We woke up this morning to cloudy skies outside and a light drizzle, but the forecast was for the rain to stop about 7:00 AM, so we were hopeful we would not get any rain on our excursion today because it was all outside.
We set an alarm for 5:15 AM so we could get ready and go to the buffet breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We needed to be in the lobby at 7:00 AM to meet with our group for our excursion to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. We had to have our large suitcases packed and outside of the room by 6:00 AM this morning so they could be collected and taken to the airport for our flight to Lhasa, Tibet later this afternoon.
The breakfast was good, but there were a lot of items on the buffet for breakfast that were odd, just not things we would even consider breakfast items, but apparently are favored by the Chinese guests.
After breakfast, we headed back upstairs to get the rest of our gear packed. We had to carry an extra backpack today so I could take my camera with us to the panda facility, plus, I also wanted to take my zoom lens which I had brought specifically for today, not knowing how close we could get to the pandas for photos. The camera bag I normally carry all of the gear in is just too heavy to use as a day backpack, there is too much other electronic gear in it. I also wanted to carry my monopod to help support the large and heavy zoom lens, so we had to take that out of the checked baggage and also have it in the backpack for the excursion.
The plan for today is to visit the panda research base, eat lunch, and then head to the airport for our flight to Lhasa, Tibet.
We all boarded our bus and headed to see the pandas. On the way, during the 50-minute drive, our guide Michael told us some information about the pandas in China and this particular Panda facility. There are a total of four panda research facilities in China, and they all specialize in different things. Some are for retired pandas that were kept at zoos throughout the world. The pandas are normally just on loan to the zoos, but can be gone for many years and when they return, they are kept in this facility since many of them are older. The one we are going to is specifically set up for breeding pandas because the population had diminished because of a problem with the bamboo forests many years ago. Bamboo is the primary diet of the pandas.
Michael explained to us that In one particular season a number of years ago when he was young, almost all of the bamboo had “flowered”, and this typically happens once every several years, and it typically happens to just a portion of the bamboo forests when it does happen. Once the bamboo flowers, it dies.
In this particular year, for some reason, a large percentage of the bamboo in the panda habitat flowered and then died, and then there was not enough left for the pandas to eat, so many of them died and that resulted in a drastic reduction in the panda population.
This happened in the late 1970’s. The Chinese government then set up these research facilities to specialize in increasing the panda population in China. This particular facility had set a goal of having 300 panda cubs born there, and they have exceeded that goal. These pandas are not released back into the wild, that is done at another facility because they can’t have any human interaction, so the breeders there have to literally wear panda costumes so the pandas don’t get used to being around humans.
We arrived and the bus parked in a lot that was about a 15-minute walk from the facility entrance. After we exited the bus, we first had to walk at least 10 minutes past booths set up by street vendors, most of which were not yet open for business since we were early.
Michael, our guide, did stop at one vendor and bought all the ladies in our group a set of panda ears to wear on their heads.
We arrived at the entrance and there were special barriers set up in anticipation of large crowds since this is the last day of the national holiday. Our local guide said these barriers are not normally here, and we had to serpentine through them.
We headed through the ticketing area and had to wait on the guide to get our entrance tickets. I think these are paid in advance so they are just collecting the tickets on the day of entry.
We actually passed through the normal exit for tour groups that was being used as a secondary entrance today in anticipation of the crowds, I am sure they have seen this every day since the holiday started almost a week ago.
Once inside, we walked for about five minutes to an area to board some electric vehicles, sort of oversized golf carts that would hold about 18 persons. It took two vehicles to get our group on board since we are 22 in number. These vehicles took us up to the main area where the pandas were kept. Our guide Michael told us that sometimes the line is very long to get on these vehicles, but people can walk up to the drop-off point, which seemed to be all uphill and was quite a trek.
After everyone was dropped off and there still was quite a walk to get to the first section of panda areas. Each area is forested and also has man-made items to play and climb on. The pandas are kept in concrete areas at the top of the forested areas.
They generally just open the doors to the panda houses and they are free to come out as they please. They put out bamboo food for the pandas and this generally entices them to come out, and the morning time is best, another reason we had come this early, it was time for breakfast.
We started down a path and it was not hard to tell where there were pandas out in their forested areas, there were crowds of people gathered there for pictures. At the first stop, there was one panda out and he/she was playing in the trees. I put on my zoom lens so I could get better photos since it was not that close.
In the next area, there was one panda and he was sleeping in a tree. It was amazing to see them this close. We walked a bit farther and then there were four pandas eating together in one area really close to the walkway. At first, we only thought there were three, but after we went a bit farther along, we could see the fourth one. These pandas were all eating bamboo and playing. Two were on the ground and two were on top of a wooden structure. Of course, there was a large crowd here trying to see them and we had to sort of push our way to the front and take up spaces along the railing when people vacated those front-row spots. Everyone was taking photos and videos, and Stephane got some great videos of these pandas.
