On the sacred Buddhist mountain of Emei

峨眉山 Éméishān, 四川 Sìchuān

27.7.2013
Arrived to Baoguo and Mt. Emei (Emeishan, shan means mountain) today. The trip from Chengdu to Baoguo went very smoothly. We got the second taxi from our hotel to the bus station and after buying the bus tickets (the clerk spoke English) we thought the bus leaves at seven pm (as written on the tickets), but it left immediately. There was a truck accident on the road, but we still reached Leshan city (near Mt. Emei) in good time. We were supposed to change the bus here to get to our hotel, but luckily two American tourists were on the bus with a local friend, who told us that the bus goes near to our hotel.

The hotel we chose to stay in is called Teddy Bear Hotel (玩具熊酒店 Wánjù xióng jiǔdiàn) and it's well known, even abroad. We didn't pick the hotel based on its name, but because they've received good reviews at Tripadvisor by backpackers. They speak English, do pick-ups from the bus station, serve food, have loads of information and free maps, etc. They were very helpful with everything. Our room was clean with a TV, aircon, own bathroom and a PINK mosquito net over the bed. I was amused of the thought, that Kari had to sleep in a Princess curtain bed. We also had a teddy bear, which is in every room. The room cost twenty euros, which was a bit too expensive and luxury for us on a long trip, but we aimed to save in another place then. China has actually become more expensive since our last visit and sightseing prices are among the highest in the world nowadays.

Teddy Bear Hotel lobby is covered with traveller messages

Teddy Bear Hotel lobby

Teddy Bear Hotel has bears in each room

Near the hotel area is the Baoguo Temple and a waterfall (秀甲天下 Xiù jiǎ tiānxià) and restaurants, with local dishes including rabbits. A few rabbits were kept in small cages in front of the restaurants, all breathing stressfully and dealing with the hot temperature outside, which was 32 celcius degrees and at least 38 °C near the stoves. It was a sad sight. Finnish people eat rabbits too, but usually hunt those themselves and kill them immediately, which is better than keeping the animals in factories or in cages for a vague period of time.

Baoguo is one of the starting points for treks. Yingbin Square.

Baoguo, Yingbin Square.

Baoguo stone carvings of Samantabhadra

Emeishan map

28.7
GIANT BUDDHA OF LESHAN

Today we took the morning bus and headed to see the largest stone Buddha in the world, the Giant Buddha of Leshan (乐山大佛 lèshāndàfó), which lies 45 minutes away from Baoguo. From Leshan city we took a short taxi ride to the Buddha area. The ticket lines were crazy, everybody was pushing and queue jumping, so you had to stand your ground. The Chinese had a vacation, school kids too, so our timing wasn't the best, but Chinese often crowd places no matter the season. The ticket cost 90 ¥ in 2013.

It's crowded

Map of Leshan Giant Buddha scenic area

The 71 meter tall Buddha was carved out of cliff face during the Tang Dynasty (618–907AD) between 713 and 803 AD and faces Mt. Emei, with the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers mixing below its feet. Both Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area and Mt. Emei Scenic Area have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1996.

A rather grim story lies behind the construction of the Buddha; Chinese monk named Hai Tong led the construction which started in 713, hoping that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters that plagued the shipping vessels on the river. When funding for the project was threatened, he is said to have gouged out his own eyes to show his piety and sincerity. After his death the construction was stuck due to insufficient funding. About 70 years later a jiedushi sponsored the project and the construction was completed by Hai Tong's disciples in 803. (Jiedushi were regional military governors in China during the Tang dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period). Eventually the stones removed from the cliff to the river altered the currents, making the waters safe for ships.

Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers

Located on both sides of the Buddha are staircases, the other one is for walking down to the feet of the Buddha and the other one for walking back up. When we reached the steps that lead down the place was swarming with Chinese. It took about 45 minutes to walk the stairs that normally would take about five minutes. While walking down you see the 71 meter Buddha from many angles and it is impressive. One of the features you first see is the head and coiled hair, which has 1,021 buns. The ears, each seven meters (about 23 feet) long, are made of wood and their surface decorated with mud. At the foot level you feel really small next to the giant toes, of which the smallest toe is about the size of a human.

