Since leaving Kunming on the 11th we've been based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and making day trips in Sichuan and beyond (Xian for the Terracotta Warriors).
First up was Chengu's Panda Breeding Centre - home to about 60 pandas. Arriving at 7.30 to see the feeding time (apparently after feeding they just sleep all day) our first sighting was at the adult enclosure. Four pandas sat around chewing bamboo, watching the tourists and looking for all money like four guys sitting on the couch watching football and drinking beer. They also happened to look like four guys in panda suits sitting eating bamboo shoots for the tourists. The next viewing was the new born cubs, sleeping in their incubators and encouraging much cooing from the passing tourists.
The Xian trip is described in the last entry.
A three day trip took in the giant budda in Leshan and Mt Emei Shan. The giant budda certainly is that - it's over 70m's tall and is carved into an alcove on the side of the cliff looking over the nearby river. We got a good view of budda's head, but were daunted by the apparent 4 hour queue of Chinese tour groups to take the down to his feet.
From Leshan it was a short ride to Mt Emei Shan. Emei is a shade over 3000m's high, and amazingly has a stone path and stair case running from it's summit to the bottom, covering about 35kms on the way down. We awoke early on the first day and took the 2 hour bus ride to the cable car near the summit and then squashed into the cable car with several Chinese tour groups to the top. On the summit, the mist and cloud was so thick we could see only several metres in front of us. From there was began to walk the long stone path down. When walked on mountain spurs we could see five mountain ranges to the horizon, and when in the valleys look up steep mountain faces a 1000m's above. We stopped on one cliff edge and looked across a valley to the opposing cliff face, far below we saw a bird of prey circling on the air currents. Six rotations with the updraft carried it passed us and over the mountain top above us.
The first day we walked for nine hours, and very sore came to the monastery we planned to sleep in. Several hundred years old and made of stone and wood the monastery is still an active place of worship. Leaving the shower in the evening I heard a rumbling I took to be a generator, it was actually the Buddhist prayer drums. At 5.30 the following morning we were woken by drumming, singing and chanting.
Walking the second day we took the quickest route to the bus stop, missing a few monasteries we'd planned to visit, due to the pain in our legs. The stone path and steps had taken a toll on our muscles and joints that we hadn't expected. We walked for about 30kms the first day, and descended about 12,000 steps, which proved to be too much. (Estimate: we descended 1700ms, each step is 15cms high).
The walk also provided us with a solitude that we'd forgotten about since arriving in China. The cities are crowded, and the tourist attractions are flooded with Chinese tour groups. On the second day, as we walked from isolation to the bus stop, the population density gradually increased until the monastery near the entrance was swamped by tour groups, those too lazy to take the serene walk on the mountain. We fled the groups and crap souvenirs as quickly as possible and were able to reflect on the joy of walking through the forests without the bustle and hassle.
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