Friday, July 15, 2016
Tour day 8 of 15. Chengdu with Jack. Weather was 89 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly sunny. Breakfast buffet at Sofitel Taihe Chengdu. Highlights include noodles with minced pork and baby bok choy, sesame green tea cake (crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside), milkshakes, and yogurt shots. We drove in the bus about 30 minutes to visit the Chengdu Panda Reserve. On the way we learned from Jack that last night one panda gave birth to twins, one male and one female. We also learned that Chengdu is less expensive and has a lazier culture than surrounding big cities. As a leading agricultural region for the country, it is considered the fruit basket of China. People in Chengdu love to play mah johngg for money. Although today's high was forecast as 89, at the reserve we found the weather comfortable; it felt like the high 70s in the shade and the low 80s in the sun. We waited mostly in shade in a long queue to ride a tram to the park's highest point, walking downhill throughout the day visiting various sights before returning to the entrance-exit. During our time in the reserve, we saw four young pandas, one momentarily stuck in a small tree before being assisted out, and several newborn pandas. There was a very long line to see another newborn panda. Since Jack said it would be similar to the newborns we had just seen and since the line was so long, we skipped this one. Douglas Coupland once wrote that you are never far from the sound of an engine. In China, I realized, you are never far from the smell of cigarettes. I'm not sure if this was coincidence or not, but after emerging from the restroom I discovered in the restroom lobby a video showing pandas urinating while Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" plays on speakers. We visited the red panda pen (my notes say vegetarian raccoons but I don't remember why), then another enclosure but nothing to see, then another giant panda. The pandas are sometimes so far away it's hard to tell where they are in the pen or what they're doing. I have a strange idea for one of the pens to contain someone in a panda costume who initially pretends to be a panda, but at the right moment of a swell of music coming magically from somewhere he or she begins dancing and suddenly persons in panda costumes come out from everywhere and dance to music like a Broadway show. They perform for a while then disappear after the song ends, leaving just the one panda originally in the pen. Today is the first time I've ever seen a woman talking on a phone still attached to selfie stick. I learned how to say wow in Chinese. It's kind of like a drawn-out whuoaaaaa. We visited a very small cinema describing panda research and mating habits. We stopped briefly at a lake with black swans and koi. We ate another Chinese food lunch in the onsite restaurant. The meal included a plate of french fries—so nice after so much Chinese food. The ceiling had a panda paw and the table had a panda face and the columns resembled giant bamboo stalks and the stairway and upper level was decorated with pandas. Other highlights of the meal include beef stew with (fava?) beans, and kung pao chicken. Walked through the rest of the reserve back to the entrance-exit. After departing the Panda Reserve, we drove 45 minutes to the city center while I napped with earplugs. At People's Park we observed locals singing and dancing in some of the public performance spaces in 90-degree Fahrenheit heat while observing the maximum 80 dB noise ordinance. In one, an orchestra played a Chinese army song (Long Live Chairman Mao) and women danced in a circle and sang. We observed traditions in matchmaking whereby info about matchees is printed on paper sheets and placed along the path's edge for people to read. We visited Heming (Son of Crane) Tea House, an old tea house popular for playing card games and mah johngg and for ear cleanings. We observed a master painter. We drank tea at a pair of small tables with umbrellas. The tea cups don't have handles. All the trees seem to have cicadas. The kids watched a group of women play mah johngg then bought sugar art on a stick. We visited the adjacent amusement park, and some of the kids rode the elevated pedal cars. Lani, Rob, Akemi, and Jack rode the bumper cars. Other rides include multiple kinds of spin rides, a train, a 4D space simulation, a merry go round, a tilt a whirl, skee ball, and a play room. We rode in the bus about 10 minutes to an alleyways area. We walked wide and narrow pedestrian alleys filled with shops. I got gelato from Köko Casa Gelato (lemon and mint candy floss: 28 yuan) while others bought thousand-thread candy. Jack has never heard of Panda Express. I learn how to say ice water in Chinese: bing shui (bing shway). We dine at a nearby restaurant. A highlight was the sizzling rice with chicken and vegetables. Bus ride to the hotel. Again we have a close call turning left into the Sofitel driveway. I took a quick shower, then met Lani, Rob, and Jack to visit a performance of Chinese opera and other arts at Shu Feng Ya Yun. (The others did not want to go.) Included was a 15-minute shoulder, neck, head, and arm massage (or the other choice which was ear cleaning which we all declined); small snacks; and tea. The performance included a Chinese orchestra, a Sichuan opera, a performance in which a woman created animations from shadows of her hands and body (shadow theatre), gymnastics, and the famous face changing performance in which multiple performers' faces (which were actually masks with faces on them) instantly change to different other faces (masks) multiple times. During the performances I wore earplugs since I knew it would be too loud for me. With the earplugs, I enjoyed it very much. And I know how the face changing works but will not reveal the secret here. Jack drove us to and from the performance in his own car. We notice city workers completing roadside painting at 10 pm, and Jack says it's likely due to the forthcoming G20 conference. We have a 7:40 am flight tomorrow. To bed. Number of steps walked = 15,955.