The Chengdu Panda Sanctuary: A Magical Place, With Magical Creatures

Chengdu’s Panda Sanctuary

Guest post by Garry Lee: Although Garry Lee didn’t cycle in China, he did visit Chengdu, a city where we spent quite a few days in a backpackers hostel. We will always have fond memories of Chengdu and the hostel staff who took great care of us. Read on to hear all about Garry Lee’s experience at the Chengdu Panda Sanctuary.

I’ve been to some amazing places around the world, but In June 2010, my wife and I were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks touring around China, visiting some of the most iconic places on earth, taking in a totally different culture and ultimately met the most adorable little creature of our lives (sorry kids!)

Our visit to Chengdu came 10 days into our travels. Having started in commercial Shanghai, seen an old world in Xintiandi, then taken on everything Beijing had to offer, we then had a genuine life experience at the Great Wall, before visiting Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors. Then it was finally off to Chengdu and the biggest reasons behind our entire trip, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding Centre – undoubtedly THE Giant Panda sanctuary.

A little bit about Chengdu

Before we talk about our visit to the sanctuary, let me give a little space to the rest of our time in Chengdu, however brief. We were only there for 1 day and 1 night, with the purpose of the stopover very clear and after we landed our tour guide told us that Chengdu was a relatively small city (maybe because 3 days before we were in Beijing) – it might be ‘relatively’ small to this Chinese guide, but I still consider 10M people pretty large, bigger than the current population of London for example.

We took in the local markets, which were like most in China, are always a treasure, vibrant and full of noise. Preferring to avoid the generic places to eat or drink, we actually had a few beers at the local youth hostel (despite staying in a hotel!) because we found the atmosphere more relaxing, with most of the conversation with the couple we were travelling with all about the day we’d had at the sanctuary. Chengdu does have some beautiful parks, we managed to visit one early the next morning before leaving. It’s always enjoyable when you find peace in the middle of such a populated city.

Food in Chengdu

Outside of the Pandas, the most notable part of this leg of the trip was the food. I’m a Vegetarian and so was the wife of the couple we were with. Because of the somewhat ‘organised’ nature of the trip, we had struggled to get much variety or frankly flavour to our food, at least the vegetarian food. For about a year after visiting China, I didn’t eat Pak Choi, because every day for 2 weeks I was eating nothing but soy covered Pak Choi, Tofu and rice.

However, Chengdu is in the Sichuan region of China, which meant one thing – hot sauces and FLAVOUR. I could not have been happier, because the food was served tapas-style, lots of different vegetables, tofu, bean curd, rice and noodles – but with sauces for you to choose from and make up your own plates. Absolute heaven for me. I’ve been a confirmed Sichuan addict ever since.

The Chengdu Panda Sanctuary

But back to the sanctuary. Firstly, massive praise to the organisation and purpose behind it. Its goal is to protect this glorious animal, allow people to see and understand them, whilst raising vital funds towards their preservation. I believe the park has continued to evolve and looks even more amazing, but even when we went, some 10+ years ago, it was a great tour. Whilst ultimately you want to see the Giant Panda’s, the Red Panda’s were gorgeous and I’m really pleased we went to see them first, almost like we were building up to the great treat at the end.

The museum is informative, not too big, with some great toilets (hey, that’s not something we could always claim on this trip) and most importantly, a chance to understand why you were here, what you were contributing towards, because despite the good work of the sanctuary, at the time everything was not safe for the Pandas. Pleasingly the funding has continued to improve, but the work of the volunteers at the sanctuary is vital to the preservation.

Giant Pandas at the Chengdu Panda Sanctuary

The Giant Pandas themselves were incredibly active (that is a relative term, Pandas don’t exactly charge around the place) so many were out and interacting with each other and eating, boy do they like to eat. Many had warned us that we might not see much and they won’t be doing anything but that wasn’t our experience. I believe its important to go early, mainly because they are more active then (they sleep A LOT later on) but also because you get more of the day.

Because of the amazing vegetation and landscaping of the park, it really is like taking a lovely walk with this incredible treat of continually seeing Pandas amongst the views! We would walk around a corner, marvel at the lovely tree-lined view and then point out a couple of Pandas having breakfast!

Baby Pandas

Towards the end of our time at the sanctuary came the absolute highlight of the entire China trip (yes, even beats the Great Wall), getting to hold and feed a baby Panda. Let me be clear, I didn’t get to do this, the more attractive person in the photo above got to do that.

At the time we could really only afford for one of us to go in and when we were given the option the night before, I immediately insisted my wife do it, she had been dreaming about visiting the Pandas for years. I’m so glad I did. The smile you see in the photo below took several days to disappear. A few days later we flew to Hong Kong for a couple of days to see some friends, I swear for 90% of that visit she talked about nothing else!

 

I wasn’t allowed into the area where my wife held the baby and the photos were taken, they are so restrictive about how many people can enter (which is absolutely right, the Panda protection is the priority) so I handed my camera over to the people running the area and they took some incredible photos. The photos you see below have been blown up and sit proudly on the wall in the entrance to our house, it’s one of the first things anyone comments on when they come to see us. As I didn’t enter, the following description comes directly from my wife, who loves recalling this day and that smile immediately returns!

Final thoughts on the Chengdu Panda Sanctuary

“The number one thing you realise as you enter the area is that the Pandas are the only thing that matter. Everything is geared to ensuring they are comfortable and you are literally treated as the hired help, there to do as you are told. This made me so happy because after dreaming of this moment for so long, I was worried that anything I did would harm these amazing animals. It was a privilege for me to see them, so it was my job to work around them.

Two words stand out for me, Honey and Heavy. Honey is used to keep the babies happy and distracted (yes, pooh bear is right, bears love honey), that’s why in so many of the photos you see them with their paws over their mouths – licking off honey. And boy are they heavy. This was just a baby, I dread to imagine how heavy mummy was. By the end of the photos, I very much had a dead leg.

I can honestly say, nothing has lived up to and exceeded what I expected compared to this moment. They are genuinely the most adorable, cute, soft, cuddly, amazing creatures in the world. If you get the chance, you really should go”

Well I cannot really add to that, it was the perfect way to end our day and whilst we did have a few more days on our tour (Li River cruise and Hong Kong), I’m so pleased we did Chengdu towards the end of our trip because it helped finish an amazing 2 weeks and if we had done it at the start, I suspect everything else would have struggled to live up to it!

Post written by: Zoe Ashbridge