A romp with the Giant Pandas of Chengdu

 A romp with the Giant Pandas of Chengdu 

My friend Nirad Pandya, a resident of Shanghai until last year, had prevailed upon me to visit him whilst he was there.  Both of us had finally decided to go on a Chongqing to Yichang cruise to see the famous Yangtze Three Gorges Dam, a trip finally coming to fruition after many years for me (see my blog on that trip). But before that, we definitely had to see the famous Giant Panda Breeding Centre in the northern suburbs of Chengdu, Sichuan Province.  The important thing was to be there at feeding time (8.30 to 10.30 am) as it’s always popular. Everyone has seen photos of Giant Pandas and when we saw them from near, we were just love struck! We did not want to leave!

The Centre is a vast area, over 100 hectares, with three main enclosures. Lots of tourists but luckily not as many as we found later in the day when leaving – hordes! Ideally get your ticket for the main entry from your hotel as it saves on queuing; the queues can be really long on certain days. On entry, you can get tickets for the electric carts or walk.

 Map above and itineraries suggested by the Centre below............
The Centre recommends one starts from the top and walk downwards, so we took the cart to the top and decided to walk downwards as I hate uphill climbs.  The top enclosure is for adult white pandas. Then lower, the main enclosure for red pandas. And finally, towards the exit but still far from the road, are the sub adult white pandas.

The whole place is high tech and extremely well designed so that the buildings are all well covered by the natural foliage of bamboos primarily until you come upon them. 

One of the many sayings placed around the Centre

They have a Panda Hospital, Panda kitchen and many nurseries. Various exhibit components, interactive touch screens, multimedia and most important, dual language (English and Chinese) signs everywhere make it a great experience for a visitor. The Giant Panda Science Discovery Centre shows research labs and the Panda Story Cinema reveals the natural history of the panda breeding, life in captivity and conservation. The whole gamut of the panda’s life is explained in detail at various locations and in surroundings which blend in with the greenery. Great care has been given to keep a natural habitat and to keep it clean, which despite the numerous visiting Chinese groups, they do keep clean.

At the base area, there are nearly 400 different types of trees, including ginkgo, magnolia, chinar, and willows. Multiple species of bamboo and acres of grass and floral areas cover the zone. Egrets, peacocks and black swans fly around the lake. Despite the hordes of people, except in the open areas where they are more visible, you don’t find them in your face due structured curving paths 

It was good that we took the cart as the steepish walk is mainly uphill westwards which takes one hour or more to climb. The cart dropped us off at Marker # 20. There are in fact three buildings here but we chose # 20 = Number 2 House for Giant Pandas.At each stop, one has to go off the road some distance and then depending upon the site, the walk can be up, down or straight. We were not aware that as you finish each unit, you come back to the main road.  The house was not visible for a few metres and then amidst some scrub, a large rather oddly shaped three storey grey concrete building rising from the ground. To get to it, you go down many steps and across a ropeway. The entrance is unimposing with murky dirty glass doors. A small corridor leads to a door and suddenly you are exposed to an enclosure where a panda is sitting chewing bamboo shoots, about 20 metres away. This first sight you never forget. You will recall many pandas later but this is unforgettable. 

Si Yuan, a 10 year old female, was to the left of us, back to wall, chewing her bamboo breakfast. Each panda enclosure has a board detailing serial #, name, age, sex and a few lines on that panda’s habits / idiosyncrasies.        

The Chinese have learnt from the Americans in detailing and highlighting trivia making the visit interesting. The pandas are all around in separate wedge shaped outer enclosures with their own personal area inside the central core. They sit out in the open during feeding time or otherwise just lie on the stomach on a wooden platform and lots of green cover. Each building is surrounded by a deep moat. 

Xiao Yatou, a six years old female is a crowd puller. As her board states, “she knows she is cute and her favourite pastime is making faces at visitors”. When we arrived, she began with a slow roll from her wooden vertical platform ledge to the ground. All pandas have very sharp long claws so climbing trees and descending is not a problem.

She knew all about PR; she would stop at frequent paces for photo ops! Eventually, she came right up to the edge of the moat, presented her stomach to us, posed cutely and went off! But just look at her claws! 

Next door, two sub adults sat on a tree branch at different heights totally unconcerned with each other. 

