great firewall of China part 16: Kung Fu Panda

9/25 Visited the Chengdu panda breeding center. I had wanted to go
to Wolong Nature center where the pandas were in more of a wild
setting, but it had been mostly destroyed by the earthquake, so most
pandas had been moved to the chengdu breeding center. We went early
in the morning on a cold and drizzly day (think seattle weather in the
winter). This was actually good for seeing pandas bc it meant that
they were out and about in their pens as opposed to hiding in the air
conditioned rooms. The temp had dropped from 90 degrees to 60 degrees
since the last time I had been there. We of course saw lots of the
cute guys sleeping, eating bamboo, and walking around. We also saw
some newly born pandas and some 2 or 3 month year olds in the nursery.
We visited the museum and saw a film on them and unfortunately I
would say there is little hope for the giant panda to persist in the
wild. Their habitat has become so fragmented and they are one of the
least reproductively sucessful mammals, so combine major habitat loss
and fragmentation and the inbreeding it causes to poor reproduction
and things don't look good. But it looks like they will at least keep
them alive in zoos and breeding centers.
At the museum they had a big picture of Bill Clinton holding a Panda.
They seem to mention at all the places i have been to if one of the US
presidents has been there. Actually saw an article in the (year old)
paper before Obama's visit that showed where the US president's that
had visited ended up going. Most didn't leave Beijing and the great
wall, but old Clinton appeared to have done quite the tour. In the
minivan that Lukas, me and crew took to the great wall, the driver had
something advertising the Mutianyu section of the wall. It had
several pictures of what you could see: the great wall in the summer,
the great wall in the winter, the views, the renovation, and the cable
car. The last big picture was one of Clinton smiling from the cable
car. I asked the driver that if I paid to go there would I see Bill
in my cable car. "Yes" he assured me. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I take
you now?" I believe it was probably a good thing I didn't go bc I
would have been disappointed.

But it was nice to walk around and see the cute little pandas lounging
around like Pandas do. (Po in Kung Fu panda is accurately
represented). I have a special interest in Pandas because my teddy
"bear" when I was growing up was a Panda. Either my parents lack
considerably in their zoological knowledge or they have an ironic
sense of humour, but both my brother and my teddy bears were not bears
at all: A Giant Panda and Koala. At the end of the trip to the
breeding center, you can pay 150 bucks to hold a panda. It was
tempting, but way to expensive. My parents had chosen to give my
brother the "bear" that was much cheaper to hold--the photo and
holding of the koala in Australia was 35 dollars!

Back in Chengdu, I explored the city a bit including it's big new
square and giant Mao Statue. I looked for a Catholic Church to go to
mass. Had a bit of trouble. Finally tracked some down, but one was
closed. Amazingly the next one not only had a perfectly timed
Saturday evening mass, but it was in English. I met 2 nice law
student gals there that wanted to practice english, so they took me
through the people's park and then treated me to a tea shop, which are
famous in Chengdu, for their help in practicing english. That night I
had some amazingly amazing tasty street bbq. When I was going back
for round two I met some more students wanting to practice english and
ever so impressed that I was not at a western restaurant or hostel but
eating street food. After we had talked for a while they left, and
when I went up to pay, I found out they had already paid for me.

9/26 A day of shopping and stocking up in Chengdu as it would likely
be one of the last places with big western style supermarkets and
such. Bought a new watch as my band had broken. Got some listerine
not only for the teeth but to try and stop a foot fungus. Got some
centrum a-z for the treks in nepal where nutrition could be lacking
but physical exertion definitely not. Tried to find some baking soda
to use as a cure for smelly shoes... the problem of having
non-breathable gore-tex in a hot and humid climate, though I will
appreciate them when i'm in the snow and cold of the himalaya. I had
some english speaking chinese write down in chinese what baking soda
was. Apparently they were thinking of something different bc what the
lady at the supermarket showed me was yeast...think that maybe would
have made my shoes even more stinky. My favorite part of the
supermarket was the MSG aisle.

I also explored a bit more of chengdu and went to the Tibetan section
and a bit along the river.