Sichuan’s No. 1 Tourist Attraction: The Panda Bear

 

     They look soft, fuzzy and cuddly, and ready for fun, despite their black-and-white tuxedos and prepared-for-a-grand-ballroom-entrance look. Underneath the drab formalwear, one suspects colorful personalities.

The giant panda bear is the No. 1 tourist attraction in Sichuan Province of China. Some 1,600 pandas live in the wild, 80 percent of them in Sichuan.

     Ah, but looks can be deceiving.

     Soft, fuzzy and cuddly? Not exactly. Petting one feels like petting a giant-sized Brillo Pad.

     Colorful? Sure, in their own special way.

     “It’s an amazing creature,” Adam Meredith of England said. “It doesn’t seem to do much apart from eat and sleep, but the way it does it is so fascinating, you can’t help but fall in love with the animal.

     “I mean, look at their eyes. You can’t resist them. They could steal my belongings and I wouldn’t mind.”

     With a pair of black-eye patches, they look the part of bandits, yet all they do is steal your heart.

     Giant panda bears have that effect on people.

     The panda is the modern iconic symbol of China behind the traditional symbol of the dragon. Pandas are lovable creatures embraced not only by the Chinese but by the world.

     Which is why the giant panda is the No. 1 tourist attraction in the Sichuan Province of China, home to 80 percent of the last remaining wild pandas, of which there are an estimated 1,600.

     Some 90 panda bears reside at the Bifengxia Panda Base and Giant Panda Bears Research Center in Ya’an, about a 1 1/2-hour drive from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.

     In the surrounding vicinity, about 200 pandas reside, though spotting a wild panda is only slightly more likely than finding that needle in the haystack.

     Not so at the Bifengxia Panda Base.

     Take a walk or shuttle ride to various areas of the base and one can spot pandas lazily perched on tree limbs within a contained yard, baby pandas in incubators in the research center or a panda sitting on a bench next to a tourist.

     Yes, it’s true. Unique to Bifengxia, tourists can share a bench with a panda.

At Bifengxia Panda Base in Sichuan, China, tourists can pet a panda.

     To pet a panda or hold a baby panda, one must provide a medical clearance from a doctor to prove one is healthy and not carrying a disease the panda could catch.

     The animal is endangered, after all.

     Once cleared, tourists must don a doctor’s smock and gloves. Only then are they allowed to pet the panda, or if the timing is right and babies are available, to hold a baby panda.

     Get a photo quickly because your time is limited.

     “Nowhere else can you find a place like this,” said Yan Liao, president of First Sino-US. “This is really the highlight of our trip because only in Sichuan can you see so many pandas and be able to interact with the panda. At other zoos — no way, you can’t do that.”

     The panda’s gentleness allows Bifengxia Panda Base the opportunity to offer close encounters by tourists. Distract a panda with a carrot and it’ll happily munch away while getting its picture taken sitting next to a tourist.

     Carrots are a treat. In the wild, bamboo is the panda’s food source, said to be in short supply. Farmers in or near the national reserve of pandas are encouraged to grow bamboo for this reason, according to Li Wei of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at Bifengxia.

     However, the primary reasons for the low panda population are threefold, Li said through an interpreter. 

     “It’s difficult for them to find a mate and if they do mate, it’s very difficult for them to get pregnant,” he said. “Once they produce a baby, it’s very difficult for the baby to survive because naturally pandas are not very good parents.”

     With technology, survival rates improved dramatically in 1997 with research funded by the Chinese government, the community and the World Wildlife Fund, whose symbol is the panda. Survival rates were under 40 percent in the early days of research. Now it’s said to be more than 90 percent.

     “We’re generally happy with what they’ve done, but more can be done, like DNA of the panda family, the relationship with habitat,” Li said. “There’s huge research work ahead…They (the research center) need more people to get involved.

     “The ultimate goal is not to keep panda in captivity here, because the panda is a wild animal and it’s an endangered species, and it’s very difficult to breed in the natural habitat. So after the research, the ultimate goal is to help the panda survive in the wild.”

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• SIDE NOTES: China’s first national panda research center at Wolong was built in 1963. On May 12, 2008, an earthquake registering 8.5 on the Richter Scale hit 50 miles west-northwest of Chengdu. The Wolong Research Center was destroyed. Of the 63 captive pandas, one was seriously injured, one suffered light injuries, one was missing and one died. Most of the remaining pandas were relocated to Bifengxia where they’ll stay as Wolong is rebuilt.
• It takes more than $2 million yearly to feed and care for the pandas at the research center, which has 150 fulltime staff. Volunteers from all over the world offer assistance. At any given time, there could be up to 100 volunteers on site.
• Nearly a million people visit the research center each year. Most foreigners are from Korea and Japan. Only about 3,000 Westerners visit this most unique place annually.

