Outside of Chengdu, is the ancient town of Dujiangyan. It is also home to one of the three panda bases here.
It was only a one hour drive outside of Chengdu and our tour guide, Sophia talked with us about trip we planned and even prepared a panda quiz to learn about pandas.
It is the only scientific research institution in China that focuses on preventing and
controlling panda disease and rescuing pandas from the wild. The black and white giant pandas have plenty of space for sleeping, chewing bamboo, climbing trees and wrestling with each other.
Our activities were to act as the caretakers to clean up the old bamboo and scoop poop to prepare the area for the morning food of bamboo.
We then broke up the long sticks of bamboo and placed the sticks and fronds of bamboo leaves for them.
The panda was in the inner enclosure at the time. They let her out for breakfast and we then cleaned the inside. In the end we also cleaned the bamboo prep area in the courtyard.
We were told by Sophia if we were not lazy in our duties we would have more opportunities to feed the pandas. We took a break and walked around to look at all the pandas and other animals in the park. Our park guide was named Jake and he answered our questions and talked about the different pandas. I took a lot of pictures but here are a few.
They also had red pandas and brown bears. The brown bears were rescued from a situation where they had been purchased but not taken care of.
Then it was time to feed the pandas a snack. They get a mid morning snack of apples, carrots, and panda cake made of rice and corn flour. This panda is Yoyo. She is very calm but we are still not to touch them. She loves carrots. Standing over a panda is threatening to them which is why we crouch down. It is also why in a panda enclosure their platform is higher than the people watching them.
We then took a break and walked around some more, then ate lunch in their canteen. They had great fish, noodles with a spicy Sichuan sauce, and bamboo shoots which I love. We were ahead of schedule as we are not lazy.
After lunch we watched a video explaining how the research centers learned about panda breeding and giving birth and their attempts to rewild pandas who demonstrated being able to live in naturally habitats.
We then made panda cake. The dough is shaped tightly to air dry for three hours. I made a heart, a mouse (it didn’t look like it) and a panda head.
We then we’re able to feed Yoyo her second snack. Today dignitaries were there so we waited until they were gone to give the snack. While we waited, we watched the young male have a snack of sugarcane.
Feeding Yoyo a second snack.
At the end we received a certificate of completion, some postcards, and a bag. We get to keep the shirt.
Afterwards we went to the irrigation canal which helped to stop flooding in the area and a build up of silt and sand that would destroy the town. This was created in the Qing dynasty and still used today. It is a marvel of engineering and physics.
Unfortunately, our health code had not updated to show test results to go in which is just as well as we were tired and have had little downtime in the last week. We headed to check into the hotel and rest before going to the pedestrian streets to look around. It is along one of the canals of the irrigation system.
The Dujiangyan Irrigation System is a clever utilization of the natural conditions. Built at the site where the Minjiang River’s trunk stream in the upper reaches flows out of the mountains and joins the Chengdu Plain, the System is able to control hundreds of canals with just one diversion passage.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/sichuan/chengdu/dujiangyan.htm
There were some pretty cool shops and street food and restaurants. We are in Sichuan, so the food even at mild is pretty spicy.
We were exhausted so went back to the hotel early to get a good night of sleep. Our code finally updated. This is good as seeing anything else and getting on an airplane depended upon the results being there. We actually tested a second time in case results from the airport did not show. At every airport here you test for free and now most provinces require 2 tests in 3 days and they must be 24 hours apart. If you don’t, they turn your code yellow until you do. That means you cannot go anywhere.