China

Due to a last minute itinerary change, we added some extra activities in Chengdu after our Habitat work site experience.  Our guide painted Chengdu as a city more relaxed than Shanghai with fewer people and a slower pace. He joked that the single women still want their prospective husband to have an apartment, a car and a good job!

Practicing Tai Chi

We first visited a lovely Daoist Temple.  We learned about the concept of yin-yang and how the Chinese practice their rituals at the temple including lighting incense to honor their ancestors.  The temple contained beautiful sculptures and paintings as decoration including a bronze figure which incorporated 12 different animals-the nose of a horse, the ears of a rat, and the beard of a goat, etc.  We next went to a public park to have a lesson in Tai Chi.  We have frequently seen people practicing Tai Chi, dancing, and musical instruments in the park for recreation.  There were three instructors who demonstrated different types of Tai Chi including movements with fans and swords.  After our lesson, we visited a local massage and Chinese medicine academy to act as practice subjects for the students in training.  All of us received either a foot or whole body massage while the more adventurous in the group underwent the cupping procedure.  In this medicinal practive, warm glass cups are applied to the back with a vacuum pressure to draw out toxins from the body.  It leaves a funny bruise pattern on the back after the procedure which has been getting some funny looks from the locals.   

Traditional Cupping

The next day was the main tourist attraction of Chengdu:  the Panda Breeding Base.  We spent the morning at the beautiful park and were able to see pandas of all ages.  They are a playful animal and we enjoyed watching them steal each other’s bamboo and wrestle on the hills.  It was a lovely park and an informative movie taught us about the intensive breeding program at the base designed to optimize the survival of this endangered species. One interesting note from the guide was that neighboring farmers are given government subsidies to grow bamboo on their land instead of crops to help meet the incredible bamboo demands of the many pandas in the park.  It was a definite challenge to all the students to see how many panda photos their camera memory sticks could hold.

Panda Research Center

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant serving one of the typical local dishes-Sichuan Hot Pot.  Similar to a fondue restaurant in the States, the group sits around a common pot in the center of the table.  Throughout the meal, a variety of vegetables, tofu and meats are added to the boiling center pot.  There was a “mild pot” table for the spice-challenged members of the group.  After our dinner, we saw a Sichuan Mask-changing folk show at a local theater.  It was amazing to see how fast the performers could change their masks.  One of the most impressive performers was the puppeteer who was able to perform extremely fast mask changes on her puppet.