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• See the video 
• See more photos  
• Next week: Mount Emei.
• Still to come: The Human Taxi, wild monkeys and 5000-year-old artifacts. 

A Drink with Jam and Bread, a Chinese Custom

Tea Server Sculpture at the World Tea Culture Museum in Sichuan Province.

     Tea was said to be discovered in 2737 BC when tea leaves blew into a cup of boiled drinking water of China Emperor Shen Nung. The emperor tasted the resulting concoction, enjoyed it and — voila — tea!

     Or so the legend goes.

     Supposedly, the first actual documentation of tea was a reference found in an ancient Chinese dictionary dated around 350 BC.

     And the first place where tea trees were planted by mankind was on Mengding Mountain in the Sichuan Province of China in 53 BC by grower Wu Lizhen.

     Today, the Museum of World Tea Culture sits on Mengding Mountain, often referred to as one of the holiest tea mountains in the world. Mengding Mountain has also been called “the hometown of the holy tea” and “the cradle of the tea culture.”

     From Chengdu, the China travel party set out toward Mengding Mountain but first stopped in the small town of Chengjia where the Charming Green Tea Company is located. It’s one of about 50 tea factories in this region of Sichuan. 

     After touring the facility and watching a small group of men and women packaging three types of tea, we sat down with the general manager of Charming Green Tea Company, He Bin.

     A piping-hot glass of green tea was set in front of us all and we proceeded to learn about tea. Such as:

• Tea trees produce best in a damp or foggy climate, hence the popularity of Mengding Mountain for growing tea.
• Green tea is known for its medicinal purposes. Drank over a long period it is said to lower cholesterol and be good for the heart and digestive system.
• “If people only drink tea, they have less chance of getting fat,” He said through an interpreter. “And it can help lower cancer cells.”

     Tea is served without the tea bag in China. The tea leaves settle at the bottom of the glass. Once you drink it down, the host is quick to refill your glass and the leaves resettle and steep more tea.

     Take a few more sips, as my friend Nik did in the GM’s office, and your glass is quickly refilled whether you want more or not. Such is the etiquette in China. Only when you leave a glass full do you establish the fact you have drunk enough tea and don’t want a refill.

     From Chengjia, we drove up the winding road of Mengding Mountain, passing a tea house at every turn until finally reaching the Museum of World Tea Culture.

     The place was empty of tourists. But, of course, it was November, when people don’t travel as much. So the giant teapot was not pouring tea into the giant teacup, the tram was not running and there were no tea ceremonies.

     But we did walk through the museum and see the documented history of tea — See not read. Most everything was in Chinese, but you got the picture.

     Especially fascinating were the bronze sculptures of the tea artists striking various poses for pouring tea from four- or five-foot long spouts.  

     The long spouts are so the servers can pour without rudely reaching in front of people. We later saw them in action at the Chengdu Opera.

     Yes, these people love their tea.

• See the video .
• See more photos.
• Next week: Giant panda bears of Sichuan.
• Still to come: The Human Taxi, wild monkeys and 5000-year-old artifacts. 

Snake-Oil Salesman of Shangli

“Snake oil salesman” has a negative connotation to most of us. In America, he’s known as a shill, a salesman trying to pull the wool over our eyes with a product that does little to cure what ails us.

The Snake-Oil Salesman of Shangli

He usually skips town before the locals realize he’s a phony.

Little did I know that snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine made from the Chinese water snake and it is used to treat joint pain and inflammation.

Snake oil is actually sold in traditional Chinese pharmacies. It can also be found at the outdoor market of Shangli, just a mile or so from the Shangli Ancient Town in the Sichuan Province of China.

Walking the dirt-topped streets of Shangli, I came across a young gentleman with a pile of dead snakes on a carpet and a barrel of snake oil nearby. He wore a microphone and spewed the qualities of snake oil, sounding much like a ShamWow salesman at a trade show.

Alex, our guide, translated:

“Rub this on where the pain is and in a week you won’t feel pain,” the snake oil salesman said to a group of people standing around him, waiting for magic to occur.

A man volunteered to give it a try. He turned around and bent over. The snake oil salesman raised the back of his shirt and started to rub the oil on his back.

We never did find out if the pain disappeared in a week.

Alex also told me that some people drink snake blood for their health. I’ll pass, thank you.

