A Journal, with Pictures

Cheng­du is a mod­ern city although it has been inhab­it­ed for over 4000 years. It is the cap­i­tal of Sichuan Province and is an area of agri­cul­tur­al abun­dance and wealth inhab­it­ed by 14.4 mil­lion. Cheng­du is famous for the Giant Pan­da Insti­tute, which we vis­it­ed while stay­ing at the  beau­ti­ful Tem­ple House Hotel. Our first stop was at a Tauist (also known as Dauism) Tem­ple on the way to the hotel. Dauism is a indige­nous reli­gion to Chi­na and we were treat­ed to an expla­na­tion by one of the Monks, who took us into his liv­ing quar­ters, equipped with com­put­er and TV as well as liqueur cab­i­net. Seemed like a sen­si­ble reli­gion to us.

The sec­ond day we vis­it­ed the famous Giant Pan­da Insti­tute. As our guide said if they weren’t cute they would be long ago extinct. They eat non-nutri­tious bam­boo which means they eat sev­en­teen hours a day. They are not so good at repro­duc­tion, one of the prob­lems being very bad eye sight.

Anoth­er is being fer­tile two to three days a year.  The  Pan­da Insti­tute has kept them from extinc­tion with 1800 world wide and 400 in cap­tiv­i­ty. To feed the Pan­da’s the Chines grow, cut and truck bam­boo from the high­lands every day. Each Pan­da con­sumes 40 to 80 pounds per day. They are cute.

While in Cheng­du we vis­it­ed the Sanx­ing­du Muse­um which exhibits the relics from a Bronze age civ­i­liza­tion dis­cov­ered near the city. Sanx­ing­du means three mounds, where in 1929 farm­ers dis­cov­ered arti­facts, and was redis­cov­ered in 1986 which led to the exca­va­tion.  This advanced cul­ture exist­ed around 12 Cen­tu­ry BC and the exhib­it dis­plays some remark­able pieces.