The pandas are adorable, but China’s Sichuan Province has a lot more to offer as Liz Gill discovers
Adult giant pandas are solitary, languorous creatures, leisurely chomping on those bamboo shoots and given to sleeping up to 12 hours a day. So although it is undoubtedly a thrill to see them in the flesh they aren’t exactly putting on an action show.
The youngsters, however, are completely different. Two one year-olds (they can live together until they mature at five) are cavorting and scrambling and play fighting with gusto. In another enclosure babies only born this summer are gingerly learning how to climb a tree under the watchful eye of their keeper.
All this brings countless oohs and aahs from the watching crowds many of whom, including seniors, are wearing panda headbands. If we get too noisy though we are shushed by security: the animals do not like it.
We are at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the Chinese province of Sichuan to watch the great beasts and to learn more about them. Each black eye patch, for example, is unique and helps with recognition as well as sun protection. Their diet is bamboo, but they do eat different parts of the plant according to the season.
Newborns are pink and furless, around seven inches long and at three to five ounces around one thousandth of their mother’s weight. Their conception will have been somewhat against the odds given that it can only occur on about two days a year and both males and females are extremely picky about mates.
Chengdu City
The Centre is a must-see but Sichuan is now keen to stress it is ‘more than pandas’ so we follow our visit to them with one to a packed tea house in the middle of the city’s People’s Park, past a huge statue of Mao, where we watch a lithe young man ceremoniously pour tea from different heights and angles before we sample one of the dozen varieties on offer.
As we enter the park I am fascinated by displays of information about dozens of young men and women: age, weight, looks, occupation, even personality. They were pinned up, a Chinese member of our group explains, not by the would-be dates but by their parents, anxious that today’s generation are increasingly reluctant to settle down and provide them with grandchildren.
A Buddha and a dragon boat
In the afternoon we drive on to Leshan to see the 233 ft Giant Buddha carved into the hillside above the spot where three rivers meet. It was created in the 8th century to protect the community from the often-dangerous waters below. The river was smooth enough after dark though for us to take a half hour trip in the open dragon boat along the illuminated quayside as an accompanying vessel offered us dancing and singing entertainment.
It’s ‘opera’ -but not as we know it
The previous evening in Chengdu we had experienced Sichuan Opera which contrary to the title had hardly any singing. Instead, it was a riotous combination of circus, pantomime and variety show with tumbling, juggling (one young woman spun a table on her upside down feet), conjuring, banter with the audience, slapstick and dancing, all packed into one hour. The finale featured five traditionally costumed men who repeatedly changed their face masks behind the briefest flick of their fans, prompting gasps and wild applause.
A holy mountain and its temples
On another day we experience a completely different vibe when we drive up Mount Emei, one of the country’s four Holy Mountains to visit some of its ancient Buddhist temples. They are a feast for the senses with the chants of the monks, offerings of fruit and flowers, the splendour of the statues, some covered in real gold, others impressing by their sheer size including the largest ebony statue in the world with its thousands of hands and eyes, the lit candles and burning incense sticks. I follow the tradition of lighting two candles together and three sticks of incense covered with prayers and wishes.
In another I try out the tradition of picking one of the 500 Buddhas at random and then moving along them to count off my age. When I reach that, I note the number on its base and in return for 50p get a picture and text which a companion says is meant to help with contemplations. Certainly, such places which have absorbed the devotions of the pious for centuries amidst beautiful scenery and clear air. seem possessed of an enviable serenity.
At the last temple we have a delicious vegetarian lunch – we eat what the monks eat – before, perhaps incongruously, watching a demonstration of Kung Fu. Afterwards members of our group are invited to join in a few basic moves.
This is followed more appropriately by a gentle tea ceremony performed in perfect harmony by three young women who, we’re told, have spent six months learning the elegantly choreographed moves to offer green, jasmine and black teas.
Spectacular scenery in Jiuzhaigou
Our next couple of days bring something completely different again: visits to the massive, protected national park Scenic Areas in the north of the province. Our first, Jiuzhaigou, is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna plus forests, rivers, mountains and lakes, some like mirrors, others vibrant greens or blues, and the largest layered waterfall in Asia. All this beauty draws up to 40,000 visitors a day in the peak autumn season, many of them wearing traditional costumes hired for the occasion.
Part of you thinks such wilderness should be enjoyed alone or with a few friends but the upside to the crowds means everything is extremely well managed.
There are wide sturdy walkways constantly being swept clean, good signage, litter bins, fire extinguishers, information boards, toilets and ‘resting pavilions’ with vending machines.
Afterwards we stop off at small centre for Tibetan culture and art with sculptures, textiles, pieces of ‘celestial wood’ which naturally forms shapes like birds and animals and art including an enormous ‘sand picture’ of a heavenly palace which took four artists 20 days to create.
Hitting the heights in Huanglong
At 6,500 ft (2000m) Jiuzhaigou is quite high but it is the following day’s visit to Huanglong when a cable car will lift us to 11,722 ft (3573m) that will really test us. We have been given some fairly scary instructions about avoiding altitude sickness – walk slowly, stay calm, don’t panic, don’t carry anything heavy – backed up with stories of people collapsing as they stepped off the train and the fact that we have had sturdy volunteers to help put our baggage on the bus.
For the past three days we’ve been offered small phials of a herbal prevention and now we are issued with oxygen canisters. Spotting a clinic near the cable car station makes us even more nervous.
To my great relief, all goes well. I follow the instructions to the letter as I climb about half a mile, mainly steps, to the viewing points, comforted by seeing fellow walkers pausing regularly, sitting down, assisting each other and using oxygen. My legs feel maybe a bit feeble, but I don’t feel faint or breathless or dizzy. I know altitude sickness strikes capriciously but I do feel to have some bragging rights at not needing my supply of oxygen. And, of course, as I look out over the spectacle of dozens of pools with their extraordinary colours I’m glad I did not back out.
Back in the nearby ancient town of Songpan I take a few puffs in a spirit of scientific inquiry seemingly to no effect before wandering down the main street lined with shops offering a wonderful range of goods often under the same roof: clothes, jewellery, food, fur rugs, dried fungi.
Chengdu – old and new
Later we catch the bullet train back to Chengdu for an altogether different experience. For here among the eight lane highways – where almost every vehicle is electric – and high rises serving this bustling and booming ultra-modern city of 20 million are shops of every fashion designer label plus other totems of Western consumerism: McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC.
In the middle of the biggest shopping mall Tai Koo Li, however, is a Buddhist temple and near it a wall decorated with symbols for wealth, long life and good luck which have been touched so often part of the gilt has worn away.
And just as a final reminder of some of the contrasts we have experienced over the past few days I walk to the street which features a giant panda sculpture climbing up a shiny new tower block.
Tell me more about China’s Sichuan Province
More information on China’s Sichuan Province from the China National Tourist office.
Wendy Wu include Chengdu on their 9-day China tour In Pursuit of Pandas; from £2,840 pp including flights.
