We went to see the Panda Research Centre in the morning. We went six years ago and, as expected, the number of people visiting the pandas has increased geometrically as Chinese living standards have risen and tourism has expanded enormously. Entry was free for pensioners and only about £6 for everybody else. I didnt take many pics of the pandas because Ive already got a lot and, when you’ve seen one panda you’ve seen them all. The peacock was beautiful but the red pandas were much more elusive than six years ago.
In the afternoon, we went to the spectacular Chengdu museum, which uses the latest technology to bring its exhibits alive. The first floor with its bronze artifacts from the Shang and Zhou dynasties was mind-boggling. The Shang Dynasty ruled from 1766 to 1122 BC and the items at the Chengdu Museum came from human sacrifice pits at the Sanxingdui site in Sechuan Province. The Zhou Dynasty ruled from 1122 to 221 BC (including the “Spring and Autumn” and the “Warring States” periods) and is the longest ruling dynasty in Chinese history. It was followed by the short-lived Qin Dynasty from 221 to 206 BC under which China was united by the first Emporer, Qin Shi Huang who built the Terracotta Warriors and started the construction of the Great Wall.
There was some beautiful stone carvings and pottery from the “Warring States” period during 481 to 221 BC and the Eastern and Western Han periods (206 BC to 221 AD), but nothing much after that (unless we missed it) until the 19th century. The history of the Communist Party in Chengdu up to the Revolution in 1949 was covered in great detail but all the captions were in Chinese. The coverage of Japanese atrocities in China during 1937-1945 demonstrates the antipathy the Chinese still have for the Japanese. The section on social life in 19th century Chengdu was fascinating.
The next three days will involve wild camping and, as it is our turn to cook on the first night, we had to suffer the miserable experience of going to a Walmart supermarket and buy some grub. By the time we had finished, all the little noodle restaurants had closed and we went to bed after we bought some tasty mooncakes baked specially for the forthcoming mid-Autumn festival.