We walked through a building that was used as a nursery where thought we might see small baby pandas, but there was nothing open inside on display. However, there were some pictures showing how small baby pandas are when they are born, about the size of a rat. This was also the path through to the other end. Once we got through there, there were a few more areas for pandas. We did not see any at first, but our guide asked one of the guards and he said their sleeping areas were open, they were just not out yet.
There was one panda at the last area but it was far up in the forested area and was hard to see.
From there, we had to walk a bit more to the red panda area. This was all pretty hilly terrain, so it was not always easy walking. Along the sides of the path, there was a lot of bamboo growing. We had seen an area that had recently been planted on the way into the facility, and the bamboo is planted in bunches, about 20-30 stalks in each group. It made for a nice walk in the morning sunshine that was finally breaking through the clouds.
We walked up a pretty steep hill to the red panda exhibition area. There are two types of red pandas in China, one has a more white face, and the other has a face with just a small amount of white and more of the natural red color. The ones they have at this facility are the more red-faced variety, more common to the region we are in.
We entered through a double-door entry area, security against the pandas escaping. We did not have to go far before we saw a crown of people signifying there were pandas to see. There were two red pandas eating bamboo there, and a third was walking on an elevated wooden platform farther away. Once again, we had to fight through the crowds to get photos. The red pandas look more like a raccoon, both in size and in shape. They have a red tail with light black stripes, just like a raccoon. They have a color more like a red fox.
I headed down quite a few steps to try and get a photo of the last red panda walking on the elevated wooden platform, but by the time I got there, he/she had moved up to the first area where I had jut let from and I missed it altogether. Stephanie had stayed up on the first level and she got a great video of it walking right overhead to the other side, going over the top of the people standing there.
We left the red panda exhibit and headed to another pick-up point for the electric carts to take us back down to the entrance area. We had to wait on three different carts since there were some people that were not part of our tour waiting in line ahead of us.
Once we got down to the drop-off point, we walked back to the main entrance where there was a souvenir store for shopping. It was not a large store, and by the time our group was inside, along with a few other people, it got really crowded inside. The souvenirs here were of better quality than the street vendors according to our guide, so we bought a couple of items here.
When everyone was done shopping, we exited the facility and walked out to the bus parking area. Of course, we had to walk past all of the street vendors we had passed earlier this morning to get back to our bus. They were all open, and pretty aggressively hawking their wares. Stephanie had wanted to purchase a small red panda key chain for her backpack, but no one had one, only the normal black/white pandas. She ended up getting a small red panda with magnetic feet, it was the only small red pada item that anyone there had to sell, and we looked at all of the vendor’s booths.
There was a lady flying a kite set in the parking lot, it was a set of about 8-10 small kites all strung together to fly in a vertical line. At first, we did not see the helium balloon that she had on the end to keep them up, and I had wondered how they were flying so well without much wind. Our guide told her that these kites did work without the balloon, she was just using it because of the light breeze today. Stephane purchased one and we will see how it works when we get home. They are made of paper and wood, and that all have a panda design on them, go figure.
We left the panda facility and headed to our lunch spot, a Chinese buffet. It was pretty good, but most of the buffets we eat at have different foods, and it is hard to figure out what might be good to us. Most chicken dishes have just small pieces of chopped-up chicken in them and the chicken pieces still have bones in them, so you have to be careful, just like eating fish. Sometimes the bones are quite small.
After lunch, we headed to the airport for our flight to Lhasa, Tibet. On the way to the airport, Michael told our group that three of the checked luggage bags had been flagged for additional inspection, and Stephanie’s suitcase was one of them. He said we would need to go with him so we could open the bag for inspection once we got to the airport. Our large suitcases had already been transported to the airport from our hotel and were all being checked in before we got there.
When we got to the airport, Stephanie had to make an emergency trip to the bathroom, she was still having some stomach issues, and the lunch had apparently not settled well. We told Michael that she needed to go to the bathroom when we got there and I would go with him for the bag inspections. A few minutes later, I asked about the inspections, and Michael told me that all of the bags were now OK and we did not need to go to the inspection point. We don’t know what it might have been that was flagged. The only item we had that was different was some of the jasmine tea that one of the bartenders on the ship had given us, and maybe it had been detected in a dog sniff search. NOTE: Later in the trip, we also thought it may have been our Clemson and South Carolina flags that showed up in the x-ray, they have some political issues in Tibet and no one is allowed to display flags there that may support the Tibetan government in their struggle against the Chinese. We may try to elaborate more on that later in another post.
We got checked in at the gate and got seats together for the flight to Lhasa. Security was pretty tight for this flight, again because of political tensions between Tibet and China. It was more likely due to foreign interference issues surrounding Tibet more than the Tibetan and Chinese themselves. We all had to line up according to the list of names on our group Tibetan Entry Permit, and then proceed through security in that order. Each person had to hand over their passport and look into a screen for facial recognition.
