Sep 2007

Before we came here, we referred to JiuzhaiGou affectionately as JG, as none of us had any idea how to say it properly! JG was another Martin request for our China itinerary, and – once again – we were extremely grateful that he had suggested the detour. Still in Sichuan province, JG is a World Heritage site more than 400 kilometers north of Chengdu. To get there, we were expecting to have to take a fourteen hour bus-ride, so we were relieved to find an hour long flight into the newly opened Jiu Zhai Huang Long airport, which is still about an hour and a half from JG.

As we approached the runway to land on Monday, it was clear that this area was going to be pretty spectacular. JiuzhaiHuang Long has been built – literally – on the side of a mountain, and we the approach down a long valley, with mountains all around was an experience in itself. As we stepped off the airplane, the thin, icy air and mild sensations of nausea highlighted our arrival at altitude, and sure enough we soon discovered that we were at 3500 feet! It’s the only airport I’ve ever been to that had a ‘changing area’ next to baggage claim, so that the masses of Chinese passengers arriving from the humid climates of Chengdu or Chongqing could pile on some layers before braving the cool air.

I should report that we enjoyed the back-row of our Air China flight from Chengdu to JG. Comfortable enough, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning at all, except that the only other non-Chinese passengers had also mysteriously been assigned to the same row. I guess on Air China flights the classes rank as follows: first, business, economy, western. We were probably lucky not to have been sent with the baggage.

Martin had done the research for this leg of the trip, and so we were able to get out of the airport quickly having negotiated with a taxi driver to take us the 80 kilometers or so for 200 yuan (about US$25). The scenery was spectacular, with deep valleys, traditional Tibetan villages and long-haired yaks punctuating some serious construction work (I’m guessing the road is as new as the airport, prompting some new developments along the route), and we were just congratulating ourselves on the sober driver, when we pulled into a gas station. After a few moments confusion, it became clear that we were swapping taxis, so we moved the bags while our original taxi driver received a substantial sum of cash (about 100 yuan, we estimated) from our new driver. We obviously didn’t have the language skills to figure out what was going on, but we think the airport likely has licensed taxis that have the monopoly on picking up passengers from the airport. So our taxi driver – who was likely looking for a return fare to JG – was waiting at the gas station to ‘buy’ some return passengers.

Even though the taxi was licenced to a middle-aged male (they post a license with photo on the dash), and our driver was a young female, the drive passed without further incident and we arrived at our hotel early afternoon on Monday. Of note, our hotel seemed to have changed its name since Martin booked it, but we checked in nonetheless and – travel mistake # 452 – paid in cash for the night ahead, before examining the rooms.

It’s hard to overstate how dilapidated and dirty the rooms were. The sheets on the rick-hard beds (normal for Asia, it seems) actually looked like they might have been washed recently, but everything else in the room was in very poor condition. The smell of urine from our toilet overpowered our room completely, and the dust and damp suggested that the room hadn’t been used in many months. As I said, the bed was hard but useable, but the bathrooms were not, so we immediately began scheming our escape.

But first, we headed to the entrance of JG park to collect some information and figure out what our plan would be for the next two days. The park covers an area of 720 square kilometers and – for viewing purposes – can be best thought of as Y-shaped, with the park entrance, to the south, at the bottom of the Y. Each third of the Y is served by coaches with several stops along the way at key viewing points or attractions. Entrance to the park – at 220 yuan (or about US$30 each) was expensive even by western standards, and on top of that the bus was an additional 90 yuan (or about US$11) per day. Armed with the logistical information we needed, we planned to be at the park when it opened at 7am the next morning, and shifted our focus to finding a new hotel.

Since we had paid for the night already, we decided we would sleep at the Jiu Zhai Villa that night, but we did move our backpacks to the Sheraton in the early evening and made a reservation for the next two nights. In fact, we hung out there for the whole evening just to avoid our rather unappealing hotel for as long as we could. We had to laugh when we were given our own section of the restaurant, separate from almost 100 Chinese tourists in the adjoining area. Of course, the couple who had shared the back of the plane with us turned up shortly after we did, and we had to share the joke.

Anyway, a brief taxi ride took us back to our flea-pit for the night. I’m not sure anyone slept terribly well: I for one was brushing off imaginary (I hope!) bugs all night long, and we were all relieved when it was time to get up and head to the park. In fact, so anxious were we to escape the dirt, we arrived at the park a full half hour before it opened!

Our favorite guidebook (Frommer’s) had precious little to suggest for the city of Chengdu, and justifiably so. While it’s a city of almost 11 million, it definitely lacks many cultural opportunities. Of the few, one was a gastronomic suggestion: to experience ‘hot-pot’. During our travels, we have resolved to try as many regional dishes, delicacies and styles of cooking as possible. For me, this task is pretty simple, for Jacquie, perhaps a bit more of a challenge (with her more discerning tastes . . . ). In short, I’ll eat pretty much anything, and have, and Jacquie has valiantly tried just about everything in her path, thus far. And then there was Hot Pot . . .

