Pandas, the Yangzi River and Shanghai

After Tibet, a day flight to Chegdu to visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center.

At the Panda Center

The research center is used primarily to allow pandas to mate, apparently they are a very shy animal and were declining in natural population, and raise young to be released back into nature. We were there early in the morning and were fortunate to catch the younger Panda playing before their mid-day nap.

Took about five minutes of  play to get to the ground.

Panda moms usually give birth to twins and if left on there own will abandon one twin to die. The center takes both babies and raises them until they are big enough to be re-united with the mothers,

Twin Babies

This is one of the best animal centers I have been to, it large, ,the pandas have lots of room, very well kept and very clean. The center has planted a large amount of bamboo to feed the Pandas and they eat a tremendous amount daily. The Giant Pandas are bears and are therefor omnivores, same as most other bears, but are feed only bamboo at the center as they sometimes get aggressive and can cause harm to each other on a diet that includes meat.

Having a snack

Red pandas are also kept and bred at the center and although not as endangered as the Giant Panda, they are a delight to see. The Red Panda is more evasive and sometimes hard to find, but if patient you can see them.

Red Panda

The Red Panda is not of the bear family and is similar to our racoons.

Then a bullet train to Chongqing to catch the River Cruise on the Yangzi, while not quite as fast as a bullet the train does move, every car has a speedometer display and it traveled mostly around the 295km/hr range.

Although the Yangzi River is the third longest river in the world, 6,300km, the majority of the river boat cruises cover about 200km through the three gorges (Qutang, Wu and Xiling) to the Three Gorges Dam. Approximately one third of the Chinese population live in the Yangzi River Valley. 

The three days on the river were relaxing, no packing suitcases, no bus or train terminals to navigate, just a relaxing time. Leaving Chongqing, the trip is not overly exciting, broad river, factories and barges, but it all changes when one enters the first of the gorges. Even after the Three Gorges Dam raised the water level by 110 meters, the Qutang Gorge still towers over head.

Qutang Gorge

Prior to flooding the gorges and building ship locks at the dam, only small boats could navigate through the gorges and these only by being pulled through by manpower, 20 to 30 men all attached by rope to the boat scrambling up the incline. While around 1 million people were relocated during the construction of the dam, there are a number of towns, villages and temples where the boats stop for sightseeing. The most enjoyable for us was taking a small local sightseeing boat up the Goddess Stream, located in a hidden valley with lush forest and unique landscape.

The Goddess Stream

Scenery

The Gang.

Three Gorges Dam, while the worlds largest generator of power, power was one of three reasons to build the dam.

First reason was to control the flooding of the fertile basin further downstream as the Yangzi flooded to some extent every year. Some 400,000 people were drowned by flooding in the fifty years prior to the dam being constructed.

Secondary was to be able to build a river lock that would allow heavy freight barges and ships to navigate the Yangzi, now 80 percent of the inland river transport is on the Yangzi, the equivalency to about 40 rail lines.

Three Gorges Dam

Shanghai is a very modern and cosmopolitan city, at least the areas we were in. Divided by the Huangpu river, the west side is full of historical areas,

West Side

while the east sky line is full of tall modern towers.

East Side

With only one day and two evenings in Shanghai, we know we missed some things, but we did get time to walk the Bund, the shore line of the river where all the old trading houses used to be and peoples square. Peoples Square is myriad of shops, cafes, that sell and serve most everything. Fancy Rolex and Tag Heuer watches were a specialty on the street, $50 could get you very best. We were left on our own for lunch, so we opted for a dumpling shop, where it was look and point as none of the staff had any English, and you know it turned out just fine.

Lunch in Shanghai

The evening was spent going to the Shanghai Circus World a circular theatre that hosts a wonderful acrobatic show, that includes contortionists, motorcycles in a cage, amazing trampoline artist, they leave the trampoline and use springboards and some of the most amazing acrobatic acts we have seen. If you ever make it to Shanghai this is show you should try and get to.

Our last night was a bit emotional, first one of the girls from the tour group had been adopted from China and this was her first visit home, so a welcome back to China cake was a surprise from her Canadian Parents at dinner that evening.

Hillary and her cake.

Then back to the hotel where we said our goodbyes to our tour leader, Leah.