For some reason, our line was moving about half as fast as the one next to us that had another Viking tour group in it. There was some issue with the camera on our security station. It looked like there was too much background light from the windows at the airport, and the glare was causing issues for the facial recognition. Michael tried to get our group moved over to the other station that had already completed the security check for the other Viking group, we were not even half way finished. There were some regular passengers in that line, but the security people let us go in front of them, and things finally started moving, this station was much faster. Once this passport/permit check was done, we entered the next room for the security scanning for us and our carry on items.
We went through the carry-on and metal detection part of security without incident, and then headed to the gate. Once there, we still had to wait about an hour to board.
The flight left on time and was scheduled to be just short of two hours in duration. We were seated on the aisle and next to the aisle seat in the middle of a 3 x 4 x 3 seating configuration. The other two seats were occupied by another couple in our group. It was nice to finally get seats together.
The weather was nice, and I am sure there were great views, but we were too far from a window to see anything outside as we flew over the mountains. We were served a lunch/snack, it was a roll, some fruit and something else in our lunch box, nothing hot this time. We were still full from lunch, so we did not eat much of anything. Stephane tried the roll and it was sweet.
When we thought we were almost to Lhasa according to the schedule, the flight attendant announced that we were going to be about 30 minutes late arriving. We had noticed the plane had slowed down, but we thought it was part of the normal descent into Lhasa. Of course, they did not adjust the 40-minute bathroom closure with the now delayed arrival, so people started to get up to use the restroom. The flight attendants unlocked them for a while longer.
We landed in Lhasa and the flight attendants announced that they were opening the airplane’s doors, and we might feel a sensation from the higher altitude when they were opened. Apparently, the plane was still at flight altitude, which is normally about 5,000 ft., but we were now at almost 12,000 feet here at the airport.
We did not notice anything at that moment, but as we were deplaning, and walking to the terminal building to go to baggage claim, we could tell we were much higher in elevation, we were all breathing harder as we walked.
We arrived at baggage claim and retrieved our two bags and then followed Michael and our local guide to the waiting bus in the parking lot. The airport was sort of a disaster, it was really crowded, especially in the parking lot, people were all trying to get out of the lot, which was apparently a paid [parking lot, so it really slowed things up as cars paid to exit. We had to weave in and out of cars that were barely moving to get to our bus. We finally arrived and boarded the bus, which was much smaller than normal bus size. We were told the buses were limited to carrying 22 persons each for tourist buses in Lhasa, which was our group size.
Once we were all finally on the bus, our local Tibetan guide gave us each a white scarf, tying it around our necks, one by one, as a tradition to welcome us to Lhasa.
It took about 30 minutes for our bus to get out of the parking lot. Then we had about an hour’s drive to the hotel in Lhasa. On the way, our local guide, who was dressed in a native outfit, told us something about Tibet and tried to teach us some common phrases in Tibetan. About 30 minutes into the drive, the traffic on the two-lane highway came to a halt.
There had been a wreck up ahead and we were stuck in a traffic jam. Several emergency vehicles passed us on the shoulder heading to the accident. We then came to a tunnel, so we thought the wreck may have been in the tunnel itself, but we were wrong. We were stuck in traffic for about 40 minutes and it was getting late. Stephane was not feeling well on the ride, it was either some of the exhaust from the bus and cars as we crept along, it some of the altitude, or both.
We were supposed to eat at the hotel’s buffet for dinner, which closed at 8:30 PM according to our guide. It was almost 7:45 PM when we finally got through the accident site, which did not seem as bad as the amount of backup it had created.
We finally arrived at the hotel and got off the bus and were given our hotel keys. The lobby was on the third floor, and our room was on the first floor. For some reason, we always seem to get rooms on the lowest floor compared to some of our traveling companions, and we always seem to be with the same people, so the rooms must be assigned by a list, and maybe we are at the top with a last name that starts with a “B”.
I headed to dinner since it was already 8:25 PM, and wanted to get there before it closed. Stephanie just laid down and rested. I think they may have stayed open a little longer since some of the groups arrived later than scheduled because of the wreck. I ate and got a bowl of steamed plain rice for Stephanie and took it back to the room. She was feeling better, but still not 100%, and ate a little of the rice.
We have an oxygen concentrator in the room and we messed with it trying to make it work. The screen was hard to read until Stephanie found a backlight for it, and then we could see the screen much better. It also has an oxygen level and heart rate finger monitor, so we used that to test our oxygen levels. Mine did not seem bad, but Stephanie’s was a little low, so she put herself on a Liter of O2. The monitor was very inconsistent, so we were not sure how accurate it really was.
We had been taking our special medicine for altitude adjustment starting last night in Chengdu, and another this morning before we left there, so hopefully, they will help us to adjust. We decided Stephanie would use a minimum amount of 02 during the night to help her oxygen levels, but we did not want her to use too much so she would not adjust normally.
We were exhausted from today’s events and travel and the altitude was not helping. We headed to bed at about 10:30 PM. We do not have an early start tomorrow, we do not have to meet up with the group until 9:00 AM in the hotel lobby.
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