The longest queue I ever did see
We woke up mid-morning, around 9:30, pretty early for me. Breakfast was in the form of baozi and other steamed dough foods filled with pork or vegetables. We ate this as we walked to the bus that would take us to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. For more info on the Panda Base, check the main website here. I was definitely looking forward to it as I’ve not really seen pandas in great capacity before. We got the bus and it was a relatively short bus journey, not too packed.
However, when we disembarked from the bus, it was absolute carnage. I have never seen so many damn people in my life, and all over the place. After a few minutes, we somehow managed to find the queue we needed. The queue, if you can call it that, was about 10 people wide, zigzagging. I’m not exaggerating when I say there must have been at least one thousand people in front of me…and there were two of these queues! Luckily growing up in the UK, passive aggressive queuing comes natural. We knew the tricks to slipping in front of people without causing trouble. It also helped we were a foot taller than most other people.
Entering the Panda Research Base
After about an hour of queuing, we finally got to the front and scanned our tickets from our phone. The hostel staff were able to book and organise this for us really easily. Check out my arrival in Chengdu to see the hostel we stayed at. The first thing we did when we got in was go to the panda history and anatomy centre. It was quite interesting to see how pandas had been part of Chinese history and culture for thousands of years. Seeing the bone structure of different panda bears, as evolution took place, was pretty cool too.
The closest enclosure to us was a Red Panda enclosure. There was a huge amount of people crowding around the complex. I saw a glimpse of it as it moved through some bushes, but that was about it. The Chinese are very kind and nice people, but boy do they go crazy for a photo. We went to a large enclosure which had several pandas within. As soon as one scratched its head, everyone went nuts with cameras, phones and “oooooohhh” and “aaaaaahhh”.
Our patience pays off
Don’t get me wrong, Mat and I like a good panda, but we don’t go bananas over them. Instead, we took a chill walk around to some less crowded enclosures and just talked a bit. We were just leaning on the wall to another panda sleeping. But as the panda woke up and moved from its climbing frame and down to the ground in front of us, it appeared that we had struck gold. Over the course of 5 minutes, hundreds of people surrounded us. I genuinely think people would have paid to switch spots.
With the best seats in the house, we got about half an hour of solid panda action, and the best photos you could get. We couldn’t resist a bit of photo bombing too. Eventually we bestowed our front row spots to the lucky sods behind us and retreated. After all the excitement, we went for a stroll around the rest of the place using the map. We saw many other pandas around that weren’t too crowded. A break was well needed after hours of being on our feet. Unfortunately, we were a tad lack lustre on food and drink. I was quickly developing cotton mouth.
Tip!
Whenever you go on day trips, it’s essential to take plenty of water and a decent amount of food. My bottle was only 500 ml or so, and I was parched half way through, rationing my water out. We also only took crisps and biscuits as snacks, which ran out quickly. The activities take more of your stamina than you think. It’s better to overestimate what nourishment you’ll need. After this, we pretty much always took a 1 litre plastic bottle of water along with our metal flask bottles.
Panda cubs!
As we carried on following the path on the map, we came to loads of pandas in smaller enclosures. At the centre of them was a path leading to the nursery. Within were several extremely small and cute panda cubs which were very adorable. They were all just rolling around or snoozing in their little beds. Just melts your heart seeing them.
The last couple of pandas we saw were Red Pandas. These were less shy than the previous ones. They were eating, playing and exploring without a care in the world. They’re pretty nippy and cool to be honest. Just as interesting as the Giant Pandas. After having walked around for 5 hours with little water and even less food, we were exhausted. We plodded back to the entrance and then to the bus.
Back in Chengdu
After having only a few snacks throughout the whole day, we were craving some ‘proper’ English Chinese takeaway food. We’re talking sweet n sour chicken or chicken chow mein. We scurried around, desperately looking for any hint of our treasured takeaway dishes. But none were to be found. Instead we settled for…beef noodles. This is becoming the bane of my life! To be fair, we watched the guy in the kitchen make the noodles fresh, from a big lump of dough. That was the only consolation prize on offer.
Mat and I then retired to the hostel and chilled out for a while. We also visited the social area and play pool until quite late. Somehow I ended up winning 3-2, don’t ask me how. Neither of us are World Champion status, but I think I had lady luck on my side that day. We’re moving on tomorrow; we have a train to Xi’an to catch.
