Panda-monium!

This morning we headed out bright and early, hoping to miss the heavy Chengdu traffic. I think Cici miscalculated though, as we ended up right in the thick of it. I don't think I've yet gone into detail about how petrifying traffic in China is – the stinkin' Lincoln would not do well. If you're a pedestrian trying to cross the street, the cars will pay you no mind, even if you dutifully wait for the green man to tell you to cross. I would say that this leads me to believe that pedestrians don't have the right of way, but that would imply that there's some logic to how traffic works around here. Lights seem to be mere suggestions, and I'm not sure why blinkers are even put on the cars. It seems that they like to weave through lanes just to see if they can fit, and if they can't they just blare their horn until someone moves. If you lose in a battle for a lane, no worries! Just hover between lanes, or even onto the other side of the road! The sidewalk is sometimes also fair game. The most important thing to remember is that you're always right, so definitely lean on your horn as heavily as possible when someone else is doing something that is preventing you from doing what you want, regardless of if law dictates it is you who should be changing your behavior. The best part is the fact that there are no seatbelts in taxis and no helmets on bikes or mopeds. Small children casually hold onto their parents as they weave through all of this nonsense, and yet, it all somehow all works. Although I watched a car drive over an arrow pointing in the opposite direction and was in a taxi that lost a lane battle to a bus, we've somehow made it out alive and well. This morning was no exception, and so we soon found ourselves at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

The research base is a big park full of giant pandas, red pandas, and peacocks (not sure how they fit in, but there were a lot of them) of all ages and sizes. Although pandas are incredibly lazy (they love eating and sleeping, but let's be real – who doesn't?), incredibly high maintenance to keep alive and happy, and some people don't like them, they're totally adorable and I loved getting up close to them. I have some great eating videos and a couple of solid pictures. This was the first place that was mostly full of foreign tourists (as opposed to tourists from other parts of China as was the case in Beijing), which sort of surprised me because I feel like if one was to go to China, one would more likely go to a city like Beijing, but I suppose pandas draw a big crowd.

[Anne, if you're reading this, please be aware that given the internet capability I would insert a picture of pandas so adorable that you would reconsider your position.]

After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all sorts of pandas putting bamboo on themselves so they didn't even have to move while they ate, we moved on to the red pandas. These little guys were cute too, but I feel like they lead lives parallel to celebrity siblings – whenever people meet you they're constantly comparing and you probably come up a little short.

[Imagine yourself trying not to compare the red pandas to the giant pandas…and failing.]

We hovered around the red pandas for a bit to boost up their confidence and then moved on to watch the informational video about the purpose of the base. Luckily, we stepped in right in time to learn all about the different methods of semen collection used when male pandas can't find the right lady panda for them. We also learned about how sometimes mama pandas accidentally hurt or kill their young when they're born because they don't know what it is. It seems a bit illogical that an animal so lazy, incompetent, and picky has been able to survive for 8 million years and wonder why we're helping them, but then I review my adorable pictures, and remember.

We left the base to continue our adventure, heading to Kuan Zhai Lane. Cici explained to us how the street is hundreds of years old, and until about our grandparents' generation was purely residential, but the government bought the majority of it to preserve it and commercialize it. There were three families who refused to move out who still live there today. I would have, too, if I were them because it was a really cool area! There were all sorts of artisans set up along the sides of the street making various crafts and foods. Cici bought us some spring rolls to try that were covered in a spicy sauce. Chengdu is in the Sichuan province of China, which is known for its spicy food. It was delicious!

 

We then stumbled upon and old man who I thought was making crafts out of glass, but it turned out he was making beautiful lollypops out of sugar! Obviously, we had to partake. There was a wheel you have to spin to see which shape or animal you get. The first time I spun, I was hovering between a peach and a chicken – Cici tells me that the chicken is the best one but was unable to tell me why. The old man had me spin again and I landed on a mouse, so right before my eyes, he made me a mouse lollypop. It was so intricate! Lauren spun and landed on a peach as well, but I think the old man thought they were boring because he decided to make her a bird instead. I got some of it on tape. It was incredible to watch, and very sugary to lick.

[Lauren's lollypop is prettier than mine but mine has more character because I actually landed on it.]

We walked around for awhile, looking into various stores and stands, and then Cici led us to a restaurant for lunch. She told us we would each get 13 "snacks" which ended up being little sample plates of all different foods. The most interesting dish was the lung (which was sort of rubbery but not bad), and the most tasty were the dan dan noodles which the region is famous for.

[I have a picture from when I thought all of the food was in front of us, but it turned out more was coming. This country is sending me mixed signals since the food never stops coming but the people are all stick thin.]

After wrapping up at Kuan Zhai, we moved again to Jinli Old Street. Jinli is similar to Kuan Zhai, except that Jinli is a replica of an old street which was built in 2004.  It was again filled with interesting shops, knick knacks and food. We enjoyed glasses of chrysanthemum tea (with the actual flowers in the glass as opposed to some sort of tea bag) at an actual tea house which was pretty cool. Cici also told us about how they sell rabbit head as a dish here and was trying to encourage us to try it. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that yet, but we have a couple of more days left in Chengdu so we'll see what happens…

Our tour for the day was officially done after Jinli but Cici had Mr. Joe drop us off in the downtown area of Chengdu and told us where to go to walk around for the afternoon instead of just dropping us off at the hotel because she's wonderful like that. We were overwhelmed by the first market we went into – it was similar to the pearl market in Beijing but much more crowded and less clean. We made our way over to the center of downtown and spent a solid hour looking for the baked goods shop Cici told us about (even though we weren't particularly hungry) – it ended up being right under our noses the whole time. It turned out she was referring to the bakery where she got us the cake from yesterday, but the floor it was on was full of delicious goodies. We settled on a Mr. Waffle, because what could be more appetizing than a waffle with ice cream on it? It turned out to be pretty good but a little weird as the ice cream tasted a bit salty? And a bit like butter? We didn't really question it, but I probably will refrain from further Mr. Waffles in the future.

We headed back to the hotel where I was hoping to go to the gym (as a result of the aforementioned Mr. Waffle.) We followed the signs to the gym on the 7^th floor only to end up at what seemed like a balcony and/or fire escape. We wondered if we had missed it but then clearly saw a sign pointed towards this balcony. We stepped outside and found ourselves at staircase with a giant picture of a woman working out at the top of them. As this was a promising sign, we climbed the stairs. We stepped into the "gym" to find a single treadmill, some free weights, and one machine. It was obviously deserted and we were definitely the only people to have ever come in here. I tried to turn on the treadmill only to realize it wasn't plugged in. I plugged it in and it still didn't work. Strugz. We decided to go see if we could find somewhere to get massages instead, since having someone work knots out of your muscles while you do nothing is pretty much the same thing as working out those muscles yourself, right? We ended up finding a place that did a 100 minute foot massage for 80 yuan (~13ish dollars), which is great, but I really don't like people touching my feet in general and didn't think I could take 100 minutes of it so I headed back to the hotel while Lauren indulged.

It's currently raining outside, and rain really deters me from moving, so I think we're going to watch a movie in the hotel or something. Maybe I'll even spend some time trying to figure out if the internet here is stable enough and fast enough to upload some pictures!