Wednesday 19th November 2014
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
Chongqing to Lhasa – Tibet Train
Our alarm woke us at 6.30am. Hip Hip Hurray it’s Panda Day! We went for breakfast and were told that it wasn’t available until 7.30am. We were handed a bag with a small carton of milk, a vacuum packed sausage and two small bread buns. We kept the bread and disposed of the rest.
Pete and Anne gave us back the treasured Tibetan Permit for safekeeping. Dave who like myself is usually quite organised but also quite laid back about where something is, wondered where the best place for it was. ‘Shall I take it out with me?’ he asked, ‘shall I leave it in the hotel?’ ‘what do you think?’ We had FINALLY received it and we were concerned about mislaying it. Pete laughed when I repeated the dilemma to him and said ‘yes, I thought I would get rid of the responsibility of having it.’
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Xuiongnai Jidi ) was founded in 1987 with just six giant pandas that were rescued from the wild. The centre mimics the bear’s natural habitat and has a high success of breeding and rearing the rare bears. Currently there are 97 pandas at the centre.
It was absolutely fabulous to walk around the well-kept base and watch the pandas playing, climbing, sleeping and of course eating. The adorable cubs were plonked on the grass still very sleepy. We watched while they gradually started to move, then try to walk on two legs causing them to stumble a little. One of the cute little cubs was grey and white.
We had a wonderful four hours and it is reassuring to know that the fight against extinction is definitely being won here in Chengdu. The ticket boasts that it is the largest panda park in the world and states that it prides itself on releasing the adorable creatures back into the wild.
Our driver was waiting for us and he drove us back to the hotel. Dave and I went in search of a supermarket and purchased some fruit, crisps, crackers etc for the train journey to Tibet. We already have instant porridge, cup a soups and cereal bars. We also bought a takeaway lunch from McDonalds, makes a change from sweet and sour! We made a quick coffee back at the hotel to have with our lunch, showered (there are no showers on the train to Tibet) and quickly reorganised our bags (this time putting items from our rucksacks back into our main cases).
I have a swift run around this wonderful hotel taking photographs and videos and then it was 2.20pm, time to go… We would love to spend a little more time here but the next part of our amazing adventure awaits.
While waiting at the train station a lady asks for a photograph with Anne. This hasn’t happened since we left Beijing so we were a little surprised. The journey that we are taking is the same one as we did yesterday but in reverse – Chengdu to Chongqing.
The scenery is picturesque. We see little farms and small rice paddies, which are still waiting to be harvested. Narrow rivers meander here and there
Gerry our guide is waiting for us when we arrive in Chongqing. His job today is to walk with us the extremely short distance to a different part of the train station and to see us through security to the waiting room. He’s a nice guy but he goes through everything very slowly and continually asks if we understand everything. We tell him that we will want to have something to eat before we board the train and notice that there are a few choices of eateries just outside the security area. He tells us that it is not a problem and once we have passed through security with him, we can then easily come back out with our tickets and passports. However it takes quite a while to get through the security. As at all the stations, all items of luggage – suitcases, rucksacks, bum bags must go through a scanner. We are carrying a couple of extra bags too with food. There was conflicting information on the Internet about the food on the train. Some reports say that both Chinese and Western foods are available. As one would expect some say it’s good and some say it’s bad. One blog stated that only the hot and spicy Sichuan food is available. We know that the train stops periodically and we know that some food is available at these stations; sometimes the train only stops for 5 minutes though. However, we do know that at 5.30am tomorrow morning the train is scheduled to stop for 26 minutes and we have joked with Dave that he will have to get up early to get off the train and buy something that isn’t spicy. The majority of reports however advise that you take plenty of snacks with you so that is what we did.
After our luggage has been cleared two stern looking male officials inspect our permits and we all hold our breath. We quickly agree that we are not going back out of the terminal for something to eat, we do not want to have to pass through all the security again without Gerry’s assistance. We are finally allowed to proceed and Gerry has arranged for us to go into a special reserved waiting room and he informs us that at 7.50pm someone will come for us to escort us to the train. We would have been more than happy sat in the normal waiting room with everyone else but it was all arranged. We purchased some bottles of water as we had read reports about the train running out of drinking water.
A Chinese female official eventually escorted us to the train. All the staff wore smart uniforms and an official stood outside every door of the train.
A serious looking official asked for our permit, he scrutinised it and then smiled at the four of us, said ‘thank you’ and handed it back. Anne and I stood on the platform taking photographs of the emblem on the train which names the places of Lasa, (spelt without the ‘H’) Chengdu, and Chongqingbei. The ‘bei’ on the end of Chongqing means north signifying the Chongqing ‘s northern railway station. Trains currently operate to Lhasa on even dates from Chengdu and odd dates from Chongqing.
A smiling male official walked up to us and said ‘girls, please’ and held his arm out toward the door indicating that we should get back on the train. Our carriage as expected was small; it had four bunks and a small table. We messed about for some time taking things out of two of the big cases in order to make them fit under the bunks. We then noticed a small storage area above the door and the guys heaved some of the luggage up there. We would get sorted…
It is 3600 kilometers to Tibet and we are all quite excited. The journey to the Tibetan capital will take about 43 hours so we have two nights and two days on the train. We sit chatting and enjoy a couple of beers to celebrate that we are on our way. It will be our last beer for some time as we have been warned to avoid alcohol at altitude. We were also advised to drink lots of water as that too can help avoid high altitude sickness. We walked to the restaurant and as the blogs we had read said, there were lots of staff sat around. Later I went back to purchase some water and the two young female members of staff looked at me and burst out laughing. I pointed to a bottle of water behind one of them and she pointed to some bottles behind me on a trolley. One of the girls mimed 12 Yuan and then tried to say twelve, the other girl made a good attempt at saying ‘Welcome to China.’ I helped the girl to say twelve and we all laughed and giggled together, one of them asked me my name and repeated it. I took the water back to our sleeper carriage and then each couple took it in turns to go for a wander while the other couple got ready for bed. We were all in bed by about 10.30pm.
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