There are about 10 - 15 pandas in each enclosure. We did notice that they are really messy fussy eaters. They grab a bamboo shoot, peel off the top in a sideways motion, bite a chunk off and discard the rest. Close observation showed they eat only the soft fleshy part. What happens to the rest we don’t know but the Centre buys bamboos from Chengdu farmers as the internal bamboo resource are not sufficient. We saw a van carrying large blue tubs stacked with 2 to 3 ft long bamboo pieces. 

 The next enclosure was of the Red Pandas – a strange shy breed which tries to hide from visitors. They look like a mix between a raccoon and a fox. If I had not been told that these are red pandas, I would have thought they were a form of raccoon. They are arboreal creatures, spending a lot of time in trees. They come down to earth for water, food and breeding.

Generally they are active at dusk and dawn but the ones we saw were active moving around. According to our guide, they communicate by facial expressions and body postures, voice, by scent and sometimes physical contact. They are generally solitary or sometimes in small groups. Each animal has black legs and underbelly making it difficult for a predator to see them from below. The upper body is red and white thereby good cover in the natural environment. They have an extended wrist bone which allows them to grip bamboo.  Each ear has a tuft of white hair sticking out at an angle. Its diet consists of bamboo leaves, berries, blossoms, fruits, grasses and birds eggs. The animal is mercurial in temper and visitors are warned about not coming close. 

We were walking by the first red panda enclosure when I saw one come out from a hole in the fence. I was literally three feet away. We all thought it had escaped, but in fact, it walked, with me just ahead of it, down the 15 – 20 steps to another hole in its fence and disappeared. Obviously it knew that these openings were for its use. Photographing a red panda is difficult as once it knows it’s being observed, it turns away from you and tries to go into the brush. We saw them eat meat balls from a metal tray put for their meals. There were quite a few separate enclosures for them but these were more spread out as compared to the giant pandas. It looked a sad animal compared to the majesty of its white brethren. One of them took its time cleaning its whiskers and it reminded me exactly of a cat’s grooming itself.

In the third enclosure, we saw many sub adult pandas, with and without a parent. They loved frolicking around and one set of three cubs and a female were real crowd pullers as the kids gamboled and played over along a bench and rolled over, under and alongside. 

At the last sub adult enclosure, we saw six or seven pandas together. Suddenly in the distance, firecrackers went off and not used to such a noise, they ran squealing back towards their cages.

The keeper wanting to ensure no harm came to them went into the inner area and calling each animal by name, loudly 3 or 4 times, gave a meat ball to each. Then, he hosed down the whole area to ensure good hygiene. 
 

Meandering at our own pace, we passed the cinema where a film was showing on panda life. There are 2 or 3 shops, some shops selling Panda related shirts, curios, scattered around the whole area but these again are well located so that you come upon them suddenly. The toilets are clean and modern, there was one at the top which had a fancy Japanese made Western style toilet with all mod-cons – heater, automatic seat cover changer, a bidet, water jet spray and also a ‘bum dryer’!  
All this at a Panda centre! 

Towards the eastern end of the park is a big lake where black swans and hundreds of koi are fed by visitors. We finished seeing the pandas at 12.15 pm, just in time for an early lunch at Zhu Yun Can Ting Café.

Like all up market restaurants, it had a photo menu featuring its delicacies on offer – braised turtle rim and bamboo fungus; stewed fish lips and tomato; steamed meat in bamboo tube; cooked rabbit meat; stir fried egg and bamboo fungus or bamboo fungus eggs with pickled peppers. To our eyes, the items are innovative and as the Chinese eat anything that moves, all popular to them. We had an interesting selection for our own meal – absolutely superb food – stir fried goat cheese (tofu), bamboo fungus with spicy sauce and finally shrimps with fried rice nest and potted green vegetables.

 

The rice nest was strange in taste – tasteless. This area has Schezwan style cooking so they use an awful lot of cut red chillies in each dish – the chilly is not that spicy, it’s for the flavour. On average, I think one can consider a large tea mug  full of red chillies used per dish. 

It was a satisfying day as we had seen these gentle endangered beasts in their own habitat. 

The Centre has an annual programme – “Jan – Feb – raising cubs. March – May – courtship and mating. March – July - cubs grow in adolescence. Aug- Oct – cubs are born, hand rearing, maternal care. Nov – Dec – same as previous months except no births. Throughout the year there is panda training.” 