Giant Buddha of Leshan from the top

Stone carvings on the path down to the Buddha

Staircase down to the Buddha

Giant Buddha seen from below. The construction took 90 years to complete.

Giant Buddha and its huge toes

It is also possible to view the Buddha by boat, which stops in front of the statue. This way you also see the sculptures on both sides of the Buddha on the cliff. The river sometimes dries up and then it's possible to walk quite close to the statue from the shore. The current on the river was very strong at the time of our visit.
The area also has other sights, such as the 9th century Lingbao Pagoda, the Lingyun Temple and the Wuyou Temple (on another island), which contains two important statues: the 9th century Dashi bronze Buddha and the 11th century Amithabha statue group, cast in iron and gilded. The Mahao Crag has over 500 Han Dynasty tombs of the 1st to 4th centuries, notable for their fine carvings and calligraphic inscriptions. Outside, at the city of Emeishan, is the Dafo Temple, dating from the early Qing Dynasty. The Buddha area is quite large and requires at least a day to go through, so we decided to save our feet for the mountain climb the next day and only saw a few of the nearest sights.

Statue of Monk Hai Tong

Main hall of Lingyun Temple

Lingyun Temple

Lingyun Temple

Lingbao Pagoda

Stone statue of Medicine Master Buddha on left

BAOGUO TEMPLE AND FUHU MONASTERY

Back at the Baoguo village we still visited the Baoguo temple (built during the Ming Dynasty, 1368 to 1644), Fuhu monastery (Grouching Tiger monastery) and Shanjue Temple. Visiting them took about two and a half hours. The walk to the Fuhu monastery goes through a lush forest, where now was a dry riverbed. Someone had set up a restaurant on the riverbed, where people were relaxing and even sleeping. I guess they were certain that the river wouldn't flood at this time of the year, even though some parts of China were now suffering from bad floods.

Relaxing down at the riverbed

Tiger Bath Bridge to Fuhu Monastery

Fuhu monastery/temple (伏虎寺 Fú hǔ sì) is the best-kept secret on Mt. Emei. Due to inconvenient location deep in the forest and the fairly demanding trekking, it hasn't been visited often and is well-preserved and largely unspoiled. Vegetarian meals are served at the temple and it is polite to finish the plate. Some of the monasteries in the area also partly work as hotels and are peaceful places to stay.

The monastery was originally built during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), but the present temple buildings date back to 1651. It is the largest temple on the mountain. The main building is the Precious Hall of the Great Hero. The two other largest structures are the Yuchu Building and Huayan Pagoda Pavilion. Standing 5.8 meters high (19 feet), the copper pagoda was built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Its eight angles are symmetric and the tower itself is carved with Buddhist scriptures from the Sutra of the Master of Healthiness. The tower was moved here from Baoguo Temple.

Fuhu Monastery, the first hall; Maitreya Temple

Fuhu Monastery, the second hall

Fuhu Monastery, the third and main hall with an insence burner in front

Fuhu Monastery

Fuhu Monastery. The fourth, Luohan Hall, houses golden statues. The hall is also known as Rohan/Lohan/Arhat hall.

Fuhu Monastery, incarnation of Guanyin Buddha

Luohan Hall is dedicated to 500 Arhats (a saintly person)

Fuhu Monastery, Huayan pagoda

Crossing a bridge on our way to the Baoguo Temple

The Baoguo Temple (报国寺 Bàoguó sì) holds several significant religious artifacts; keys among them are a huge porcelain Buddha in the main hall and a 25 ton 3 meter high copper bell. In front of the temple gate is a pair of stone lions carved in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). There are four halls. Maitreya Hall is filled with colored clay figure of Buddha Maitreya. The main hall, Sakyamuni Hall, has delicate artifacts; the large golden Buddha Sakyamuni on his lotus-shaped throne, with figures of the eighteen disciples of the Buddha on the left and right wing-rooms. Hall of Seven Buddhas concentrates on the seven Buddhas, with the renowned Song Dynasty writer, calligrapher Huang Tingjian's "Hymns on Seven Buddhas" inscribed on four wooden plaques. Samantabhadra Hall houses Buddhist scriptures such as the valued painting works of Zheng Banqiao, Kang Youwei, Zhang Daqian, Xu Beihong and some other famous Chinese artists. A statue of Samantabhadra Riding on White Elephant, which lies on a bed of lotus flowers, is also inside.

