Apr 2009

Leaving Xi'an, we again took the overnight train to our next destination: Chengdu. With the combined purposes of broadening our train travelling experiences and alleviating our budget, we decided to take a hard sleeper class bed to Chengdu rather than the soft sleeper class bed. From this we added more weight to our theory that one in six people snore and that this class of ticket should be renamed 'concrete-class' as, like we've found with the rest of China, the beds were as hard as concrete.

Further to, or as a result of Bec's enormous childhood collection of bears, we arrived in Chengdu with the sole purpose of seeing some panda bears. Again, we wasted no time in getting ourselves on a bus and out to the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Station just outside of Chengdu. We took a day trip from our guesthouse which got us there before the tour bus hoards arrived and we spent a blissful hour watching the gorgeous and comical pandas go about their morning feeding activities.

The poorer cousin to the black and white Giant Panda is the Red Panda. More like a fox or a cat, the Red Panda is not believed to be as endangered as its Giant Panda cousins, or as photogenic. A photo with a Giant Panda costs 1000 yuan (about AUD$250), while a photo with a Red Panda costs 100 yuan (about AUD$25). Alternatively, have your pic taken for free with the cardboard cut-out in front of the Red Panda enclosure!! Many of the Giant Pandas are sponsored by individuals and corporations. Most of them are named things like ZuZu or Ring Rong, except for the pair sponsored by Microsoft who are named Microsoft and Unlimited Potential. How much can a panda bear?

A whole new yardstick by which cruel names are measured..................

The Red Panda

As close as Bec could get

Chengdu has other charms and we spent a week there just hanging around and enjoying the warmer weather. We sent another box of purchases home and did a bit more market shopping and temple-seeing.

Glenn went mountain bike riding through the peach blossom trees on the outskirts of town with an Irish guy he met on a riding forum.

Riding through the peach blossom fields

We took a day trip out to Leshan to check out the Giant Buddha, supposedly the world's largest seated Buddha. He was quite spectacular, though making our way through the crowds down the mountainside staircase made us glad we weren't travelling in summer.

Leshan Giant Buddha

One thing we didn't do a lot of in Chengdu was eat. Sichuan food is incredibly hot and even though we thought we'd broken ourselves in in terms of spicy food, Chengdu was mega spicy and we found ourselves eating boring old fried rice or nothing at all!!

We're constantly amazed by the many modes of transport in China. The streets of Chengdu are one huge loading bay and it's not uncommon to see a man pushing two fridges up the road on his bike.

Chinese transport

We took another overnight sleeper train (again, better than some of the places we've stayed in) from Beijing to Xi'an and wasted no time in getting ourselves out to see the Terracotta Army. After the usual enforced lunch stop, we arrived at the site of the Terracotta Army which until 35 years ago was farmland. The story goes that the landowner and his men were digging a well when they discovered a large terracotta head which lead to the continuing excavation of what is so far more than 1000 life-size warriors. The landowner was paid 10 yuan for his land back in the 70s and he now spends his days sitting behind a sign that says 'No Photo' at the tourist information centre. Despite all this, we found the Terracotta Army experience to be a little....... underwhelming. Housed in huge sheds covering three massive dig pits, the army is in various stages of cracked and shattered excavated disarray. Give it another 35 years of excavation and rehab, the army will be truly spectacular. One of us, who shall hereby remain nameless (but not the one who thought that all wheat grew to shoulder height), was pleasantly surprised to find that the warriors were actually life-size rather than knee-height.

Terracotta Army

At the big pit

Looking over the big pit

"Sod this. I've been standing here for thousands of years. Wake me up when something happens."

Adding the final touches to some clay lookalike warriors

We bought a couple of imposing, knee-height warriors to guard our front door on the assurance of our salesman that they were metal rather than clay.

Xi'an's old city is contained within its historical wall and we spent a day walking the 14km along the top of the city wall. It took 5 hours or so to walk but we enjoyed a new perspective on the city from ten metres above the hustle and bustle of the city.

Atop Xi'an's city wall

Xi'an's Big Goose Pagoda was lovely by night and set a nice scene for the city's sound, water and light show.

Big Goose Pagoda by night

The Belltower was also nice, though somewhat disappointing in its lack of sizeable bell.

Not the original bell tower bell