China Chengdu September 2010

     We were so fortunate to have clear skies for our visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Center since Rebecca, our CIT guide, said that it was usually overcast.  I saw Mei Lin, one of the first pandas to arrive in the US at a zoo near Chicago in the 1940’s : therefore,I was very excited to be seeing a number of pandas in more natural surroundings with a lot of dense vegetation, bamboo and climbing areas.  A stroke of luck was seeing 5 two year old pandas playing together on a bamboo platform. 
     A second area featured one year old pandas.  Then we walked by a glass enclosed area where 1 and 2 month olds were being cared for in incubators since mother pandas often reject one of their offspring if it’s a twin.
     Since we had our big meal at lunchtime in the Center, that evening, Kathy, my MT nurse daughter,  took her life in her hands to cross a very busy street with cars whizzing by to get some fruit from a local store and some Tibetan fried dough balls on a stick from a street vendor for a supper snack
     That evening, our driver picked us up to transport us to the Shu Feng Ya Yuh Teahouse where we saw a Sichwan Chinese Opera featuring stick puppets, hand shadows and an amazing presentation of Changing Faces and Costumes in a split second which left us wondering if there was more than one actor involved.  Traditional music accompanied the show which included a woman singing dissonant tunes with a strident voice and the Gaohu (a long necked 2 string violin).