Baoguo Temple

Baoguo Temple

Baoguo Temple

29.9
GOLDEN SUMMIT OF MT. EMEI

At 3,099 metres (10,167 ft) Mt. Emei is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China and the place where Buddhism was born on the Yangtze valley. The mountain is considered a bodhimanda (a place where enlightenment is present) for the bodhisattva (a being that has reached enlightenment for wanting to help other living beings) named Samantabhadra. The first Buddhist temple in China was built here in the 1st century CE. The site has many Buddhist monasteries of the Ming and Qing period, most of them located near the mountain top. The top eight temples at Emeishan scenic area include: Baoguo Temple, Fuhu Temple, Qingyin Pavilion, Wannian temple, Hongchun Buddhist Convent, Xianfeng Temple, Xixiang Temple and Huazang Temple.

Mt. Emei is also a site of special significance to conservation and to science for its high floral diversity. Its biodiversity is exceptionally rich: some 3,200 plant species in 242 families have been recorded, of which 31 are under national protection and more than 100 species are endemic. This is due to its transitional location at the edge of the Sichuan basin and the eastern Himalayan highlands. Within its elevation range of 2,600 m are a great variety of vegetation zones including subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest, mixed broad-leaved and conifer forests, and subalpine conifer forest. This exceptional flora is also rich in animal species with some 2,300 species recorded, including several threatened at a global scale.

For such an amazing place we sadly didn't have enough time to trek its many beautiful routes with many temples, caves, monasteries, pools and scenic spots. The routes would take days and even one route from Baoguo to the summit would be over thirty kilometers long. The routes aren't what you might imagine, there's only stairs and you don't need hiking boots at all! We still started our day early, at 5:30 am. We wanted to get going before the weather turned too hot and we would have enough time to climb what we had planned. Going up Mt. Emei cost about thirty euros. The price depends on the time of the visit and which routes and vehicles you are taking, and some of the temples have their own entrance fees. We took the 1,5 hour bus drive to the Leidongping bus station, where we still had to climb to the Golden Summit (金顶 Jīndǐng) for two hours. The same walk back took an hour and a half. A cable car can take you a bit further, but it wasn't working now, and besides, we would've walked anyway.

From Leidongping station the path is just stairs for two hours, but it's better than a slippery, muddy natural path, which it could turn into at these subtropical altitudes. We were climbing between the altitudes of 2,430 and 3,077 meters and it was heavy for both breathing and muscles. Everyone walking up was taking it slowly and having breaks. This reminded us of our climb to Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo (Malaysian side), which is a heavier climb to 4,100 meters. Little did we know that after Borneo and China we were going to climb even higher.

View while trekking up Emeishan

It started raining during our bus ride and it rained a bit while hiking up. A heavy fog surrounded us most of the time, so we couldn't admire any possible scenery. The Tibetan macaque monkeys have taken over a small area on the path. Because some tourists have treated them badly it is adviced to take a walking stick with you in case they attack and want to steal your belongings. Our hotel offered us those, but we decided to go without them. Some tourists were feeding the monkeys, which seemed pretty aggressive. We passed them quickly, knowing how unpredictable they can be.

