China, Part 3: Chengdu

After arriving in Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan province, and grabbing some yummy lunch, we arrived at the Wuhou Temple (also called the Marquis Wu Shrine). This was a bustling community during the Three Kingdoms period (around 220 - 280) and the temple honors the important leaders of that time.

Here's the entrance:

The large grounds were incredibly lush. Here is a beautiful, vibrant lotus pond.

Visitors can purchase incense at the shrine.

Koi!

When we had arrived, our group met up with some Chinese students who are studying English in order to become tour guides. They needed to practice their English speaking skills with us while we toured the grounds. Here's Noa with the students before we parted ways.

That evening we went to the Shu Feng Ya Yun tea house to sample tea, followed by a Sichuan opera and traditional folk arts performance. It was really interesting! Before the show started, we were allowed to walk around the grounds and take pictures of the actors and actresses getting their costumes and makeup on. Look how elaborate they are!

The show was made up of many different acts. One of the opening acts was the opera performance in which we were able to see more of these elaborate costumes, all while drinking tea and eating peanuts! I can't say that I enjoy the loud, high-pitched singing, but I loved the costumes and fanfare involved.

This puppeteer was extremely talented. The puppet had moving eyes, arms, neck and fingers, which allowed her to pick up items.

One of the best performances was the shadow puppet act. Here are a few (sorry for the blurry pictures) of the figures.

Boy with bird

The dog (a personal favorite, of course)

Impressive owl

One of the last acts was the most fascinating and puzzling. In this part of the show, the actors change masks in a split second. This actor even changed to coordinate his costume and mask. It's hard to explain, but maybe the pictures will help. Here he is in purple: purple mask and purple clothing.

During the dancing and music, he'll cover himself for a split second with his flag and BOOM, he's a different color all together - red!

There were also fire breathers and flag dancers...

...and other mask changers. This guy went through many mask changes over and over. All he did was tap his face with his fan and it would suddenly become another mask. For example, here's the red mask...

...tap with the fan and PRESTO, he's green!

It was a fun night. The next day, was panda day! Chengdu is the home of the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. The sole purpose of this site is to mate both giant and red pandas to keep them from extinction. As a child, I was fascinated with giant pandas, almost to the point of obsession, so you can imagine my delight to visit here.

The day was cooler and damp, but the pandas were out, doing what they do best - eating and sleeping. We started with the older pandas and saw that you can't get much lazier than a giant panda. This one barely lifted her head to reach the bamboo.

Some were interactive with each other, like these two.

I couldn't believe how close we were. The grounds were beautiful and extremely lush. Bamboo was everywhere. It seemed like a panda's dream to me.

We moved on to the younger pandas, who were more active and simply adorable. I could have stayed there for hours! These pandas were busy wrestling, climbing, and trying not to get stuck. A few of them fell down off the structures and reminded me of Slinkies going down stairs - they simply go with it and absorb the fall. They seem like big balls of fur.

This panda decided to simply lie back and chew on a large stick.

This panda climbed this skinny tree, but then had trouble getting down. Traci captured it's "climb down" (AKA falling) on video.

And, not as popular, but definitely cute, the red panda is also housed here and bred to keep from extinction.

They also love to eat bamboo.

I can say that one of the best moments of the entire trip happened on this day when I had the opportunity to hold a real, baby giant panda. Never in my life did I think I'd ever have the chance to do something like this. I think Herman captured the moment best with this photo:

I was in heaven! Holding the panda actually reminded me of the stuffed panda I had for years as a kid, except this one was much bigger and smelled of apples (she was snacking on apples while we took turns holding her).

I love this photo of Noa and the panda with her tongue sticking out. Adorable!

Team Juloa and Precious(Bǎo Bèi in Chinese) the Panda

As if seeing the pandas wasn't enough for one day, our group then toured the Sanxingdui. This museum houses mysterious masks and artifacts of stone, jade, and bronze that were discovered in 1987. These artifacts date back to the 12th - 11th century, but not a lot is known about the people of this period. There are still a lot of questions about the pieces and the history behind them and archeologists are still trying to understand this mysterious culture to this day.