Leah

Xi'an City, Terracotta Warriors and Tibet

Took the overnight train from Beijing to the city of Xi'an (only 9 million people live here and I think they were all at the train station this morning). we were a bit worried about the train, as there are about three classes of cars, some with no sleeper berths and some sleepers with 4 to 8 people. We were lucky and got a car with 10 sleeper units, 4 people to a unit and the tour group was all put together so no strangers, we actually stayed with our long-time friends from Dawson Creek and now from Kelowna, Lloyd and Norma.

Hallway on the train.

One of the attractions in Xa'in city is the Muslim Quarter, home to the city's Moslem community and situated within the old city walls.  The Moslem Quarter has a carnival atmosphere with the streets packed with tourists and locals and lined with street front eateries, butcher shop, noodle factories and much more.

Fried food shop in the Moslem Quarter

Xi'an is one of the few cities in China where the ancient city walls are still intact. Built in the late 1300's the walls are 12 meters in height and were built wide enough at the top to accommodate an 8 wide cavalry troop to ride around. Now fully restored, for a small fee you can either walk or bike around the top, a 14km ride. So when in Xi'an, one must ride the city walls, didn't see any calvery horses though, just tourists.

Loreen

Norma Smith and I

Today went to view the Terracotta Warriors - These sculptures were built and buried over 20 centuries ago. An emperor in ancient times that started to have a tomb built in his honour. It took about 21 years and some seven hundred thousand workers to complete. The area surrounding the tomb is huge and consists of about 600 separate sites. To date they do not know what is in the majority of the sites. They do know that some of the sites are mass graves, as the emperor had all his concubines, workers and honour guard killed before he passed. He thought that he would just transcend from being emperor on earth to being emperor in the heavens and wanted the same lifestyle, including an army ready for battle, hence the Terracotta Warriors. They are big, all around 6 feet tall (life size), but of different shapes. Some are skinny, some are heavy and all have different features.

Terracotta Warriors 

The first pit was discovered by some farmers digging a water well. They sold some of the artifacts and were caught and punished for robbing part of the tomb.

Terracotta Cavalry

Terracotta Soldier

At the time of discovery all the land was being farmed and after archeologists determined the extent of the areas, the government declared the area a heritage site and moved the farmers into a special made village. They still have some land to farm - mostly for their own garden but some grow pomegranate and other fruits like persimmons. They no longer make a living from farming. Some of the farmers now provide lunch time meals for tourists, from there private homes. This was probably the most down to earth meal we had in China. It was delicious and cooked and served by the husband and wife.

Loreen and the Chefs

On to Tibet,  Lhasa, the capital, has a population of around 500,000 and is the traditional, political and spiritual centre of the Tibetan world. We are all experiencing culture shock and many of the group are experiencing severe altitude sickness. Only six of us out of fifteen took altitude medicine and we are doing fine, well some of our group are unable to function.

 There is a lot of political strife here with many military and Chinese police walking around. When wanting to enter certain street or religious venues everyone has to go through checkpoints and show their ID! My friend thought is was a good thing as he thought the military was protecting from terrorism, being cynical I thought it was just for intimidation of the local people.

The scenery is stunning. It's a thrill to be in the Himalayas.

Lhasa Tibet

The people of Tibet are extremely religious and follow the teachings of the Dalai Lama. Lhasa was home to the Dalia Lama until he fled Tibet due to land reform under taken by the Chinese government. The old city of Lhasa is full of red robed monks and a multitude of pilgrims, as it every Tibetans obligation to make a pilgrimage to the holy areas of Lhasa. Some of the pilgrims walk and prostrate themselves, they walk five steps and then lie flat on the ground, for as much as three to four years. The holiest places in Lhasa are the Potala Palace, the historical home of the Dalai Lama and now occupied by Buddhist monks were they charge a fee to go through the palace in support of the Dalai Lama.

Potala Palace

While there are many Buddhist Monasteries in Lhasa the most revered place, besides the palace, is Jokhang Temple. There is a continuous throng of pilgrims that that traverse a route around the temple for hours every morning, as well as dozens of the devoted that continuously prostrate themselves in front of the temple entrance.

Prostrating Pilgrims

Buddhist Monks.

Tibetan cuisine well similar to Chinese food, most restaurants serve a range of Tibetan, Nepalese, Chinese and western dishes, there are some unique dishes with a lot consisting of yak meat, which is not much different than beef.  I don't think any of us have yet tried the staple diet of roasted barley flour porridge and yak-butter tea! Today we had a cooking class and made two kinds of Momos, (dumplings filled with yak meat or vegetables).

Lunch, Yak Burger and Fries!

Making Momos.