Tibetan macaque, probably planning to steal something

Close to the summit a wider staircase appeared, with elephants lined on both sides leading us to the top and the statue of Samantabhadra (a bodhisattva known from the Mahayana Sutra literature). At 48 meters high the stupa (also known as Puxian Stupa) is the 22nd tallest statue in the world. Its unique head faces ten directions, one for each of the Bodhisattva’s "Ten Truths of Universal Worthiness", with elephants below its feet. The impressive stupa is surrounded by urns containing the ashes of Buddhists. On one side the bodhisattva holds a ruyi (object serving as a ceremonial sceptre in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore), while on the other his hands form the Dhyana Mudra meditation gesture. Inside the stupa is a statue of Maitreya.

Cloudy and rainy at the top

Statue of Samantabhadra

Behind the statue are three magnificent palaces. The copper Huazang Temple (华藏寺 Huá cáng sì) was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was restored in the 1970's to its original condition. The Grand Hall of the Great Sage or Mahavira Hall (大雄宝殿 Dàxióng Bǎodiàn) is the main hall, housing statues of the Gautama Buddha and two disciples. The golden Puxian Hall (普贤殿 Pǔxián diàn), built in 1615, is located behind the main hall at the highest point, and is over 8 metres (26 ft) tall. The Silver Hall (Woyun Monastery, 银殿 Yín diàn) lies aside seperately.

Huazang Temple area, below; The Grand Hall of the Great Sage

Puxian Hall (Golden Temple)

Wanfo Peak is the highest peak on Mt. Emei, at 3,099 meters. Between this and the Golden Summit is the Qianfo Peak, at 3,045 meters. All of these peaks have something to see, but the Golden Summit is the most popular one with the golden Samantabhadra statue. Mt. Emei has plenty to see and seing everything involves at least three days of climbing. The route we would've wanted to trek is 19 km one way and back the same way. Mt. Emei also has a ski resort.

The fog and rain had now gotten even heavier, so the visibility was down to just a few meters. We unfortunately couldn't get any good pictures. Walking around the summit area can take about an hour and a half, but being cold and wet with no place to warm yourself in we only walked around for half an hour. Due to the heavy fog we couldn't witness how the clouds usually stay below the summit, fading everything around the summit and creating a surreal sea of clouds atmosphere. Another thing to marvel here is the sunrise, but the busses arrive to the top too late for that. If you want to see the sunrise you can stay at two hotels at the summit.

We took the bus back down to our hotel, where we had dinner. My dinner wasn't so good, but Kari liked his vegetarian version of mapo-tofu with eggplant (a Sichuan dish). We hadn't eaten too well again, although we'd been hiking a lot and used a lot of energy at the top of the mountain freezing in the cold. Mostly we'd been eating snacks and drinking juices. The next morning we were continuing our journey again by bus. Our Emei-adventure wasn't exactly what we had hoped for, but mother nature is unpredictable and you can't fight weathers.

Chengdu 成都 - the panda capital of the world!

24.7.2013
From Yunnan we arrived to a new province, Sichuan, and its capital Chengdu (population of 14,427,500 in administrative area), which is surrounded by two rivers in Chengdu Plains. Our main goal here was to see the China's national treasure, the giant pandas, and any other sightseeing was just extra.

You've arrived to the panda capital of the world!

Chengdu airport is the sixth largest airport in China and it's so big, that we had to take a bus from the plane to the terminal. Everyone from our huge plane fit into one bus, because the Chinese are so much smaller than the Western people. At the airport nobody asked our passports anymore, so we just picked our bag and caught a taxi. The waiting line made it easy to take a taxi, the drivers are obligated to drive people on that line. The police also checks that meters are in use. The city center is about 16 km from the airport. We arrived to our hotel around eleven p.m. and weren't too happy with our room; it stank of cigarette and had no internet. Besides, there was no English service in the hotel, so we went to check out other hotels. We had no luck, there weren't many hotels around, so we decided to try and get our own internet working and see how well we will manage with the stinky room.

