Sunday, January 24. Up at 7 because a full day ahead. Shower, dress, breakfast. Have the not-so-full English breakfast again and manage to get fruit substituted for the baked beans and fried potatoes! don't eat the bacon because not crispy. yuk. nothing i dislike more than limp bacon. It is raining a little this morning so I borrow an umbrella from the hostel (deposit 30 yuan) - then it turns out that I never even open it up!
Meet Oliver and driver at 9 and we head for the Panda Breeding and Research Base. See lots of pandas eating bamboo and even some cute year-old pandas having bowls of milk. See innumerable photos and video clips. Factoids: about 1700 pandas in total, 1400 in the wild. they live 20-25 years in captivity, about 18-20 in the wild. Pandas do not hibernate, they are adapted for cool climate, not for hot weather.
Back into car for 45 minute drive to SanXingDui, an important archeology site. On the way there, the sun actually starts to break through the clouds.
Thought along the way: Sometimes it seems that all of China is under construction.
SanXingDui. The things in the museum are amazing and unlike anything else I've seen in China. Unfortunately, I can't take photos because my memory card filled up as soon as we arrived here. So I content myself with buying a small book and some postcards. But the huge bronze masks, the money tree, the sun trees (with nine birds on three levels) are simply amazing. More on this later. Museum is designed well; the chinese seem to know how to do museums.
We have lunch at the restaurant behind the museum - clearly a place designed for tourists and tour groups. Sweet and sour pork, cabbage, gung bao chicken. It's OK. I am able to pay with my bank card, which is nice. Leave at about 1:30 p.m.
Drive to DuJiangYan, site of the two-thousand year old irrigation system designed by Li Bing. A genius if ever there was one. It's amazing to think of what he accomplished so long ago and with only hand-labor. At the entrance, i buy another memory card (highway robbery!) but I definitely want to have photos of this. More on this later.
Back to hotel by about 6 p.m. have banana and nutriexpress for dinner. at 7:15 leave for opera performance.
ShuFeng Ya Yun Theatre. This is more of a variety show than an opera but apparently this is what goes on in Chengdu. There are snippets from Sichuan opera, solos on traditional instruments (one is the two-stringed one and the other is sort of a cross between a recorder and a trumpet - wooden body with holes with a metal bell and mouthpiece. Then there is an act with a large wooden puppet, a comedy act (which fortunately has a fair amount of physical comedy because I can't understand the words), a woman doing hand shadows, and then of course the mask changing (which i must admit is pretty incredible). Back to hostel around 10 p.m.
Breakfast 34 yuan
Book and postcards 88 yuan
Lunch 80 yuan
Oranges 3 yuan
Memory Card 280 yuan
Meet Oliver and driver at 9 and we head for the Panda Breeding and Research Base. See lots of pandas eating bamboo and even some cute year-old pandas having bowls of milk. See innumerable photos and video clips. Factoids: about 1700 pandas in total, 1400 in the wild. they live 20-25 years in captivity, about 18-20 in the wild. Pandas do not hibernate, they are adapted for cool climate, not for hot weather.
Back into car for 45 minute drive to SanXingDui, an important archeology site. On the way there, the sun actually starts to break through the clouds.
Thought along the way: Sometimes it seems that all of China is under construction.
SanXingDui. The things in the museum are amazing and unlike anything else I've seen in China. Unfortunately, I can't take photos because my memory card filled up as soon as we arrived here. So I content myself with buying a small book and some postcards. But the huge bronze masks, the money tree, the sun trees (with nine birds on three levels) are simply amazing. More on this later. Museum is designed well; the chinese seem to know how to do museums.
We have lunch at the restaurant behind the museum - clearly a place designed for tourists and tour groups. Sweet and sour pork, cabbage, gung bao chicken. It's OK. I am able to pay with my bank card, which is nice. Leave at about 1:30 p.m.
Drive to DuJiangYan, site of the two-thousand year old irrigation system designed by Li Bing. A genius if ever there was one. It's amazing to think of what he accomplished so long ago and with only hand-labor. At the entrance, i buy another memory card (highway robbery!) but I definitely want to have photos of this. More on this later.
Back to hotel by about 6 p.m. have banana and nutriexpress for dinner. at 7:15 leave for opera performance.
ShuFeng Ya Yun Theatre. This is more of a variety show than an opera but apparently this is what goes on in Chengdu. There are snippets from Sichuan opera, solos on traditional instruments (one is the two-stringed one and the other is sort of a cross between a recorder and a trumpet - wooden body with holes with a metal bell and mouthpiece. Then there is an act with a large wooden puppet, a comedy act (which fortunately has a fair amount of physical comedy because I can't understand the words), a woman doing hand shadows, and then of course the mask changing (which i must admit is pretty incredible). Back to hostel around 10 p.m.
Breakfast 34 yuan
Book and postcards 88 yuan
Lunch 80 yuan
Oranges 3 yuan
Memory Card 280 yuan
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