Feeling better after a good night’s sleep, we all managed to be up and at ’em by 7:30 the next morning. (It helped that the first item on the agenda was the Chengdu Giant Panda Research & Breeding Center.) Our hotel puts out quite a spread for breakfast, including fruit, vegetables, rice, noodles, and various pastries. They even had a sort of coffee! With the schedule we’re keeping on this trip, coffee is going to be a necessity. There was also an area that made all us Americans immediately think “omelette station”, but of course it wasn’t. It seemed like some kind of custom stir-fry station but there were some mysterious complexities so no one has been brave enough to try it yet.

As with Jinli Street, the panda preserve proved to be an extremely popular destination. The narrow pathways that ran along the panda enclosures were wall-to-wall people. (To be fair, since we are a group of around 75 people, we are definitely part of the problem.) On the positive side, there’s not much cuter

An impromptu performance. Mr. Ervin has been carrying around the guitar, and has told Zoe to start bringing the electric cello.

than a giant panda. We saw them sleeping, eating, climbing, and hanging out in trees. There was an indoor area where you could look through some glass to see young pandas, but it was so crowded that we eventually gave up attempting to make our way to the window. The center also had a red panda area. These are much smaller and look a little like a raccoon.

Today we began to feel the minor-celebrity status that we’d been told about prior to the trip. Members of our group were frequently approached by various Chinese people who wanted to take photos of us, or selfies with us. They were always smiling and friendly, and happy to have a chance to interact with us. It was lovely to be given such a warm welcome. (This extended to our group photos as well. Whenever we got all the kids together to pose for a group shot, they were invariably joined by random locals who excitedly handed their phones to their friends and jumped into the edges of the crowd.  You can see some of them in the photo at the bottom.) Some of the kids just loved the interaction, and will be coming home with phones full of their own international selfies.

After the pandas we were brought back to Chengdu University, our hosts for this leg of the trip, for lunch in their cafeteria. They set up a nice buffet for us, with lots of small bowls of different types of food that we could take as we pleased. This time they were even somewhat labeled, so we had a general idea of what we were eating. We found the university food very good and the variety available to be quite striking. I think they may have toned down the spices for us, because most of the food was fairly mild.

The base area of Mount Qincheng

Our afternoon adventure was Mount Quincheng, a unique and beautiful hiking experience. You can hike up the mountain along stairways and paved paths, which are lined with beautiful plants, shrines, and intricate pagodas. Along the path are seven elaborate and ancient Taoist temples.

We only had a few hours to spend here, so Mr. Ervin created a “fast group” who would go as quickly as possible to try to make it to the top. Zoe naturally joined the fast group, and I signed on as well. Unfortunately I proved to not really be fast group material. The endless flights of steps were an awkward height — too shallow to take one at a time, but very tiring to take double. At least, it was very tiring for me. Many other members of the fast group did not seem to have this problem.

The fast group takes off

Soon the fast group had splintered into an “actually fast” group, and a “wannabe fast” group. Zoe was in the former and I was in the latter. After a while the others I was with seemed to be reverting back to the slow group, so I went on ahead to try to catch up with the others at the top.

Unfortunately I never quite made it, because I realized that I didn’t actually know what time we were supposed to be back, or where we were meeting. (The start of our hike was a little chaotic, with the fast group zooming off up the mountain before the plan was clear.). Usually surrounded by crowds of kids, the one time I actually needed to consult with someone there was no one to be found. I was assuming that if the departure time was nearing I would meet up with the fast group on their way back down, but I started to panic a bit when I found a map that showed a different path down the mountain. At that point I figured caution dictated a quick descent so I didn’t get left behind on the mountain.
As it turned out, I had plenty of time and could have made it — and ironically, those behind me did. Also, a lot of people were in fact pretty late getting back. Zoe’s group made it to a place that they all feel was the top, but Zoe has consulted the map and privately feels that they didn’t actually get there either. It turns out there are a lot of branching paths and twists and turns, and maps are scarce so navigation is not as easy as you’d

Zoe gets pulled in for a selfie

think.

Eventually everyone did reappear and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was another enormous feast. All the tables here have an enormous lazy susan in the center that covers most of the table (to the point where you really have to watch where you put your plate and glass, lest it be launched off the table when someone moves the turntable). More and more dishes are continually brought out, until the whole thing is covered with dishes stacked a couple of layers deep. There is no way we could even make a dent in it, but we do our best. There is a constant flow of information as people try things and make attempts to guess what they are. We are encountering lots of unfamiliar ingredients, so we’re not very good at this — maybe our expertise will grow in the coming week.