25.7
WENSHU (MANJUSHRI) MONASTERY

We decided to stay in the same hotel, as the cigarette smell had disappeared some and we didn't have stuffy or runny noses in the morning. The morning started with trying to get an own internet access. We found one store who helped us out, but it took at least an hour to sort out the problem. It seemed very hard for the employee to understand what we wanted, even though she spoke some English. During the process she, her co-worker and a customer had a laugh about us, we might've seemed like stupid tourists (and stupid for not speaking Chinese), but we were very clear with what we wanted and explained the matter in various ways, even with pictures. Sometimes it seems as though Western and Asian (especially Chinese) people are from different planets in their ways of thinking. We've stumbled upon this wall of misinterpretation so many times in China. It is much easier to communicate with people in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Laos. But finally our internet problem was fixed and everyone was happy.

Next we headed to the city for sightseeing. A vegan restaurant happened to be near the Wenshu monastery, so we ate there. The food was ordered with a tablet, with menu in pictures and only in Chinese. Sichuan and Chengdu cuisine is famous around the world and UNESCO has named Chengdu as the City of Gastronomy. We knew we should get some delicious food here. We ordered two dishes, both with tofu which looked good, and they actually ended up being the finest food we got during our travel in China! They were very delicious, yet very spicy with loads of dried chili peppers mixed in, which were also very delicious. The dinner was very cheap, about ten euros altogether. Of course China isn't as cheap anymore as it used to be and you can't compare the prices with Laos, where you get a meal for just one euro.

Yummy vegan lunch with tofu and chili peppers

Wenshu monastery and its park was near closing time, so we had to rush through the area and couldn't marvel at it as much as we wished to and see everything. The monastery was originally built during Southern Dynasties (420-589) and rebuilt in 1697. It has 190 halls and rooms and classical architecture in the style of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The beautiful Bell Tower and Drum Tower lie outside, with a bronze bell of over 4500 kg hanging in the Bell Tower. I especially enjoyed the small handmade details hardly found in Finland - due to Finns´ love for practicality and simplicity. Chengdu itself has characteristic constructive styles; there are compound houses around a square courtyard (called Siheyuan), suspension wood houses (Diaojiaolou) and small cottages in the woodlands.

Surrounding area of Wenshu Monastery

Peace Pagoda of a Thousand Buddhas at Wenshu Monastery

Wenshu Monastery

Wenshu Monastery

Wenshu Monastery

Aidao Nunnery gates near Wenshu Monastery

The park next to the monastery was small and only took about ten minutes to walk through. There were many all sized turtles in a pond, but no other animals. Chengdu is actually a turtle shaped city, and because of it one of its nicknames is The city of the Turtle. Near the monastery also lies the Aidao nunnery, but it was closed when we got there.

Turtles in the "City of the Turtles"

POETS, PARKS AND A SUNKEN PLAZA

At the Tianfu Square (天府广场) lies the Science and Technology Museum, with Chairman Mao statue greeting in front of it. Tianfu square has beautiful fountains and The Sunken Plaza is also interesting to see with the dragon shaped statue. At the time of our visit the plaza was still under construction. Here you can also find the metro station. The first metro line in Chengdu opened in 2010, so it was still very new when we visited the city. The lines worked well, were easy to use and the stations are also written in English. By using the metro we saw many places in the city and familiarized the center in short time. Other sights to see in Chengdu are (to mention a few) Jinli Ancient street and the park with shrines and temples (with Wuhou shrine and the tomb of warlord Liu Xiang), Jinsha site museum, which has a huge collection of ancient unearthed ivory, gold and jade artifacts, one of the most famous Taoist Palaces in China, the Qingyang Palace at Culture Park, the ancient towns of Lizhuang and Luodai and Four Girls and Qingcheng Mountains for trekking, climbing and sightseeing.

Metro map

Sunken Plaza

The Science and Technology Museum behind the Sunken Plaza. Greeting in front is Chairman Mao.

Fountains at Tianfu Square

We walked around the Chunxi road and Pedestrian street (between Kowloon Plaza and Tianfu Square), which is an area for fashion with many malls, most of them selling expensive fashion. We weren't there to buy stuff though, we just people watched. If you want to send stuff overseas from China be warned, it isn't cheap. This thought crossed my mind, but I had to forget it fast with these prices. Chunxi road, like few of the surrounding streets, has bronze human statues, which are fun to pose with. You might be startled by the statues, they are human size and some of them are in colours. I sometimes found myself thinking another person was standing next to me, when it was a statue.

