I got beaten up by Pandaren Brewmaster

成都我来了! Today is a one day tour of Chendu, the capital of Sichuan. 
Here's the highlights:

• Panda conservation lab
• 杜甫草堂 (Dufu's Residence)
• 武侯祠 (The Temple of the Marquis of Wu)
• Sichuan opera and cultural performance

Wee! First stop the panda conservation lab or Panda base as they call it. This is the first time I see a Panda face to face!!! Oh my god, Panda are just so fat and fluffy, haha. Well the Pandas at the base are not exactly black and white. They are more like black and brown, thank to the dirty environment they live in.

The Panda monument given by WWF

Golden Panda Sculpture

That of which rises a question. If they are serious about conservation and saving the Pandas, why are things such as cleanliness and well being are not maintained? After all, if the staff here at the conservation lab does not take care of the bears, who will? If there was something I wanted to feedback, I would definitely want to see the bears in better condition.

Lazy Panda >.>

Lazy Panda #2 ...

Okay these 2 are not pandas ... Subaa and Tom

Do not disturb...

Oops ... Sorry for disturbing.

Finally an awake Panda ...

And another sleeping one .... >.>

Okay, so if you thought that was about it for the Panda base, you're wrong. In fact the giant pandas are not the main attraction in my opinion. Have you heard of the Red Panda? It is not surprising is you haven't. Red pandas are a rare species that are only found around the Himalayas Region. The red panda is no where near the size of the typically well known giant panda, they are not even genetically related. They look like raccoons or foxes rather than bearish looking. They have a long tail and they are very agile. In fact the Kungfu master Shifu from the movie Kungfu Panda is actually a red panda. Actually, the original name Panda was referring to them rather than the giant panda. Something interesting and unexpected from the visit, I even asked 云霞, "they have a fox enclosure here?"

This is 云霞, I'm sorry if I look dominating :X

The Red Panda!

They look like foxes and are around the size of a cat ...

They love to climb and run about

they are fast and agile ...

and aggressive if you piss them off.

A group shot before we leave :)

Anyway the blog's background is a photo that I captured of the Red Panda. Nice eh? Credits to me :P

China's fake Coke haha! 我一牛

麻婆豆腐！

汤圆 ... Awesome man!

韭菜饺 ... Mmm ...

The next stop would be Dufu's residence or 杜甫草堂 which means Dufu's straw hut. Dufu is a famous poet from the Tang dynasty and he is known for his poems which often depict the current livelihood of the people. He constantly writes about realistic current affairs and how the people are suffering. Through he writings, we can see that the people were going through a lot of hardship. Dufu himself feels for these people and he himself is a very simple person. The straw hut he lived in shows the simple and basic lifestyle he lived in as he is one who thinks of others before himself. One phrase in his poem that made me look up to him was "If my happiness and blissfulness can be exchanged for the happiness and blissful of others (everyone), I'd rather give it up." For someone who gives his all for others, he really deserves my respect.

杜甫

诗史堂 (Poem Writing Room in literal translation) :D

工... Err I don't know other 2 :D

another monument for 杜甫

The entrance to 杜甫's straw house

The wrath of the weather is driving me crazy. When we reached our next sop which was 武侯祠, I gave up fighting the war with the heat. I went to the souvenir store and choose a beautiful fan to buy and use, I really could not take the heat any more. The fan was painted (actually printed) with the major characters/people from The Three Kingdoms period. People such as 诸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang), 张飞 (Zhang Fei), 刘备 (Liu Bei), 吕布 (Lu Bu) etc. Apart from the various shrines and display of the famous people, its not that interesting. After all, it is a temple.

武侯祠

明良千古

静远堂

Group shot before souvenir street

After dinner, we had some spare time, therefore we walked around the shopping district in Chengdu. To my amazement, the branded goods here are not that cheap as I thought. But before long, we had to stop our window shopping and head to the theatre for the cultural performance. The cultural performance includes many items that are unique to Sichuan, such as the Sichuan opera, Changing Faces, Hand shadows show and the balancing act.

Sichuan Opera - The Three Kingdoms

The end

Sichuan dance

Puppet Opera

The Sichuan Opera is very similar to opera from the other dialects so it is not something that makes you go "wow!". But the other performances, such as the changing faces, where by the artist swaps masks in a matter of split seconds. This is not simple act as they come up to the audiences and swap faces right in front of their eyes. If that does not
WOW!" you, I think the next item would. The balancing act here is not your typical balancing act. The artist balancing a bowl of filled with oil and a lighted wig crawling under and jumping over benches is no mean feat, a slight mishap would result in burning himself. The audiences are all left in shock and awe. Personally, I was impressed with a puppeteer, whose act require her to carrying the puppet in air (above her height) and operate the puppet throughout the acts such as the opera and changing faces. She is very fluent in her movement and moves tirelessly despite the long duration of the performance. Thumbs up to her man.


After the performance, we boarded the bus and wrapped up the tour. The tour guide bid farewell to us in a sad manner and got off the bus. It was quite a sad moment but all good things come to an end, so do good moments. Well, it was a pleasure to have him as our guide.

That's all for today's long activity. It was an enjoyable one and it is definitely worth the time.