The Pandas of Chengdu

Saturday 15th September.

The Giant Panda is synonymous with China in the same way that the Koala is with Australia. But pandas are in a more precarious state with a total population of less than 2,000 in the world.

The 2003 survey produced a count of about 1,500 in the wild and there are a couple of hundred in captivity.

25 years ago, a natural event with the Arrow Bamboo, the main food source of this remarkable animal, saw their wild population slashed from the then estimated level of about 1,000 down to 800. The event was the once in 50 years flowering cycle of the bamboo followed by a mass die-off. Starvation and sickness took a heavy toll.

The wild population has now made an encouraging recovery to more than 1,500 and the future looks promising.

Our visit to the Chengdu Base Research Centre was one of the highlights of our tour.

Traffic and Optimism

Friday 14th September

Chengdu, like many other Chinese cities, is busy sprucing itself up for the excitement and anticipation of the Beijing Olympics, 2008. Although it is a long way from Beijing, it is expecting and making ready for a surge in tourism next year. Everywhere you look there are reconstructions going on.

China's X and Y generations are hard-working, optimistic and prepared to do "whatever it takes". They can smell the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they want it badly. They are reaching out for it and they will get it soon.

A new underground railway is under construction in Chengdu. The road to Wolong, where one of the important Panda exhibits is located, has one half closed and a tidal traffic system is in place. From 5pm to 8:30am, the traffic flows up to Wolong and from 8:30am to 5pm it flows in the opposite direction. As a result, our planned visit there would have required us to leave the hotel at 5am and since we had been bumped around on a bus in Tibet only a couple of days ago, we opted for the alternative of a visit to the Chengdu Panda Park instead, for our Saturday activity.

Meanwhile I enjoyed wandering the streets of this beautiful city. A street-sweeping truck passed by and alerted the traffic to its presence by playing the tune "Happy Birthday To You" repeatedly in the manner of a "Mr Whippy" ice cream van. You couldn't miss it a kilometre away. The streets are scrupulously clean, as are the footpaths. The moment any fragment of rubbish hits the ground it is scooped up by a vest-wearing person with a broom and a dustpan. The only place in Australia that I have seen such fervor for cleanliness is at Byron Bay.

Traffic is more orderly in proud Chengdu than in other cities that I have seen here so far. The throng of bicycles and electric scooters mixing with traffic and pedestrians poses a challenge to road protocol and numerous traffic wardens, dressed in black slacks and an orange vest, are stationed at intersections to ensure that a semblance of order is maintained. No one seems to be penalised for transgressions, beyond half-a-dozen shrill bursts from the whistle and a wave of the red flag. This, in a country where tax evasion can attract the death penalty. To our way of thinking, China is a complex array of contradictions. They seem to have adopted gentle persuasion for traffic control in lieu of hash penalties and it seems to work, most of the time.

The one thing that stood out for me was the warmth of the people here who all wanted to either practice their 'In-galish' or just extend a warm welcome, when they learned that I was from 'O-adalia'.