Si Chuan, China Trip 2012 - Part 7

Day 8 - 24th Dec 2012

Baby Giant Panda

Today was the last of the tour package and it is Christmas's eve....we woke up early and left out luggage outside the hotel room. Went down to have our breakfast and we left to begin our tour for today..Going to see Pandas in Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base...Cute cute pandas...hohohoho....We reached the place early, and we took the battery car up to the panda nursery. There is a little small panda inside, sleeping soundly...cute cute....After this, we went to the next area, to see more pandas...Luckily we were the first group to arrive to see the pandas, so we had more time to take photos of the pandas. There were 2 pandas sitting on the tree, eating their bamboo. One of the pandas was hanging on the tree for a while, it can't get over to the other side..so cute..There were another 3 more at the bottom playing with each other too. Everyone was busy taking photos of the pandas and enjoying looking at them.After some time, the tour guides chased us to go another area, but the pandas were not released out for breakfast yet. So the tour guides brought to another area further up, where there were 2 pandas sitting there, eating their breakfast. So funny, they can eat until they just lie down and continue eating the bamboos.hohoho....After some time there, we walked back to the previous enclosure. Then the pandas came out, 1 by 1...they walked towards to the bamboos to eat..they just sat there and started to eat...After spending some time watching the pandas, we walked to a pond, where there were alot of fishes and you can feed them...the tour guide went and got some fish food and started to feed the fishes..even the swans came over to snatch food with the fishes. After feeding the fishes, we took the battery car and went back to the entrance, where we shopped for some souvenirs. My friend got a super cute polar bear wearing panda costume stuffed toy from the shop...(super cute!!Kidnap it home..it is the cutest one in the shop..even those shops in Chun xi road also not so cute..hohoho...). After shopping, we went off to the next stop - Tianmai Jewellery (Jade Museum). When we were there, the lady introduced us how jade is being found and she brought us to a room and in there, she continued to chat with us. She suddenly called out to a young man and asked him whether he wants to introduce himself. He looked kind of blur but still came and introduce himself..Then one of our group members asked him whether he was from Hong Kong and he said he is and asked us whether we understand Cantonese. We said yes and he started to speak in Cantonese. I don't understand all what he said...but roughly he was telling us that he actually was a teacher in HK and he just came over to help out cos his brother was in US for some other meetings. Then he told us that he is still learning on jade and how he got to believe that jades can help to ward off evil after he got an accident a few years back. He even showed us his own big jade. Then he told about how young people should be filial to parents, etc etc...(He can't stop talking...hohoho...). Finally he told his staff to bring out some jades to let us see..he even told us if we cannot take off after wearing, we can bring back free of charge but if only we like it and is only own buying...hohohoho...After this, we went for lunch. It was our upgraded lunch in the whole package - Mushroom Hotpot.

Mushroom Hotpot Lunch

We reached the place, the staff started the hotpot.First of, they let us drink the soup without all the mushrooms. After that, they put in all types of mushrooms in. There was a side dish, pancake type..Quite nice...but is only 1 piece each. The tour guide told us that the staffs will come in and sings during customers are eating..but there was none for us when we were there.. After eating, we set off to the next stop - Dibao Silk. When we arrived, the tour guide passed us to a lady. She was a trainee from Malaysia, who had came here for internship. She was quite cute and she was mixing mandarin,hokkien and cantonese when she is doing the introduction..she basically told us what to look out for when choosing silk. There are different generations of the silks, now is on 5th generation.And she also told us which can buy or cannot buy from the place.hahaha....After spending some time in buying silk bedsheets home, we made our way to Chun Xi Road, which is Chengdu's shopping place (it is like our Orchard Road). It is the last stop of the whole package too. When we arrived, we said goodbye to all the other tour members and the tour guide and leader escorted us to our hotel to check in. After checking in, we went up to our room to rest for a while. Next we went down to explore Chun Xi Road and find food for our dinner. We had korean BBQ for dinner for that night and my friend bought a super big bubble tea for supper...hahhaa...

To be cont'd.....

Places visited:
1. Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base
2. Tianmai Jewellery
3. Dibao Silk
4. Chun Xi Road

Hotel Stayed:
Haiyatt Hotel