to see some type of presentation in the park. I was very tired and would have liked to just stay in the hotel room and rest, but this is a once in a life time trip, so I shower, get dressed and go along with the group. What a good thing I did; the “Sichuan Opera”(not opera as we know it) was amazing with dancers, musicians, shadow puppets, traditional masked dancers (we could not figure out how they managed to change masks within seconds, which was simply amazing… supposedly they roll up into their hats, but we could not detect how), etc. The costumes were beautiful and colourful. We had been worried about being cold, however the entire production was under a huge tent cover and all four sides were enclosed.
Musicians
The MC for the evening
Elaborate costumes
The main singer. She had a beautiful voice and very expressive eyes.
Elaborate costumes
The musician and his strange violin type instrument
The puppeteer
Shadow puppets. You can see the man bottom left.
The comedians: wife and drunk husband
Dramatic portion
Scary blue green mask, worn by red robbed figure
Yellow & red masked figures
Now the magic starts with this black robed man with the changing masks, at the flip of his fan. He starts off with a green mask.
Flip of the fan and now it's a red mask
Flip of the fan and now it's a blue mask
Now it's a white mask
Only half a green mask left
No mask left, just a silly mustacheSuch quick action. It really did look like magic.
Back on the bus for the drive to the hotel and again.
Sofitel all lit up
View from my room of the city lights. I can’t keep my eyes open long enough to read. What a REALLY FULL DAY !
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