Ohhh! Ahhh! Cute panda bears (Sichuan adventure part 1)

Last Friday was a public holiday (tomb sweeping day, something similar to the German "Allerheiligen") so Claudia and me hit the road again. This time to Chengdu in Sichuan which is famous for spicy food as well as for the national animal of the Chinese - the Giant Panda.

The journey was self organised again which is possible due to our in the meantime luckily good basic Chinese. On the first day we visited the Panda Breeding Station in Chengdu. Pandas (giant panda 大熊猫 da xiong mao - literally translated "big bear cat" are really cute animals and they are vegetarians.

"Giant Pandas are easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Giant Pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shanxi. They are an endangered species."

Many "ohhh"s and "ahhh"s later we had seen many pandas - not only giant pandas, but also red pandas (which look a little bit like badgers - "Dachs"). And the luck was with us again - just as we had finished looking at the cute little panda youngsters we noticed that food was being delivered to them and staid. During the day, pandas often just relax, but when it's food time they are very active. The youngsters even got milk to drink. They stood up on their feet to reach the milk bottles and as soon as they had them they fell backwards on the grass again where they drank it in a relaxed lying position. What a fun to watch the panda youngsters drop in a row! They pandas also tried to steal foot from each other - one semi-adult panda used his hands to hold them in front of another panda's eyes so he couldn't see anymore and at the same time stole his piece of bamboo.

At night we visited a Sichuan Opera show. This is famous for face changing:

"Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music. Their faces are vividly colored, for they are wearing masks. However, within a fraction of a second, their masks' change — revealing completely new and vibrant visages." We didnt't manage to reveal the secret of how they change the masks but along with acrobatics, shadow images show,Chinese music and much more we really enjoyed the show.
I'm going to tell you tomorrow about our adventure during the other three days...