Chopsticks Only: Adventures in Chengdu and Xian 在成都和西安探险

Ya'an Bi Feng Xia Base for CCRCGP

My write-up on this trip is a very overdue, as I left for Chengdu on the 9th of May. I've been busier than usual since then, with my mother and sister coming to visit me in QD, exams, and getting ready to leave. However, this was the most memorable and my favourite experience of my year abroad in China. I was looking forward to this from the moment I touched down in the Middle Kingdom last August, and I finally got to complete my dream of hanging out with giant pandas.

My volunteer card, if you lose it theres a fee of 1000RMB

Me cleaning up an outdoor enclosure

Unfortunately, Szechuan had been hit by another Earthquake just a few weeks before we went. Tours to the panda reserves had stopped running. After some sassy research by Will, we were able to find an independent tour guide willing to drive us for over two hours out of Chengdu to reach the Bi Feng Xia base.

We set of at 6am from the Shangri-la (got a free room upgrade, our room had a living room and two bathrooms, ain't nobody got time for that), and I promptly fell asleep. I woke up an hour later, and found the cleanest, clearest air I've breathed in all year. There were Szechuan's snow capped mountains ripping into the sky at the horizon, but all else was flat, vast and green. We got back in the car, where I fell asleep again.

The Bi Feng Xia base itself is in Ya'an, in the mountains. So the last past of the journey was spent winding around slopes of bamboo forest. When we got to the base itself, we had to wait around for a while as our tour guide had to sort out our IDs and entrance. Following the earthquake, the base stopped letting tour groups and tourists enter, luckily volunteers were still allowed in. I'm glad I didn't have to explain my purpose there to an angry apparatchik. Especially after all the experience I have with Chinese offices, who seem to hold the personal mantra, 'make everything as bothersome and long as possible'. Anyway, after a bit of a wait, we got back in the car and drove a little further to the panda base.

We were greeted and taken to an office where we signed contracts with the panda base, nothing too rigorous, but essentially agreeing to be responsible and follow the instructions of the carers. It costs 700RMB a day to volunteer at the base, but there are more expensive options where you can play with the baby pandas in the panda kindergarten. Uniforms, gloves and lanyards were handed to us, and I'm still surprised they had a suit to fit Will.

Then the mucky work began. Luckily a panda's diet is so fibrous that their doppings are still basically bamboo. We cleaned an outside enclosure, a couple of indoor enclosures, prepared bamboo, and cleared up the compound (which was the compound for pregnant female pandas). As we were cleaning up one pen, a panda was sitting in the one next door. It nonchalantly watched us clean up its mess, as it sat leaning against the wall, belly out, munching on some bamboo.

I think our instructor gave us a lot of freedom because we could speak Chinese, which was great. Our instructor had been working there for 4 years, and his favourite was Gongzhu (Princess), a supermum of a panda. He then brought out two platters, one for Fengyi and one for Gongzhu. Pandas spend most of the day eating bamboo and bamboo roots, but the platters contained a special cake, carrots, and apples. Our instructor had trained the pandas to reach out and hold a metal bar when they wanted feeding. Fengyi was very obedient, and would take whatever you gave her calmly, finish eating it, then stick her arm out for more. But because the instructor liked Gongzhu he didn't enforce this rule on her too harshly. Gongzhu also had an obvious preference for sweet foods, after I placed a carrot in her mouth she reached up, withdrew it and tossed it on the floor. After breakfast our chores were over, so we explored the base for a couple of hours until we had to return to feed them lunch.

This is me feeding Fengyi, the 6 year old panda, her breakfast

Fengyi enjoying her cake

A young panda relaxing in the panda kindergarten.

Regrettably, we had to leave after we fed Fengyi and Gongzhu lunch because it was such a long drive back to Chengdu. However, we did meet some other volunteers (there weren't more than ten other volunteers in the entire base, it was so empty!) who were staying in Ya'an and came back to volunteer each day, of which I was very jealous. I don't think any zoo can really compare to the hands on experience I received at Bi Feng Xia. It was amazing how after such a short amount of time spent interacting with the pandas, you could still recognise out their individual personalities.

The next day, we only had a few hours to look around the city before flying off to Xian, which is a far too small amount of time to look around such a large, exciting and culturally rich city. From all the choice available, we chose to wonder around the People's Park (Renmin Park). Considering it is the main park in Chengdu, it was a lot smaller than I was expecting. And it was packed. Even the pedal boats (some had motors...) in the mini-lake had formed a traffic jam under a bridge. It was one of the nicest parks I've been too, especially in terms of things to do (tea houses, dancing, pedal boats, etc), but it was just too crowded. The most interesting part are the paths lined with advertisements for prospective marriage partners. It seems everyone there is a parent looking on behalf of their children.

Dating: Park Life Style. All the people, so many people, they all go hand in hand...

Then came Xian...

Whoo looking at the Terracotta Warriors! The most extensive guide I've found about visiting the Terracotta warriors can be found here: http://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/shaanxi-travel/xian-travel/how-to-visit-terracotta-army-in-xian/

Which can be summarised into:

Take bus 306 from Xian Railway Station, a ticket should cost 7yuan. I've heard that there are fake 306 buses and other tourist trap buses who drop you off at their mate's factories. When I got on the 306 I noticed that no one was shouting from the door trying to coerce people into boarding. So avoid anyone trying to push you onto their bus. The Terracotta Warriors are the last stop on the 306, don't get off at Huaqing Hotspring or Qinshihuang's Mausoleum (unless you're into that).
Once you reach the site, you will be approached by a number of English speaking Chinese tour guides. If you already know a bit about the Terracotta Warriors, don't bother.
There are student discounts available, halving the price of a ticket (150yuan for peak times of the year, 120yuan for other times).
Once you decide you have had enough of the Warriors, you have a very long walk through endless shopping streets and complexes back to the bus stop. The guide warns that toilets in the shopping area are not free, so if you need the bathroom, be sure to go while you are still in the museum site.
The best tip from the guide is probably 'don't expect too much'. Which is sad, but true. With the huge numbers of tourists, you are corralled around the pits. You can get a feel for the vastness of Qinshihuang's project, but you don't get the intimacy with the warriors that comes with watching a documentary.

In another news, Xian was very, very hot and very, very dry.

In peace nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility, but when the blast of war blows in our ears...

....disguise fair nature with hard favoured rage.

...then imitate the action of the tiger, stiffen the sinews...

Day two in Xian, Will and I met up with Alice and Leo to cycle several kilometres round the old city wall. After completing the circuit in record time and not dying on a tandem with Will, we head to the Muslim quarter, which was essentially just a long market street.