Bronze human statues at Chunxi Road

Coloured statues at Chunxi Road

Chunxi Road and the surrounding streets are a good place for shopping and other pastimes

Chengdu

While in China I noticed that many of the city people dress the way Finnish people dress when they go to a party or even a wedding. They wear nice things on their average day, whereas in Finland you are looked upon if you overdress or wear fancy colours. Clothes are of course much cheaper here than in Europe so people can afford to dress nicely, and the city people earn better in China nowadays. Our Chinese friend said they earn about 350.- USD a month (in 2013), which is the most common pay. I love to look at all the nicely dressed people and I photographed some of the beautiful Chinese women. Chinese also dress nicely when they go to a sightseeing spot, where they pose for photos. Even in the Kunming Stone Forest, a demanding trekking place if you see everything, people dressed nicely. We realized though, that most local tourists don't do much trekking. They take the busses to see the main sights, so they're not there for the exercise.

Beautifully dressed city people

Later we went to the Huan Hua Xi park (浣花溪公园), which is the place for the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu, a very famous poet who lived in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The original cottage, which was the poets home more than a thousand years ago, was destroyed, but the current building dates back to Ming and Qing Dynasties and is dedicated to Du Fu. During the four years he stayed here he composed more than 240 poems that are considered to be precious national treasures. Unfortunately the place was closed, but we got to see some of the area though. It is a beautiful place. The Southwest gate is close to the cottage entrance. The many statues seen in Huan Hua Xi are of poets from the past 2000 years.

Huan Hua Xi Park

Poets Qu Yuan, Li Bai and Du Fu, Huan Hua Xi Park

Poet statues of Huan Hua Xi Park

Huan Hua Xi park covers an area of 32.32 hectares, being Chengdu's biggest park with three gardens, bamboo forest, Huanhua brook and Gan river flowing across it. The park combines modern garden and architecture design, and the historical culture of West Sichuan. Cosplay can also be seen here and many photosessions. During our visit the park had two photosessions going on, one wedding and another one something else. The park has an artificial Green Lake where you can see various kinds of birds, even kingfishers, but we only saw the most common ones and egrets. The park is used as an emergency base in case of earthquakes and offered a lot of free services. We had luck with weathers, every day was sunny and there was no sight of the monsoon rains that hit Kunming. Chengdu has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate with mild and humid weathers. Between July and August the 24-hour daily mean temperature is around 25 °C (77 °F), but during the winter months it gets colder.

Huan Hua Xi Park

Avenue of Poetry, Huan Hua Xi Park

Huan Hua Xi Park

26.7
PANDA BABIES!

On our second day we did what I was expecting the most from the trip in China, seeing the pandas. We were lazy though and only went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (成都大熊猫繁育研究基地), or shortly called Chengdu Panda Base, only ten kilometers from the city. The other popular places for seeing pandas are Wolong National Nature Reserve, 150 km from the city, Bifengxia and completed since 2013 the Dujiangyan Base, located 65 km from Chengdu center. There are a few other places, but these are the most popular ones.

The giant panda (大熊猫, Dà xióngmāo, big bear cat) lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan, but also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. Farming, deforestation and other development has driven the giant panda out of the lowland areas where it once lived. A 2007 report showed 239 pandas living in captivity in China and 27 outside the country. As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Wild population estimates vary, but a 2014 survey counted 1,864 giant pandas. In 2016 the IUCN reclassified the species from "endangered" to "vulnerable".

Pandas in the wild live to about twenty years of age. The oldest panda in captivity, Basi, just died in September 2017 in China at the age of 37 (more than 100 in human years). Basi became somewhat of a celebrity, even living in the San Diego Zoo for six months in 1987. She was rescued in 1984 from a frozen river at four years old. The Sichuan bamboo forest began to flower and die back then, a rare natural phenomenon happening once every 60 to 80 years. This means that Basi might have starved in the wild, as pandas derive most of their nutrition from the shoots and refuse to eat a flower forming bamboo. A mass die-back of bamboo in the ´70s caused the deaths of about 250 pandas, which need more than one species of bamboo to survive.

