I had
agreed with Andy to meet at 7.30 am in the hotel after breakfast. Before that I
had to get the blog done; it is truly unfortunate that I cannot upload the blog
posts or photos on Facebook. Also to be organized in the car were the few
articles I had picked up from IKEA and Decathlon. All of it was done in time to
be at the dining hall by 6.45. Breakfast was charged Yuan 20, but it was
slightly above basic. I had a couple of toasts, fried egg in cucumber, a small
piece of cake and an apple.
The
Sichuan Province is the home of the Giant Pandas. About 1800 of them are known
to inhabit the wild even now. Chengdu has one of the largest Panda research and
breeding centres in the world. A visit to Chengdu is never complete without a
visit to this home of the Pandas. By 8.30 am Andy and I were among the first to
seek entrance to the park. The playful Panda looks like a cross between a bear
and a raccoon! The panda was one of the mascots of the Beijing Olympics. At the
entrance there is a statue of a mother and child panda in a playful pose.
Visitors try to strike the same pose in front of that for pictures. Large
battery operated carts ferry people from and to various locations within the
park. Andy and I decided to walk and enjoy the wonderfully ‘sculpted’ panda
environment.
Bamboo
is the staple and hence, it is natural that almost the entire park is covered
with the type of bamboo eaten by the panda. The panda eats only 27 varieties of
bamboo. The poor digestive system of the panda makes it eat nearly 25 percent
of its body weight every day! The female is in heat just once a year. She cares
for the litter for almost a year. The young toddler pandas are taught how to
look for food and water by the mother. Pandas are said to be excellent
‘hunters’ of water. The park has
excellent natural surroundings to observe the routine of the pandas without
being intrusive. The park also has a few red pandas. The red pandas are much
smaller than the Giant Pandas and resemble a raccoon more. A short video is
played at regular intervals in a small theatre that showcase the life of a
panda. The exit from the park is through a large number of stalls that sell
panda souvenirs. It is hard to give them a go by!
The
Champion has been a head turner everywhere. The country didn’t matter nor the
place; the branded car was a source of curiosity and appreciation. The parking
lot of the Panda Centre had a fair share of curious onlookers too, even from
among the early morning visitors to the Park. The comfort stations that we
parked in on the freeways also had people coming by to read the stickers. One
of them even came to tell me that the steering was on the wrong side of the
car! On the freeway some would drive abreast, fall back a bit and come up on
the other side to see the stickers on both sides of the car. I suspect that the
Champion has been enjoying all the attention that she was getting! A woman is a
woman, whatever the attire.
By 10
am we were in the car headed to the next destination. The trouble was that the
destination was not clear. Xi’an is over 700 km from Chengdu. Since we were
technically late to cover that before nightfall Andy said that we could take
the decision to halt depending on how we managed the distance. We need not have
worried. The superb network of freeways that seemed to go effortless through
mountains and gorges and over rivers and ravines never once strained the body
or mind. I felt sleepy at times because there was nothing to concentrate on –
no potholes, cattle or people to avoid! And traffic was fast moving and
disciplined, without an exception. Therefore, I pulled up a couple of times
into comfort stations for power naps!
During
the latter part of the drive we crossed over from Sichuan Province to Shan Xi. The
road infrastructure is better in the Yunnan and Shan Xi provinces than in
Sichuan. At some places along the route I saw the old narrow roads that ran
between the provinces. The roads were alongside the mountains then and now it
is through it. It must have been mighty painful to travel across the mountain ranges
before the network of tunnels and bridges were established.
The
highlight of the 760 km drive this day was the Qinling mountain range that runs
from the east of China to the west. It divides the country into its southern
and northern parts. The Pass was an
awesome experience with some of the longest links of bridges and tunnels I have
ever been on. Some of the tunnels never seemed to end and the legs of some of
the bridges were so tall that I wondered if only human effort was involved!
Road warnings were adequately displayed, speed checks were enforced and road
surfacing was top class. Not once did I detect indisciplined road use. The
weather changed dramatically once we got over the Pass. It had been rainy and
cold on one side. The other side, towards Xi’an, was flat and dry, though there
was a slight nip in the air. Xi’an is the first major city in the north and the
beginning of the Silk route
By 4
pm we were quite sure that we would be able to reach Xi’an by 7 pm. And we did,
in the end. Andy found a cheap Inn with free private car parking. For about Rs
1500 the basic room with breakfast was a very good deal. Xi’an is home of the
Terracotta Warriors. It was this that made me decide on this halt destination.
And the hotel is not very far from the sites to visit.
Just a
few buildings away from the 7 Days Inn, where we were staying, is a typical
Chinese restaurant. As in many places in China, as I walked in conversation
ceased and heads turned to ‘take in’ the stranger. But normalcy was restored
once Andy and I occupied a table. I was not very hungry because I had had a tub
of noodles with chilli sauce and a leg of chicken for lunch at one of the
comfort stations. Andy ordered a meal of spicy pork, veggies and rice. I, of
course, began my part of the meal with Tsing Tao beer, a very popular brand.
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