2025-12-03 Dujiangyan Panda Valley

 Pandas and more

A big day, requiring an early start, so no leisurely lingering over a buffet breakfast this morning.  Pippa organised a Didi to take us to the Dujiangyan Panda Valley, s a research center near Chengdu, focused on panda conservation, breeding, and reintroduction programs. It's a part of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and is a popular tourist destination for viewing pandas in a more naturalistic setting, and today, in off season, and with an early start, less crowded than other facilities. 

The car took us on the freeway/tollway past apartment blocks, technology parks, an enornous building housing an indoor ski area (Chengdu is a centre for outdoor actrivities), shopping centres, car showrooms (Audi, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, Xpeng were some of the many, most brands having logos I didn't recognise), and so on.  We made good time, taking about an hour to get to the Panda Park right on opening time.

It is in a lovely location, in the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau, and with lots of green.  A walking route takes you up a valley away from the plain around Dujiangyan, which is heavily wooded, being on the edge of a national park.  We saw lots of giant pandas, kept in large enclosures and as much as is possible, a 'natural' setting, and also red pandas in a free range area, where visitor numbers are controlled (no problem today, being off season) and the red pandas can roam freely within a large compound - we saw lots of these, quite close up, and even had one cross through the small crowd being shepharded away by the watchful attendants who kept an eye on things - mainly for the safety of the pandas, but also to make sure that no one was disobeying the signs about scaring or feeding these very cute but still wild animals with sharp teeth.  As we were being counted into the free range area, there were signs directing anyone with food to lockers to store it during their visit, as no food is allowed inside this area, to stop the pandas assocating people with food, as the whole point of this facility is to re-educate pandas to live in the wild.

After a very enjoyable visit, it was time to take another Didi to a vegetarian restaurant found by Pippa during her research, which provided a magnificent set menu for 88 Yuan (about $20) each, with over dozen shared dishes and an hotpot for each person along with individual dessert dishes - this has been one of the best dining experiences ever!

Then on to Dujiangyan, the location of a famous irrigation system (unfortunately closed at the moment), however in my mind this city will be famous (or infamous) for the time I left my phone in the taxi, and the stress that it caused me, and for the help of Pippa and the lovely lady at the Visitor Centre who went out of her way to help me get it back.  Amongst a lot of other things, she paid for the driver's time to return the phone to her (of course, I re-imbursed her), and then when she got more of the details she rang Didi customer serivce and tore strips off the driver for 'his bad attitude' (I was not complaining - being happy to get the bloody thing back - but she felt it reflected poorly on China, and Chinese people)  I tried offering her some money for her time, but she absolutely refused to accept any, just wishing that I have a good experience in China, and reminding me to look after my things!

After that, we wandered about the town, before having a quiet time at a teahouse until the lights came on on the river and covered bridge. 

Then it was onto the train station, where we caught a train ( a local train, which nevertheless reached 200 km/h on the way back to Chengdu), and a couple of metro lines to end up at the hotel around 2100, a long day for everyone, but especially Isaac, who managed really well.









































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