17. Up on a Tree and Down in the Ground
We flew into Chengdu at night and checked into the Kempinski in the center of the city. The Kempinski is a 5-star hotel but incredibly they turned off the air-conditioning for maintenance for a whole week and the day we arrived, it was hot, humid and no air-conditioning! The first night was therefore, shall we say, a sweaty sultry Sichuan night. Even though the air-conditioning came back next day. I must say we did not find the Kempinski as appealing even though it features some very modern room furnishings.
But this sad start in Chengdu is more than compensated by our agenda the next day. Our new tour guide, a very sincere young man, took us to five wonderful places. I'll start with just two for now: a panda bear reserve and an archeological dig that unearthed vases that seem to have come out of a Mayan (i.e., Mexican) site!
Our first stop was the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It is here that the first successful artificially-augmented conception and breeding of giant pandas occurred. This is a world-renowned institute that also allows tourists to both see, and on occasion, to touch and post with the pandas.
On this day, no posing with pandas were allowed but we did catch a few pandas up on a tree. At the time, we also saw six pubs in the nursery. They are about the size of a small dog. It has been rumored that a pair of them has been promised to replace the aging pair in a Hong Kong Park.
Our next stop is the archaeological site known as SanXingDui, literally "Three Star Mound", which is about 45km outside of Chengdu. From this photo, you can see the amount of funding that has been spent to make this into a monumental museum. But I thought that the designer of the museum seems to have forgotten that the figures from the dig should be the star rather than his/her architectural design. For details, see: http://www.china.org.cn/e-sanxingdui/jingtai/6.htm
I took only a few not very good photos. This one shows a major find, a bronze human head that is hollow inside. What struck me was how the features shown do not seem to me to be Chinese but more like Mayan. I think I'll want to do some more research on this interesting site that unearthed no written records.
And that was just for the first morning in Chengdu.
But this sad start in Chengdu is more than compensated by our agenda the next day. Our new tour guide, a very sincere young man, took us to five wonderful places. I'll start with just two for now: a panda bear reserve and an archeological dig that unearthed vases that seem to have come out of a Mayan (i.e., Mexican) site!
Our first stop was the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It is here that the first successful artificially-augmented conception and breeding of giant pandas occurred. This is a world-renowned institute that also allows tourists to both see, and on occasion, to touch and post with the pandas.
On this day, no posing with pandas were allowed but we did catch a few pandas up on a tree. At the time, we also saw six pubs in the nursery. They are about the size of a small dog. It has been rumored that a pair of them has been promised to replace the aging pair in a Hong Kong Park.
Our next stop is the archaeological site known as SanXingDui, literally "Three Star Mound", which is about 45km outside of Chengdu. From this photo, you can see the amount of funding that has been spent to make this into a monumental museum. But I thought that the designer of the museum seems to have forgotten that the figures from the dig should be the star rather than his/her architectural design. For details, see: http://www.china.org.cn/e-sanxingdui/jingtai/6.htm
I took only a few not very good photos. This one shows a major find, a bronze human head that is hollow inside. What struck me was how the features shown do not seem to me to be Chinese but more like Mayan. I think I'll want to do some more research on this interesting site that unearthed no written records.
And that was just for the first morning in Chengdu.
Labels: Chengdu, panda bear, sanxingdui, Sichuan, 成都
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