Another interesting sight at the outdoor market, which occurs three times out of every 10 days, was the dentist sitting with an assistant awaiting patients.

It was the most unique dentist office I’d ever seen. A card table covered with a white tablecloth, on which some tools of the trade were waiting to be used. I’m not sure what type of procedures he was peddling.

Dentist is Ready for Root Canal.

The market itself was intriguing. All the locals from the area descend upon the several blocks-worth of goods to stock up. Women wore baskets on their backs to carry their purchases or their kids, or both.

Roosters were for sale. You could choose from any in a pen of several live birds. They would kill the rooster and de-feather and clean it if you’d like. The pile of guts was, well, a bit revolting. But this is a way of life in Shangli of Sichuan.

This is the way these people live, what they are used to. It’s why I enjoyed this market so much. This wasn’t downtown Chengdu or Beijing. This wasn’t westernized. It wasn’t anything you’d expect.

The sights were amazing: For sale were live catfish swimming in a plastic pool, chicken’s feet, potatoes in the back of a cart and sides of beef hanging on a rack as if they were men’s suits by Ralph Lauren.

A man set up shop on the dirt sidewalk to repair shoes; he had a stack of them. A woman sat in a chair in front of a foot-powered sewing machine mending or making clothes.

Westerner’s rarely get a glimpse of this life out in the country. I’m glad we were among those who got the chance to see it.

• See the video.
• See more photos.
• Coming next: A Drink with Jam and Bread.
• Still to come: Panda bears, wild monkeys and the human taxi.

The Noodleman of Shangli Ancient Town

     The sun was just about to wake up as we carefully negotiated the misty, dark air hanging over the ancient town of Shangli in the Sichuan Province of China.

     Two women used crude brooms handmade from twigs to sweep the courtyard before locals and Chinese tourists descended upon the quaint village.

Shangli Ancient Town Plaza at Dawn

     A few merchants had already wiped the sleep from their eyes and were busy readying their establishments for business. In most cases, that meant removing the wooden planks from the storefronts.

     Peaking through the window of one unopened shop, I noticed a group of four men and women sitting around a table playing Mahjong, a popular Chinese tile game. Couldn’t tell if they were pulling an all-nighter or were just getting started, but I found it odd to be playing at that hour.  

     The busiest person in the village at this time of day was the Noodle Man. A glow emanated from the opening of his shop and could be seen from far down the mostly vacant plaza.

Noodle Man

     The Noodle Man, working near his storefront, took the dough of noodle and stretched it by more than three feet. He waved the stringed dough and hit it on the flour-covered cutting board. Amazingly, the dough hung tough, never breaking. The finished product was then submerged into a large boiling pot.

     By 7:30 a.m., the plaza was well lit by the sun and the tables inside the noodle restaurant were filled with customers. We were among them. We all ordered a bowl of noodles, but I confess I had trouble eating them. I guess I’m not a morning noodle person.

     Unfortunately, they didn’t have Raisin Bran.

     Instead, I opted for a piece of cornbread from a shop across the plaza. The cornbread came in a plastic wrap and was so hot it could have been used as a hand warmer.

Making Cornbread

     The rest of the village began coming to life. Roosters were heard crowing. A man reclined in a chair getting a haircut for the world to see. A man and wife were on the sidewalk beating some kind of vegetable. Root, maybe?

     Kids on bikes started to appear, heading toward the nearby school. Several from a photography club set up tripods in an attempt to get the perfect shot of the 300-year-old Two Immortals Bridge.

     The bridge is as ancient as the traditional houses in Shangli Ancient Town made of wood and bamboo.

Two Immortals Bridge

     The village offers plenty of history. It was an important hub for the Silk Road, an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world.

     The Silk Road name emanates from the lucrative Chinese trade of silk, which started in the Han Empire around 200 BC.

     Shangli was also a stopping point in the 1930s during the Long March, a massive military retreat by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party to evade the pursuit of the Chinese Nationalist Party army.

     After the Sichuan earthquake, Shangli’s tourism came to a halt, despite the fact the ancient town was undamaged.

     But once word spread that Shangli was intact, the Chinese tourists reportedly started showing up in greater numbers than ever before because so many other tourist destinations were closed.

     Westerner tourists visit Shangli, too, but you won’t see many. Our host said we’d probably be the only two that day. Shangli Ancient Town is an intriguing village and I’m glad to have seen it and its people.

•  See the video 
•  See more photos
• Coming next: A Real-Life Snake-oil Salesman.
• Still to come: Giant panda bears, wild monkeys and silk pandas.