When a work-offsite was scheduled in Chengdu, I knew this was an opportunity to be able to do another thing on my bucket list. Because Chengdu is most known for their giant pandas and I have always wanted to see them. I once in Hong Kong saw 2 in Ocean Park Zoo, but that does not really count. Sichuan Province is their home, their natural habitat. Besides enjoying a visit with the pandas, both giant and red, I discovered Chengdu has much more to offer. Great food, hiking options and shopping.
Saturday night in Chengdu
Sichuan fusion food
We land in Chengdu on Saturday afternoon. During the Didi ride from the airport to our hotel, I realize what a big and modern city Chengdu is. I learn it is the 4th largest city in China, with almost 22 million people. Soon we drive through the city center and arrive at our hotel, the JW Marriott. My colleague has made reservations at a Sichuan Michelin star fusion restaurant. Sichuan food is known for being very spicy. I am a bit worried, as although I like spicy food, my stomach normally is not too happy with it. However, my colleague has a great tip: order a bowl of hot water and rinse the food in it. The food keeps the wonderful taste minus most of the heat. And it worked. The food is wonderful: dishes of duck, chicken, beef in a tomato broth and for each of us a special fried pigeon.
Massages “under the panda’s ass”
After dinner, we take another Didi for an after-dinner threat: a massage. The driver isn’t sure where to drop us, so we call the massage place. They tell him “Drop them under the panda’s ass”. We are not sure what this means, but when we got to the main shopping street, we see a giant panda hanging from the Prada building. We get the joke. An elevator in the building across from panda, takes us to the 26th floor of the building. All four of us are handed “pajamas” and we are brought in a room with four beds. It is a group massage. Looking out of the window, we have full view of panda’s ass again. The massage is amazing. 2 1/2 hours, including a wet head massage: my hair and head are washed and massaged for 20 minutes. After that, I roll into bed and I am asleep in minutes.
Pandas, Pandas, Pandas
Although I have a good night’s sleep after the massage, it was a short night, as I have to get up early on Sunday for my visit to the Panda Research Center. A private car and tour guide pick me up from the hotel at 7.15. The center opens at 7.30 and we want to be early to beat the crowds. We get to the entrance just before 8am and people are already in line. The advantage of having a private guide is that we can use a separate entrance and skip the line. Guide April hands me a headband with panda ears. White and black for me, pink and black for her. I am not sure at first, but then I realize that everybody is decked out in panda gear: hats, jackets, vests, shoes, backpacks, bags. The headband seems modest and fun in comparison.
Red Pandas
April takes us first to see the red pandas. It is breakfast time, and the food, mostly bamboo, but also some apples and berries, is placed close to the pathway, so the pandas come out. I had never seen a red panda and not giving it much thought. But they are so cute. With their reddish-brown color and ears, little black and white faces and their fluffy tails, they look like stuffed animals. If I’d had a chance to pick one up to cuddle, I would have.
Giant Pandas
Our next stop is the original Giant Pandas space. It is getting busier, but April takes a different route, away from the crowds. This area is very dense with trees and the pandas are a bit hard to spot at first, most of them sitting against trees, chewing their bamboo. We spot a baby on a tree, rolled up and fast asleep. It looks like a giant fur ball. While baby is sleeping, mama is enjoying her bamboo breakfast. Another baby joins her, sit next to her and mimics mom’s moves. It is so cute. We continue our walk. Our next stop is a newly opened giant panda area. During the twenty minute walk, we pass a big, modern building. It looks out of place. April tells me locals call it the cockroach and I can see why. Its only function is observation point.
Panda shenanigans
The new Giant Panda area was much more open, with a lot of beautiful flowers, all in full bloom as it is spring. We see another baby sleeping on a tree. Breakfast must have made it sleepy. We come across two babies. Each have climbed a tree, but although one seems to know exactly what it is doing, climbing from branch to branch, the other seems stuck, not knowing how to get up or down. Still some learning before it can graduate climbing school. In the next area, we see a baby exploring a slide and two others fighting over a swing. We continue our walk and come across a giant panda rolling around as if putting up a show.
What about those pandas
Giant panda babies are tiny and are born with pink skin and almost no hair. After 2 weeks, there hair has grown and the areas around their eyes and ears start to darken, giving them their “panda” look. When they are six months old, they first start eating bamboo and momma is starting to teach them how to run, roll and climb. Pandas are solitary animals and at 5 year old, they leave their mom to start their own life.
Fun fact: As pandas eat mostly bamboo, and they eat a lot, they also poop a lot, about 14 times a day. And their poop is perfectly shaped green ovals that are almost identical every time.
Go early
On our way out, we pass the area with the red pandas again. Where we had plenty of space to observe them, now it is packed with people. We watch as one little red panda is eating, watched by a hundred or so people in panda outfits. I feel sorry for the poor fella and I am happy we got here early.
Sichuan Hotpot and opera show
One of my favorite food in China is hotpot. I have had many hotpot dinners in Shenzhen and Hongkong over the years and now regularly take people in California too. My colleagues tell me Sichuan is known for its hotpot, and I am delighted that one of the nights, we have a team dinner at a hotpot restaurant. We have a private room with 2 tables, one for the spicy crew, one for the non-spice people. The food is delicious, meat, shrimp, fish, cabbage, mushrooms, it all gets cooked to perfection in the pot on the table. At the end of our dinner, we are presented with a typical Sichuan tradition: an opera show. A dressed up and masked person performs a dance. He then comes to some of, shaking our hands and asking us to touch his face. Doing that changes his mask in a different color.
Pandas everywhere
Chengdu clearly has a lot more to offer than pandas, however, in the end pandas have made them famous. And that’s why there are pandas everywhere: panda candy, panda artwork. The staff in our hotel carry little panda purses. Wherever you walk in town, there are panda ads, panda stores, panda food, panda art and of course, the big panda hanging from the prada store. I walk by it and smile as I stand one more time in Chengdu “under the panda’s ass”.