We really couldn't appreciate the collection for what it was worth since we were pretty tired from all the panda cuddling and travel, and since we had some time to spare before dinner, we went for another foot massage. Now, I mentioned earlier that I would discuss the foot massage in a little more detail. First of all, the term "foot massage" is used loosely in this case. It's really not giving the whole picture. The massage begins with the foot, but then the masseuse will massage your legs, arms, back, neck, and sometimes your head too. The other difference from a typical massage - or at least the kind I'm used to - is that they use a lot of accupressure to the pressure points. Noa was told, "pain now, feel good later." Let's just say that pain was a definite part of the experience. Whenever we had a massage we tried to all get in the same room together (oh, and no, it's not the kind of massage where you shed your clothes - everyone keeps their clothes on!) and it was funny to look around the room and see 8 Americans squirming from the "pain" by these little Chinese massage therapists. However, I was never sore or achy during the trip, so those massages must have been the key!

Noa gets ready for a serious foot massage!

Next Up: Shanghai and the many foods of China!

China, Part 2: Xi'an

Xi'an (pronounced chee-an) was our second stop on our China tour.  Although we were delayed (again!) with our flight, we made it there safely and began our whirlwind adventures.  The big thing to see in Xi'an is the Terra Cotta Warriors.  These warriors were discovered by some farmers who were digging a well in the mid-70s.  What a find!  The Terra Cotta Army dates back to about 210 BC and were buried with the emperor from the Qin dynasty.  There are 3 pits with over 8,000 soldiers, archers, officers, and horses, all of which have not yet been uncovered or assembled.

Before heading to the actual site of this massive archaeological find, we stopped at the factory that creates Terra Cotta replicas using similar techniques of the originals.  We had fun posing with the warriors in the front.

Noa, the cool Warrior, decides to wear sunglasses into battle.

Traci and Herman take the cue from Noa and decide to follow suit.

Inside, workers create warrior replicas and the lady in the blue shirt describes the process to us.

Noa holds the head of one of the warriors.  The heads are all separate from the bodies.  This makes the Warrior Army even more amazing because each face is different and has unique characteristics - there are no two faces alike!

As with the Great Wall, the pictures don't do this site justice as to the magnitude of how large and detailed this project was.  I find it amazing that this was created so long ago, with such precision and then hidden for thousands of years. Here is a view of pit 1, the largest of the 3 pits.

Here's a picture to give you an idea of scale.

If you look closely towards the back, you can see that some of the dig is still in the process of being excavated.

It was amazing to peer out into the rows of soldiers and compare the faces.  It's true - they really are different from one another. Some are missing heads and towards the back of the exhibit, many are still in pieces.  Archaeologists are still working on the site in the early hours of the morning before the tourists arrive.

Loved the horses!

These warriors are still being pieced together like puzzles.  The dark spots you see are missing pieces.

Fighting positions!  Jervis, Kelly, Herman, Matt, and Noa demonstrate the warrior positions around a chariot (Herman is the chariot driver)

There was a tea house on site that we visited after our tour.  The various teas were laid out and we enjoyed smelling them and reading about their health-inducing qualities.

It was still very hot, so Noa ordered iced coffee, but his order came with a small tea cup...

...from which to drink from properly.

After the tea house, we walked the streets of the Muslim Quarter, where Chinese Muslims or the Hui community have lived for centuries.

There were so many varieties of tried fruit.  I was tempted to try the dried kiwis.

We stopped at this booth to try a snack called "dragon whiskers" or "dragon beard."  They are sooooo good!  The stringy stuff you see in the picture is the outside part made from spun sugar. It's stretched really long and then wrapped around a mixture of crushed seeds and nuts. 

We made our way to the Great Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in China.  The grounds were beautifully maintained and the buildings still maintained the mosque's long history as you'll see in the next few pictures.

These doorways lead into the prayer room in the back of the mosque.

That night the group climbed up the city walls, which were built in 1370 during the Ming dynasty.  We all rented bikes and cruised around on the walls until it was so dark, we could barely see where we were going anymore.  Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of this adventure since my camera (the little point-and-shoot) decided it had enough - yup, my little red camera is dead - but, I have a few shots that I got before that tragedy.

Here's a view of the wall.  The group is in line to pay for our rental bikes.

The tandem bikes.  Team Juloa opted to try these, and although I often thought we would die with Noa pedaling like a madman, they were actually pretty fun.

A view of the city below.

The City Wall just before sunset.

Next up: Chengdu!

For more China details and pics, check out Traci's blog.  She'll probably have much better pics of the wall biking and more!