It's Panda Day!

The main reason for coming to Chong Quin was to see the Giant Pandas which are bred in the zoo here.  

Chong Quin - the largest city in China with 34 million people

With our luggage outside our doors by 7.30am and a quick breakfast we were back on the coach. Our local guide had asked for an earlier start as the unusual hot weather meant that the pandas would be more inclined to sleep and Ken wanted us to see them awake and eating their bamboo. So it was an early trip to the Zoo.  

The zoo in Chong Quin is the main breeding zoo in China for Pandas.  They have 12 adults there – all in separate enclosures as they are not social creatures. It was a real joy to watch these special creatures and brought back memories of Richard and his childhood love of his toy panda.  Most of them were just sitting on raised platforms skinning the outer husk of the bamboo before eating the juicer middle part. All of the enclosures were of a good size and conditions looked good but we had decided not to explore the zoo in its entirety so the only other animals we saw were the Red Pandas which were also charming.

The rest of the day was spent exploring Chong Quin. It is the largest city in China holding 33 million people. These numbers are incomprehensible – half of the UK population in one mega city. Similar to Xi’an there were multiple high rise blocks under construction but the feel of Chong Quin was much more industrial.  We were taken up to one of hill tops to visit Eling Park. This park afforded tremendous views of the river and the city scape. Although it was around 30C it was cooler under the trees and we could see the Chinese locals enjoying the park with their picnics, We also met groups that were dancing and singing together and met a Chinese man who was making calligraphy pictures.  He was so quick creating interesting pictures in around 1 minute – many of our group bought from him.

There was also a pagoda within the park that we were advised not to climb but that did not stop Mike joining Charlotte and Mike from climbing up to get even higher views of the city.

From here we went to lunch.  The hot pot that is the local delicacy was cancelled due to time constraints and we had rather a mediocre meal in the science museum. Mike was quite disappointed as he had wanted to try the hot pot.  Chong Quin is known for its spicy schezuan food but we were not given an opportunity to try this. There seems to a misunderstanding with Chinese guides that westerners do not like spicy food but many of our group would have liked to try and to be fair were getting a little tired of bland Chinese meals.

After lunch and with temperatures rising we went to an ancient guildhall. Similar to other parts of China many of the old buildings were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution so any that are left are now well preserved. This was a wonderful wooden structure and it is so interesting to see and hear about all the symbolic elements like the chained dragon on the roof.

Following this visit we were given 40 minutes to explore another Chinese market.  It was full of spices: red chillies and peppers of all colours along with the now familiar but still very unappetising assortment of fried chicken feet, fried squid, rabbits heads (or so we were told but looked like rats heads to me). The chinese really do eat everything and every part of everything.  It was very hot now and I was a pleasure to get back to the air conditioned coach which then took us down to the port to our ship for the Yangtze cruise.

Rosa and Helen at the safety drill

Our cabin

Our ship was called Anna and was part of the Victoria cruises company.  It was a modern ship and we were offered a discounted upgrade to an executive suite which we took advantage of so we had a very lovely cabin for our three nights of the ship. We had a meal on board the boat before it ‘set sail’ at 9pm. We drifted off to sleep to the gentle throb of the engines.