Thursday, 16 February 2012

Day 41 Giant Pandas

After opting out of the tour from the hostel which saved us a bit and
gave us longer at the park.We were first to arrive and in the gates of
the research centre at 8am to make sure we saw them active.
We started from the back to avoid the tour groups later and got to the
first enclosure with 2 adult giant pandas just lying on their backs
eating bamboo shoots. The next enclosure we timed perfectly as the
keeper let out 4 panda cubs, now these were pretty damn cute and we
watched, photographed & filmed these little guys climbing trees,
running and play fighting for half an hour. We wondered on towards the
nursery and saw several more adult pandas along the way.
Near the nursery and large cub enclosure there was an opportunity to
have your photo taken with a panda. From research on the Internet and
from the lonely planet it was supposed to be 1000 yuan to hold a baby
panda and 600 to hold an adultesant but when we went to check it out
they were charging 1300yuan & no second option. We looked at a Spanish
girl's photos who had just come out and it was an adultesant she had
the photo with. It also wasn't what we expected, the panda was sitting
in a chair and she was just sitting beside it dressed in scrubs and
wearing protective gloves. It was definitely not worth the €160 they
were charging so we were happy to leave it.
We saw more pandas and got really close to a mother and 3 cubs who
provided great entertainment. The park also had red pandas and a lake
with geese, swans & ducks.
Coming back our bus didn't seem to come so paid 10yuan each to get a
ride back with a typical to china, local non professional taxi about
half the cost a real taxi would have been.
We spent the rest of the day wondering the recreated old town and got
the same great cheap noodle meal for 10yuan each as yesterday.

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