China Day 2 – Wolong
Our day began with a lengthy bus ride, through busy roads but affording nice views. The traffic conditions show just how populated Chengdu is – 16 million approximately. The streets were always full of people, cars, motorbikes and bicycles in and around the city. That was until we drove through the Wolong mountains; the pure grandeur of these giants was enough to lift everyone’s already high spirits.
When we arrived at the Wolong Panda Centre, we were greeted with our uniforms and brooms which were used in our sweeping of roads and enclosures. This was better than many would think sweeping roads might be, as we were right next to the panda enclosures. Next we went into the empty panda enclosures and cleaned them of trash and dead leaves. It was interesting to see how much trash managed to get into the enclosures. We then got to see the pandas being fed up close and took some adorable photos. We then got to have a delicious Chinese-style lunch. Next we went into the new enclosures, to be opened in a few weeks. We then helped prepare the enclosures for the pandas to live in. Following this, we watched a documentary about the efforts the Chinese government and the conservation centre have put in to the redistribution of giant pandas to the wild. The documentary taught us about the life of the panda from birth in captivity, to hopefully being let out into the wild. The new information presented to us was enough for all in the China group to know how much blood and sweat had been put into the resurrection of the giant panda species and to learn about the impact of our work done at the conservation centre. It was interesting yet sad to see the past attempts of putting captive born pandas into the wild, despite the organisation recently being successful in their goal. Once we got back to the hotel after a short break, we all went out for hot pot dinner. This was a different yet delicious and extremely fun way to eat. A great way to end an already perfect day.
Yvette and Ollie
Note from Alan Scott: When last I travelled to Wolong, it was a few months before the devastating earthquake of 2008. The road infrastructure was so poor, that it took the bus almost 9 hours to get there from Chengdu. Today’s trip, by comparison, took 3 hours, and the prevalence of lengthy tunnels through the mountains was quite staggering. One tunnel alone was over 5 km long. All of these tunnels affording access to Wolong have been constructed since the earthquake. They are large enough for military transport to more quickly access areas potentially affected by natural disasters.
