Chengdu, Day 7; July 31, 2011

Dumplings are on the bus by 8:30 this morning for the long awaited visit to the Panda Reserve.  This was Samantha's whole reason for taking this trip!  She wanted to hold a baby panda.  Well, turns out that you have to be dressed in scrubs, including a mask, go into a private area and stand next to the baby panda.  And it costs 1000 RMB (approx. $165 US).  And I would have to pay that for each of us to go back to see her!  Same price whether you touch the panda or not!  So, I had to break her heart and tell her that I could not justify paying $500 for us to do that.  Instead, we just did the regular tour, saw the adult pandas and visited the gift shop for a panda hoodie.  Seems to have made her happy.

Sarah's favorite panda, the Red Panda!  Looks like a bigger raccoon.

We were able to send some postcards to PaPa and Katie while at the Panda Center, the postcards arrived home about a week after we did!  We left the Panda Reserve and headed out to another group lunch!  Yet another flight of stairs!  There is no such thing as a 1st floor restaurant in China and none have elevators!  

Since Chengdu is in Sichuan province, we had Sichuan food!  Very spicy!  Not enough beer, not enough cold beverages.  We survived and continued on to a Tea House for the famous Sichuan Face-Changing Show.  It may have been my favorite event!   The Tea House was open on the sides, had paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and rows of chairs with very small benches for the tea in front.  The tea servers had tea pots with very long spouts to reach down the aisle to refill cups.  According to our guide, the servers were expert at pouring tea from the odd pots and apparently, if tea was spilled in the process of pouring, you don't pay.  Any way, we were also offered the chance to have a back massage for a few dollars.  I had been looking for that, so I jumped at the chance!  I had to leave my seat in the aisle and go over to the outside edge of the pavilion.  There was a bamboo/rattan chair for me to sit on.  Then a man came over and started rubbing my neck and back - it lasted 15 minutes or so.   It was great.  I felt so much better when he finished and slept like a baby that night!   Then the show started.  It appeared to be the typical Chinese variety show, singing, instruments, dancing, and then there was a couple that came out and acted out a scene that looked to me like something from "I Love Lucy."  The gist of it was that the wife ran the house and that the husband had done something wrong and she was giving him a hard time about it and he was making excuses and asking for forgiveness.  No subtitles at a live show!  Anyway, the facial expressions and sounds from the audience were pretty funny.  The face changing part came at the end.  These people with fancy costumes came out and danced around, masks on their faces.  Then, the masks would change in an instant!  Then their costumes changed instantly!  You could not see how it was done!  It was terrific!  The girls loved it!  They all stayed awake for this one.  It was a great day.  We got back to the hotel and crashed, so we'd be ready for the next day and next city, XiNing.  Time for us to split from the group and go to Sarah's hometown.