Over the past few days we have seen a Sichuan Opera, Dazu (a heritage site) and an organic farm. It has been a fantastic six weeks with great people with the ability to make a change for the better regarding conservation. Ten of us are now traveling to Beijing together.
Thank you for following my blog on this academic expedition. It means a lot to me and I hope tohave tome to share stories and pictures!
Yours truly,
Beth Jacobs
Monday, August 8, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Back in Chengdu... Again
Sunday was our last day of volunteering at the Bifengxia Panda Concervation Center and it was sad to say Zàijiàn (pronounced sai chen) or good bye to all of them. On Monday we explored the trail from our hostel to the front entrence to the Nature Reserve. It was a beautiful walk as we saw ancient Kung Fu Testing Cliffs, many catipillars and wonderful waterfalls. After our last dinner at the panda base one of the participants and I decided to join a group of retired Chinese ladies in their dancing. What was intended to be a quick 15 minute dance session turned into almost two hours of festivities. The first two dances we did with them were just four of us following one of the ladies in a traditional dance, but as member of our group came out to watch and join in we all began to jump, flail and haller all around the courtyard. They showed us a game called mother chicken where everybody gets in a chacha line and the person in front is mother chicken and that person has to protect all of her babies (the people behind them) from the eagle. It was quite fun concidering we had over 20 people as baby chickens! The ladies invited us to join them in their morning excersize Tuesday morning before we left.
Four of us rose early to join the ladies and after breakfast we departed with a warm sending off from our new friends. We took four different busses to get back to Wen Jun Mansion Hotel, but we made it back to our home base. The next two days were spent finishing our research papers, bird ID's and plant ID's. Last night, Wednesday, I had my first hotpot dinner experience. Hotpot is a local favorite, where you pick out meat and vegetables to cook in a hotpot filled with spicy oils and broth.
Today we visited the Chengdu Panda Base and though it was much smaller than Bifengxia it seemed to provide even nicer conditions for the pandas. This center also hosts and breeds Red Pandas! We were able to talk to one of the veterinarians there, he was probably the best guest speaker we have had the whole trip. He informed us that just this morning a Giant Panda gave birth to twins!
Research papers were due yesterday, and all other assignments are due tomorrow so we are all just wrapping up. Tonight we will see the Sichuan Opera which is just down the street and tomorrow we will head to Dazu, which is a cultural site.
Panda Fact of the Post:
-Over 50% of female Giant Panda's refuse the male Giant Panta they are presented with in a captive setting. Majority of the captive births are due to artificial insemination.
Four of us rose early to join the ladies and after breakfast we departed with a warm sending off from our new friends. We took four different busses to get back to Wen Jun Mansion Hotel, but we made it back to our home base. The next two days were spent finishing our research papers, bird ID's and plant ID's. Last night, Wednesday, I had my first hotpot dinner experience. Hotpot is a local favorite, where you pick out meat and vegetables to cook in a hotpot filled with spicy oils and broth.
Today we visited the Chengdu Panda Base and though it was much smaller than Bifengxia it seemed to provide even nicer conditions for the pandas. This center also hosts and breeds Red Pandas! We were able to talk to one of the veterinarians there, he was probably the best guest speaker we have had the whole trip. He informed us that just this morning a Giant Panda gave birth to twins!
Research papers were due yesterday, and all other assignments are due tomorrow so we are all just wrapping up. Tonight we will see the Sichuan Opera which is just down the street and tomorrow we will head to Dazu, which is a cultural site.
Panda Fact of the Post:
-Over 50% of female Giant Panda's refuse the male Giant Panta they are presented with in a captive setting. Majority of the captive births are due to artificial insemination.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)