pandamonium

get it? get it?

after a few days of leaving strav and steve to their own devices (which mostly consisted of oreos and sight seeing), jesse came on thursday. his plane got in on time (shockingly!) and we had a great dinner at cheers, where strav turned his charm up high. after a lot of smiles and a good meal, we hit the sack.

the next morning we were up early, and took a cab to Panda Headquarters, Chengdu. Basically a big panda zoo, the enclosures were spacious, with a ton of bamboo and jungle gym type apparatuses. we got there at 8 when it opened, and were disappointed by the lack of giant pandas. my guide book said that after 10, when they've been fed, they become basically comatose. we walked around for a while until they began feeding. i think you may have had to been here to understand, but they were so human.

the bamboo is put into holes drilled into the ground, so it stands as if it grew there. the adult pandas waddle over, take a seat, and rip a stalk off. they peel it with their teeth, and begin to munch away with abandon, every so often stopping to get another stalk. one kept hitting another in the face with the shoots, but neither seemed to care. it was great.

we then walked up to the panda cub enclosure, where there were about 8-10 panda cubs playing and eating. they would climb over the jungle gyms, fight, and chase the scrubs-clad zoo keeper around. pretty cute.

after that we saw some red pandas, which look like a cross between a fox and a raccoon that climbs trees. we could have had our pictures taken with it, but 50 kuai seemed a little much. maybe next year. after that, we walked around a little, then headed back home. we arrived at school at about 11. not bad for a morning's work.