Bad enough we really only had a tiny bit of knowledge as to what it was. “It’s like fondue with broth and meat, right?” Right!?! Up for the adventure, Jacquie, Martin and I armed ourselves with inadequate knowledge (we asked the concierge where he thought the best hot pot in town was) and headed out to Chengdu’s finest Hot Pot restaurant. The restaurant was very nice – certainly the type of place I would suggest if I were a concierge. And so we were seated, ordered drinks, and then were handed menus to make our selections. Luckily there were pictures, as well as English, to help guide our selections from the menu. But that is pretty much where the luck ended.
At first we were unsure how or what exactly to order. The menu offered numerous types of broth in which you cook your meat, veggie or “other” selections, but we had no idea which to try. After a few tense moments, we settled on the simplest broth suggested by the waitress: the “Stewed Spring Chicken with Seahorse and Shelled Shrimps”. Moving on to the meat selections, we turned the page to find the following: Ostrich Meat (okay, that’s not so bad .. .) Then, Ostrich Gizzards (alright – people eat that . . .). But from here it went to goose intestines, Chicken blood, duck webs, duck tongues, pig artery, pig brain . . . you get the idea now.

There were also some rather benign offerings, of which we decided to partake, and thus ordered: Chicken (breast meat, not eyeballs or beaks), Catfish (of course I expected catfish fillet. We got little baby catfish fry, with heads freshly removed, and that’s about it), and then Shrimp. For some reason the shrimp took almost 30 minutes to get to us. Turns out, they had to go out and pull them out of a pond, so that they could bring a bowl of live shrimp (literally jumping in the serving bowl, and then into the cooking broth . . .) to our table. To round it out, we had cabbage and asparagus which both Martin and I enjoyed cooked in the spicy broth – a hot, black churning concoction with myriad red chili peppers boiling up from the very bowels of hades . . . yes it was spicy!

Jacquie tried a piece of chicken, which, being cooked in a broth adorned with a floating Seahorse, was not a winner. Needless to say the (practically) squirmy little catfish were not going to be a hit either. Jacquie did manage a shrimp or two, but we have firmly established that this will not be a cuisine to repeat. At least not with seahorses bobbing out of the broth looking more like witches brew than something we would normally eat. I ended up eating quite a few shrimp (those little guys sure can jump!), a baby catfish or two (too darned many bones to make it worthwhile) and a good bit of cabbage and asparagus. We have high hopes for future cuisines, but we can certainly tick the box as: Hot Pot - DONE!

Since Martin’s detour to visit the Leshan Buddha had brought us to Chengdu, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit the city’s famous Panda Research Centre, which is one of the most successful in the world. It was almost an hour’s taxi ride away from the hotel, and we left early to arrive as soon as the park opened at 8am; feeding takes place in the morning and we were advised that this was when the pandas would be most active. And so we found ourselves paying our 30 yuan each (about US$3.50) and strolling through a surprisingly cool and grey early morning. We had low expectations for our visit: if we saw a couple pandas, we’d be happy customers. If we caught a glimpse of some of the recent arrivals, we’d be over the moon. Certainly, I don’t think any of us was expecting the panda-fest that was moments away as we accelerated our pace to out-maneuver the omni-present groups of loud, rude Chinese tourists.

The first enclosure we reached was for sub-adults (adolescents), and we were treated with three extremely playful youngsters frolicking around.

As the first group of non-Chinese to arrive, we were practically as much on display as the pandas, and we continue to do our best to be good ambassadors despite extraordinary rudeness that seems to be the norm for Chinese groups. Now, by this time, we’re quite used to being barged through or being subjected to speaking volumes at least five times louder than our ears can deal with, but we were surprised that little if any consideration was given to the pandas’ presence, despite many reminders (in both Mandarin and English) talking of the ‘national treasure’ around us. Some individuals shouted to try and get the pandas to turn for photos (interestingly, “hello, hello” seemed to be the favourite call – perhaps they think the pandas speak English?). Others threw bamboo at the pandas (which were mere feet away from us and completely exposed), which we found quite shocking.

Perhaps the highlight of the visit was being able to see three of the centre’s very young cubs (they’ve had nine so far this year, weighing from 100 to 200 grams at birth!). Happily, the cubs were very well protected in indoor displays, presumably with soundproof glass protecting the cubs from the loud Chinese tourists who completely ignored any requests to be quiet for the benefit of the babies. Photos were not allowed, although Lloyd managed to sneak a little video, and from which he’s also managed to extract a picture showing a cub less than a month old!

After about an hour or so, we had seen about fifteen pandas, and were already feeling like we’d had exceptionally good fortune with our panda experience. We decided to take our chances with the mosquitos at the very first enclosure we had visited (I – of course – got about twenty bites…… I’m thinking of marketing myself as an anti-mosquito device…. Stand next to me and I guarantee you won’t get bitten!). As you can see, by the time we returned to the enclosure, it was feeding time, and the pandas were feasting on bamboo.

And then we stumbled on one last, very large enclosure which had too many pandas to count!! This was the nursery enclosure where the younger pandas hung out. Many of them lay in trees, with random limbs lazily hanging down. Others teased each other atop play structures. So adorable. I know we didn’t need to come to China to figure this out, but pandas are seriously cute.

World Exclusive! Pandas are Cute!

All in all, the visit to the pandas was an absolute highlight of our China trip. We’re really glad that Martin added Leshan to our itinerary, making this experience possible. The Chengdu facility seems to be exceptionally well done, and we greatly enjoyed our time there, Chinese tour groups and mosquitos aside.