Yesterday we went to the Panda Preserve in Chengdu.\u00a0 It is a huge park reserved for the two kinds of pandas, red and giant.\u00a0 Few people know about the red panda, native to China.\u00a0 It looks like a giant raccoon, except it is reddish brown.\u00a0 The sign said in English, “The red panda can be somewhat fierce.”\u00a0 I thought, “I can be somewhat fierce myself, depending on the situation.” There’s a special place for the pregnant females, away from view.\u00a0 We saw a newborn in an incubator.\u00a0 Three people dressed in blue scrubs wearing masks, were setting up video cameras near the incubator. We saw the baby roll over. Which was more interesting, the animal in a high tech incubator, or the people filming it?\u00a0 Hard to say.<\/p>\n
It was a hot day, after so many days of cool rain.\u00a0 The giant black and white pandas were all indoors in air conditioned comfort lying on their wood platform beds sleeping. We stood in line, then entered the enclosure with the crowd, and got a slim view of the two pandas in that building. We’ve traveled thousands of miles, not for the purpose of seeing the pandas, but hoping to see them anyway. The drive would have been about an hour and a half, but we were caught in a traffic mess for at least an hour, so we got to the park around 11 am instead of 10.\u00a0 We had only an hour and a half to be in the park because of the time schedule for the school van.\u00a0 So, I can say I did see two giant pandas and some red pandas.<\/p>\n
The park is impressive with about 400 varieties of trees, including gingko, magnolia, and willows.\u00a0 I also enjoyed the rose garden.\u00a0 The roses were feeling the heat too, but they gave their fragrance, perhaps because of the heat.<\/p>\n
After the park, we went to McDonald’s for lunch, the bus driver’s choice.\u00a0 Most of us on the team don’t eat at McDonald’s in the USA, but at least for me, when I’m abroad, I think of it as “the taste of home.”\u00a0 This particular store had a “McCafe” which must be new; I have never seen it before. This is a special section for brewed coffee and tea, and it has muffins and cheesecake!\u00a0 Looking for the “upscale” market, I guess.\u00a0 I brought some muffins home for Sunday, and I must say, they were a treat.<\/p>\n
Today, Sunday, we had another “cultural experience” by attending a local church.\u00a0 It was interesting even though we do not understand any language.\u00a0 Perhaps we heard a word or two that we recognized.\u00a0 The speaker had been talking for well over an hour, and the heat was increasing, and the audience was showing signs of “disconnect” when a little girl, perhaps eight years old, starting walking through the sanctuary.\u00a0 She appeared to be looking for someone.\u00a0 She was wearing a red dress, and her distinctive feature was that she had five inflated balloons attached to her hair, three red, and two pink.\u00a0 She went right up to the front of the church, and walked in front of the speaker’s lectern.\u00a0 Within a few minutes, the speaker wrapped up her message.\u00a0\u00a0 I had to wonder if the little girl might be the speaker’s daughter?<\/p>\n
After church, we went to a noodle house, where no one spoke any English, but they were happy to serve us.\u00a0 Our leader is the sort of man who points to something and orders.\u00a0 He can eat anything and likes to live in surprise.\u00a0 We are more cautious ourselves, so I got up and went to the kitchen and pointed at food.\u00a0 It was a good place, and we all ate, even though we aren’t sure exactly what the food was.<\/p>\n
We have just a few days left, some classes, a closing program, a dinner with the whole group.\u00a0 Then, off to Beijing, and next Sunday at this time, we’ll be in the air on the way home!<\/p>\n
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Yesterday we went to the Panda Preserve in Chengdu.\u00a0 It is a huge park reserved for the two kinds of pandas, red and giant.\u00a0 Few people know about the red panda, native to China.\u00a0 It looks like a giant raccoon, except it is reddish brown.\u00a0 The sign said in English, “The red panda can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}