One can now understand how and why the Chinese are masters in Panda conservation and it’s a blessing that they have not appeared on Chinese menus as yet.

Text and photographs copyright of the author. No part of this article or photographs maybe transmitted or reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Do contact the author on email -- helpthesun@gmail.com

Driving around the Turkish countryside

The Commonwealth Overland Expedition - Cambridge coach 1968

Flashback 1968 Comex or Commonwealth Overland Expedition to India, a convoy of eleven coaches travelling from England to India (and back), was greeted in the Turkish mountain countryside, en route to Mt Ararat and Iran, by young kids throwing stones – I was a member of that Expedition - we lost six windscreens on the way out and five on the way back. Made one a bit wary of the type of reception to expect when we stopped! The people were unused to strangers in large coaches crossing their rough mountainous terrain on roads which were at times just rough tracks and where many overturned lorries lay by the roadside.
I shall have to write an article on this wonderful 10 week expedition when we travelled from England across to the continent, crossing the Bosphurus and then onto Asia, covering nearly 700 kms across the width of Iran's corrugated desert roads and finally into Afghanistan. The Indians gave the Pakistanis in our group a visa to visit India but Pakistan did not return the favour, so we flew from Kabul to Delhi and back for the return journey.

Faralya - mist on the mountains

Fast forward – summer 2010 driving from Denizli via Fethiye, Faralya, Antalya and Konya to Goreme, a distance of over 1,600 kms. That Comex trip was on my mind but the country has undergone a metamorphosis. Excellent roads,  clean rest stops and people were incredibly friendly - they still love Indians – Bollywood having created an impact like no other, even in the remote countryside.

Now desperate to be part of the EU, Turkey is more European than Asian – shop owners quote to you in Euros, though the official currency is the Turkish pound/lire, to which your purchase is then converted, so you suffer a double whammy!  The Turks introduced coffee to Europe and gave the Dutch their famous tulips. It is the only country with a capital straddling two continents - Istanbul was named by the European Union as the European Capital of Culture in 2010. Turkey is full of history – the Gordian knot was tied here; the Trojan wars and King Midas were here; St. Nicholas (known as Santa Claus) was born in Patara and became the Bishop of Demre on Turkey’s Mediterranean Coast. Turkey is noted for having one of the three most famous and distinctive traditional cuisines in the world.

A week of sightseeing in Istanbul and prior detailed study of the distances and modes of transport revealed that

·      The train system is not as developed as India’s – they take a long time for a short distance. The State Railways online ticket reservation and purchase system is designed for Turks living in Turkey. To buy the ticket, you need a travel agent and an routing which may not be what you want.

·      Planes are frequent and not that expensive but rotate around the hubs of Istanbul or Ankara –to get anywhere in between, one has to return to the nearest hub. This is tiresome when going to many places as you waste at least half a day.

·      Bus / coach travel is fast and many companies offer services, but terminals are not centrally located. Shuttle buses take pax to Caglayan (European) terminal or Atasehir (Asian) terminal in Istanbul. If you are staying in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district – downtown with all the sights, none of these are convenient – the main Buyuk Otogar is 10 kms away. With 168 ticket offices and gates, a Metro station, shops, mosque and police station etc., it’s a small village on its own. Large coach companies also have their own terminals making life more complicated. Generally, the coaches have AC, entertainment, snacks etc. Rest stops are made routinely.

·      You can take excursions from Istanbul by coach to any city but that means returning to home base.

·      Car hire is the best – it’s not expensive and the car companies offer services of their agents across the country in case of difficulty / accidents. The only problem I faced is that most pumps and hotels don’t accept AMEX cards – so carry Visa or Mastercard as alternatives or cash. Car companies are many so bargain hard for a good deal.

Turkey’s main regions, each with its own sights and historical significance, are

·         The Mediterranean region

·         Central Anatolia

·         The Black Sea Coast

·         Eastern Anatolia

·         Central Anatolia and the Aegean coast

·         The Black Sea Coast with Eastern Anatolia

There is so much to see, in a way like India, that we prioritized – to drive from Denizli to Goreme touching spots along the Mediterranean but essentially driving inland, and if we had time  to see Amasya’s caravanserais. We avoided the west coast and flew to Denizli, as crossing the Sea of Marmara from Istanbul to Bursa and then southwards would take another two days. 