Finland will get their first two pandas, male Huá Bào and female Jín Bàobào, to the zoo of Ähtäri in one months time and they will most certainly become huge celebrities in our country, because Finns love nature and animals and because another bear, the brown bear, is our national animal along with the whooper swan. I'm not too happy about the idea of bringing the pandas to Finland, but I hope they will live long, happy lives and maybe even reproduce.

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Bamboo forest at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Movie star Jackie Chan is a panda ambassador

The Panda Base opened at eight o'clock. We arrived there earlier, but got right in. The area has recommended routes you can take to suite your visit best, and a full visit takes three hours or more. We skipped some stuff and mostly focused on the pandas, yet still spent many hours in the area. The base even has a veterinary hospital and a seperate delivery room for the pandas. As a research center The Panda Base does not focus on displaying the animals, so it's up to your luck and visiting time how many pandas you will see.

It didn't take long to find the first panda. It was a lonely one locked inside, walking the same steps over and over like it was in stress. It seemed to want to go outside though, as it went to the door later. The pandas are usually kept inside during the hottest days, so they can cool down in the air conditioned rooms. It was a very hot day on our visit, but as we were so early at the base we could see about twenty pandas! That was way more than I had hoped to see. Some people have only seen a couple of pandas on hot days. You can also see the red pandas at the base. The giant pandas we saw were all ages. They were engaging in various activities; either climbing in trees, playing, eating bamboo in groups outside, scent marking, etc. One panda got frustrated about not being able to go outside and started harassing its mate by playfully biting and pushing the other one around. These guys were hilarious, they even ran! We also saw a cub and its mother, among so many other things.

Bamboo snack time

Pandas can beg for food too!

Paw full of bamboo

The rowdy two. We watched them for an hour!

Young pandas, at least a year and a half of age.

Pandas are generally solitary animals

A mother and a cub at least six months old

Resting after play

The best part was to see the newborn male panda twins born on July 23rd, only four days old! These twins, He Xing and He Sheng, were born to Cheng Gong (born in September, 2000). I had just seen the news about them on TV, but didn't expect to actually see them in front of me! I was in heaven for a while! Our timing was perfect for visiting the center, as the best times to see panda babies are in August and September, and these cubs had just been born! The pandas get their black markings at one or two weeks of age, so these cubs were still pink with just a little fur. The keepers were cleaning them when we saw them. At birth pandas are blind, toothless and quite helpless, so when the other twin fell on its back it was quite hard to turn over on its stomach again, but eventually it managed to do so. He Xing will in the near future live in the Copenhagen zoo together with the female panda Mao Sun (her nickname, originally named Mao Er, also from Chengdu Base) for at least the next ten years for collaborative research between China and Denmark. We might have to go say hi to them again then.

Four days old! The fur color pattern is fully developed one month after birth.

The keeper doing mom's job, cleaning.

I didn't get to hold a panda though. From what we gathered it costs about forty euros to hold a larger panda and at least 350 USD for a few month old cub! You can do volunteer work, but it costs about 1000 USD a week and some never even met a panda! There is also one day volunteer work available for a good fee too. The volunteers we saw didn't seem too happy though, as they mostly clean cages and prepare food. Even though I didn't get to hold a panda I still had a blissful day! As we finished the visit at the base we walked through the Green Lake area, where black swans were plenty. They were like ducks, begging for food, just like the various coloured carps accompanying them.

Goodbye, pandas! These fellows clearly wanted to go outside.

Black swans and carps begging for food

Watch the video of some of the pandas we saw.

The next day we caught a bus towards Mt. Emei (also known as Emeishan), as we had now seen the most important thing in Chengdu, the pandas. The bus ride took about three and a half hours.

About Chengdu