A Journey to Well Known Places

I went to see the giant Pandas yesterday and the WenShou temple the day before that.

The temple was an experience that few westerners could enjoy as much as I did. In the late eighties the game ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ came out for Nintendo and I was hooked. I spent hours in front of the TV and later a computer screen conquering a virtual 220AD China. The characters in the game are pulled straight out of Chinese history and this temple celebrates the heroes of ancient Shu (my favorites in the game). ChengDu is the capital of the old Shu kingdom. The game was the strain of several relationships, even prompting one girlfriend in college to declare that she ‘would not compete with a &^*# computer.’ I still own a version of the game today, but I haven’t talked to her in years (although my video gaming has become much more managible). The temple is 2000 years old. After all that time playing the game I knew the stories of the people honored in this temple and it was neat to see their statues. So yeah, I am a geek.

Yesterday some travel friends and I rented bikes and rode 10k outside of town to the Giant Panda Breeding Center. It was a nice ride, if not a little hot. The pandas are so freaking cute. You almost forget that they are huge bear looking racoons when you look at them, so peacefully sleeping away. And because we got there in the afternoon that is all they were doing…..sleeping away. Pandas spend 40% of the day sleeping and the rest eating. Also pandas, like some married couples, only do it once a year. The pandas because it takes too much energy and panda females are only ‘receptive’ for 1-2 days a year. That is a very short window. If you are a panda guy you really have bring your A game on that day. If you are feeling under the weather it could be another four seasons before you get another shot.

There are only 1000 panda’s left in the wild (probably because they only do it once a year). Unlike so many other national treasures in China, the pandas are very well taken care of and protected. To the point that you are not allow to take pictures of young or sleeping pandas with a flash in case you damage their eyes or disturn their sleep. Want a piece of the Great Wall? Well, just bend down and pick it up. Want to touch the 2000 year old Buddha? Well, just reach out and touch him. Want a picture of a sleeping panda? Maybe, if the lighting is right and you don’t disturb their sleep.

Today is a laundry day and tonight I am having Tex Mex. I am curious to see how the Chinese do enchiladas.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 3:27 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.