Whilst the Indian international driving license made it easy to rent a car, most Turks outside Istanbul, do not speak fluent English so hiring the car can be a challenge in itself - remember the essentials – check what’s offered, see it matches to the contract, ensure you take complete photos of the car before leaving the car rental company (to show in case of false claims when returning it – this proved providential for me in Italy), get the list of emergency contacts, and avoid a hefty deposit or drop fee if the car is left in another city.

A medium car (4 door, 5 seater, 2 large+2 small bags) unlimited mileage, collision damage waiver, theft insurance, local taxes - V.A.T. 18 %, 24 hours road assistance costs between Stg Pds 250 to Stg Pds 500 for 12 days, depending upon the car rental firm you choose. We preferred to pick up the car from outside Istanbul and drop it off elsewhere rather than return to Istanbul – thereby not wasting time. It’s also cheaper to rent a car outside Istanbul. GPS, additional headlights and car insurance are extra – latter depends upon your age and experience. Rental with a driver is more expensive: an English speaking driver costs around 40.00 EUR/day and you may not get a fluent English speaker! Outside Istanbul, his accommodation and meals are paid by you - a basic 'pension' or bunk room for him costs approximately 20-25 EUR/night and another 15 EUR/day for meals.

We rented our car at Denizli airport from a charming couple who spoke no English but were keen on renting. After the formalities (conducted in sign language and English on my part with them speaking Turkish and often on cell phone through their principals in Istanbul who translated our requirements to them) they escorted us in the right direction, gifted us a whole bag of different breads for the journey and wished us well. 

  First stop - Pamukkale, a World Heritage site, famous for its white dazzling Travertines – a rock formation caused by hard and semi crystalline and forms terraced pools and small waterfalls - it’s an impressive sight from near or afar – rising like a vast cotton castle. It is Turkey’s most famous mineral spa. The thermal water is transported to the travertines by a 320 m long channel and deposits itself on a section 65 – 75 m long covering an expanse of over 300 m. The stratified stone grows depositing calcium carbonate around 3 to 5 cms per annum.

The hot springs are full of Russian tourists swimming or taking the cures – water temp is an average 35 degrees.

Hierapolis, the ancient Roman city, is next to the Travertines – a nice long walk amongst the ruins invigorates one. From a distance, you see a line of humans, like ants, walking along the cliff face straining to reach the top. its a stiff climb.

Often you will find local men chasing you on a motorbike gesturing you to stop. There is nothing wrong with your vehicle – these guys just want to sell you something or earn some money from selling you a service – hotel, restaurant etc. We moved on to Fethiye, on the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient name of the city is Telmessos where you can see a fortress on the hill overlooking the city which was built by Knights of Rhodes.

Today the majority of ancient ruins are elaborately carved rock-tombs in the cliff faces, Lycian-type sarcophagi, the fortress and the Roman Theatre. The 4^thC BC Amnytas tomb is built in Doric architecturalstyle. The beach and the Sovalye Island are perfect destinations for beach lovers. The bay forms the dreamlike Belcegiz - Ölüdeniz or Blue Lagoon, three kms of natural beach and crystal blue waters. The nearby Kelebekler (Butterfly) Valley at the foot of a steep and deep valley where thousands of butterflies exhibit tremendous shades of colors, fly amongst the pine forest bordering the lovely beach.       

Whilst driving around in this region, we came across a Turkish wedding and were invited to the Henna ceremony.  It was evening and past sunset and we were all seated around in a large circle in the open playground. It was slightly chilly. Being foreigners,our hotel owner had managed to get us good seats so we could watch the ceremony. The couple arrived  to the sound of a blaring band and fireworks. After greeting the main family members, they danced western style.

After a while, a group of ladies brought many diyas on a silver salver and danced in a circle. Then when seated, various family members came and gave them gifts.  The couple sat with the traditional red head cloth  covering their heads and whilst giving a gift, each lady would whisper marital advice to the bride... sounds familiar as its so similar to our weddings.

One of my favourite cities was Antalya - it has an old town which is really interesting to walk in. We stayed there a few days and walked and walked everywhere. One did not need the car as its a comfortable walking zone.
                                                                   

The Mediterranean coast road is a beautiful drive – not unlike the Sorrento – Amalfi route in its beauty but far more natural and less commercialized. Actually driving on Turkish roads is a pleasure as there are excellent highways which are generally two lane motorways each way, even in the mountains, and drivers are not reckless. 

