My alarm went off at 6.45am today to get up and ready and in reception for 7.30am for breakfast and to go to the Giant Panda Breeding and Research base! Our tour guide met us and we (and 12 other people) all climbed in a mini bus which was to take us as it was a 30 minute drive away. It cost 90 RMB (£9) to get taken to the Pandas, entry fee, tour guide and taken back to the hostel, bargain!
When we arrived at the Giant Panda Research base at 8.30am we went to see the adult giant pandas first and they were so close, literally 2 metres away with a moat in between us, eating bamboo. Our tour guide was giving us snippets of information throughout and kept referring to the pandas as a National treasure. We then went to see the red pandas which were right next to the moat again eating bamboo, but were a bit more active, climbing trees and running around the enclosure. Next was the moonlight nursery where the baby pandas that were born in August were, there were four in a playpen all asleep but so small and fluffy, they were adorable! Next we saw more adult pandas and then it was the bit I have been looking forward to for so long! The sunshine nursery to hold a baby panda! You had to pay at the ticket office and put on blue covers other your shoes and plastic gloves, only then were you allowed into a room with the panda (Matt was going to come and take photos but you are not allowed into the room without purchasing a ticket) When I got into the room there was a panda sat on a bench that looked far too big to be able to pick up and hold, when I asked I was told that you don’t hold the panda, you sit next to it and stroke it. I felt quite cheated as I had just paid at the ticket office to hold a baby panda and had been looking forward to it for so long but could only sit next to a panda, it was really disappointing. One person took photos with my camera and another took a video with Matt’s camera while I stroked a panda. It was really soft and the keeper kept giving it bamboo dipped in honey to keep it’s attention, it really was so cute. After a few minutes it was someone else’s turn and I left to find Matt, it really was an anticlimax after I had been looking forward to holding a baby panda for so long. We went round the sunshine nursery enclosure of pandas aged 1-2 years old and saw the tour guide who told me that a guy who was on the last tour got clawed by the Giant panda when he had his photo with it! Great! I wish he had told me that before I had gone in!
At 10.30am we went to a cafe to see a short 15 minute film about the pandas and then to the panda museum near the exit. We bought a few souvenirs and then it was back to the mini bus at 11.30am to go back to the hostel and for lunch. We timed it just right as during the walk to the mini bus it started to rain. The rest of the day was a bit of a miserable day but when we got back from lunch we booked to go to a Sichuan opera that evening in a tea room. Now I am not a fan of the opera and wouldn’t of even considered going if I was back home, but my new “when in China” attitude took over and when Matt mentioned that he would like to go I found myself agreeing and the next thing I know we had booked for that evening.
The hostel were having a BBQ in the garden at 6.30pm and we had to be at reception at 7.15pm for the opera so we ate at the hostel and then were taken to the opera in a tea room 20 minutes away from the hostel. When we got there, there was a huge impressive building that said opera house on a main street of old style buildings which we both looked at and said wow! We parked across the road from it and then the driver started walking in the opposite direction through a small garden to a tea room. Once we walked through the gateway we realised that it was a courtyard surrounded by small rooms selling art, antiques and traditional Chinese dress, all covered by a metal roof, like an open air theatre covered by a rather large gazebo! We were on the third row just off the centre and had a pretty good view. We got free tea (which neither of us touched) and a basket of peanuts and there were large coats that you could wear for free if you got too cold.
The opera itself started at 8pm and within the first 5 minutes I realised that I had made a huge mistake, it was horrendously bad, just a woman warbling away in Chinese so I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Luckily each act only lasted about 10 minutes each. The next act was a band of weird Chinese traditional instruments, then we were told that the next act was Romeo and Juliet in China but I think that it was translated wrong as it was just a man on the stage playing an instrument while prancing about and as far as I can remember Romeo and Juliet involved two people and it didn’t end happily ever after as this performer portrayed.
Just as I was contemplating making my exit there was a shadow puppet act, a man came on and did shadow animals onto a screen which was actually quite fascinating how he made the animals so realistic. Just as I was beginning to think that the evening could turn out quite well, the next act brought my optimism crashing down! It was a man playing a traditional Chinese trumpet apparently, but oh my god the noise was horrible! Then the next act was a man with a puppet making it dance, I have a low opinion of these kind of acts anyway as I think a grown man playing with puppets has far too much spare time on his hands and needs to get out more. The following act was a bit better, although if we hadn’t of been told at the start that it was about a man who had been caught gambling and his wife was punishing him, we wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on (although it was all in Chinese so we didn’t really know what was being said anyway, but could loosely follow the story line). Finally was the bit that we had been looking forward to, the fire spitters and “Changing faces and costumes” there were a few performers in traditional Chinese dress with fans and they would change outfits and masks as if by magic, without anything passing in front of their faces, it was incredible to watch. That was the Sichuan Opera finale and as it was 9.30pm, it was time to go back to the hostel and to bed!
More pics! :http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628135015120/
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