Rumi's tomb was a wonderful experience. Serence and calm. No photography inside. At the back were various tombstones with typical Turkish caps made of stone mounted on columns. The minaret has an incredible cerulean greeny blue colour.There is a large garden and we were lucky to find a good English speaking guide whose real job was selling carpets.

 








One takes the normal precautions when driving but there are surprises – driving along the road to Konya to see Rumi’s tomb, the speedometer read 107 km / hr. In the distance, a policeman stepped onto the road and waved me to lay-by where a cop car waited.

 I apologized in Turkish (my guide book was excellent), hoping to be forgiven but very politely, my documents were taken, checked, noted and I was issued a ticket – the speed limit is 100 kms and I was only doing 7 kms excess, so my fine was proportional – only Rs 5,160 which I could not pay to the cops. It has to be deposited within one month in a bank – a great way to stop corruption. So beware of cops with radar on Turkish highways as the roads invite you to drive fast and the fine is steep. The Turkish police stopped me the very next day again, a surprise as I was well within the speed limit, but this time I found they were recording all hire cars travelling in this area – as a security check. 

 

The countryside was in full bloom with flowers all along the highways. Driving from Konya, after paying respects to Rumi and where the famous Pakistani poet Muhammed Iqbal’s tomb is in the same mosque, we drove to Cappadocia - Turkey's most visually striking region. it is awesome in its uniqueness.

The "moonscape" area around the towns of Ürgüp, Göreme, Uçhisar, and Avanos, where volcanic eruptions and erosion have formed caves, clefts, "fairy chimneys" and sensuous folds in the soft volcanic rock. 

The major activities are seeing the historic painted cave churches of the monasteries, flying in a hot air balloon   at dawn above the incredible landscape, hiking the volcanic valleys, and spending a few nights in the unusual but very comfortable cave hotels.

Twenty five balloons were seen by me at 6.00 am the day of our early departure.

The volcanic landscape appears inhospitable but it’s mineral-rich soil makes Cappadocia a rich agricultural region famous for vineyards and wineries. 









For an excellent excursion, drive to the underground cities at Derinkuyu  or Kaymakli...............

........(the largest of the 37 underground cities used by Byzantine Christians to take refuge from Arab and Persian armies – not unlike the Cu-Chi tunnels near Saigon) and the former Ottoman-Greek mountain town of Güzelyurt before taking a fascinating hike of several hours in the Ihlara Valley.

Our most memorable trip was in this valley – we had driven right around Sellime and towards Belisirma. We decided to be different and take a lesser travelled circuitous road which soon became very mountainous with very few isolated cars / local buses. Incredibly lonely but driving in such desolate though beautiful high mountain countryside alone can be a serene experience as there is nobody between you and God.  

An important aspect in driving around Turkey is to be aware of the road signs which are plentiful and in English but which very often are at the exact turnoff you want – at 90 kms, it’s difficult to suddenly turn off the road, so you have to go further up for a U-turn and then get back on the right road. At times, you might be foxed, as we were, when driving from Goreme to Nevsehir airport to return the car. The airport is named after Nevsehir, but it’s nowhere near that city – its to the north west. Road signs from Goreme showed the airport sign regularly, but after Gulsehir, on that one and only road, there was no sign for 22 kms! We drove on, having faith in ourselves and the fact that we were nearly four hours ahead of reporting time for the local plane.

Returning the car on time is important – whilst I had checked four times that the agent would be present, when we reached the airport there was no one. So Denizli Rentals told us to leave the car with the local police – they agreed as we did and the process was fast and simple. But you may not be so lucky !

Julius Caesar proclaimed his celebrated words "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered) in Turkey when he defeated the Pontus, a formidable kingdom in the Black Sea region of Turkey. We came, we saw and we promised to return again to see what we missed this time around. Turkey is a wonderful country to visit again and again, for its cultural heritage, its range of culinary delights, its polite hospitable people and  its amazingly diverse countryside.

Text and photographs copyright of the author. No part of this article or photographs maybe transmitted or reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Do contact the author on email -- helpthesun@gmail.com