We woke up grudgingly before 7am this morning. I think Ally and I are starting to get used to the 12 hour time difference here. We rushed downstairs for breakfast, which I'm not complaining about, because our first stop today was the PANDA RESEARCH BASE (I was kind of excited. But only a lot.) After about a 30min bus ride through Chengdu, we arrived at the research base around 9am. The base was nothing short of breath-takingly beautiful. The air was cool and wet, bamboo lined the walkways and formed arches over our heads (precious, precious shade), and there were pandas. Oh yes, pandas. There were times when we could be within 10 feet of a Giant Panda (through glass, of course), and it was very apparent that this base was well-respected and taken care of. I personally feel that Red Pandas, the little orange raccoon lookalikes, are much more photogenic than the Giant Pandas. We had lunch at a little restaurant located within the base, adjacent to a lake called "Swan Lake", unfortunately no relation to Tchaikovsky, sorry to disappoint. Very yummy lunch! I got to use one of those toilets that sits in the ground. I've been calling them "squatters". They're the coolest things ever! I highly suggest you try one if you ever have the chance :P |
We departed from the Panda Research Base after a few hours of tooling around, and headed to the Chengdu No. 7 High School. We were again accompanied by local students and sat around a large table to exchange ideas, talk science, etc. etc. Very fascinating! After the serious talk was done, we got a chance to hang out with the students, give out small gifts, and they even taught us a dance! It was a very, very silly dance that every student attending that school participates in, sort of like school-wide exercises. I love these school visits. It gives us an invaluable opportunity to see how other people our age in China lead their daily lives, and that they, just like us, have strong passion towards protecting our planet for future generations, no matter what medium they choose to express that passion. Plus, I haven't met a SINGLE mean person, yet. Not one. I love people. |
For our last stop of the day, our party drove to a marketplace with seemingly endless lines of storefronts, half food, half little chochkies. We had a little more than an hour to explore and do a bit of shopping. We then headed to Hot Pot for dinner, which was super delicious and entertaining!! It was a method of eating I had never done before. You'd be given a plate of raw slices of meat and veggies, and then you'd dip the meat in a boiling pot of seasoned liquid (some were spicy, some weren't). Once the meat was fully cooked through, you just picked it out of the liquid and enjoyed some freshly cooked meat! Along with this interesting dinner, there was a performance of traditional-style Chinese dancing, acting, etc. etc. Overall, two thumbs up. Day 3, check! I can't believe how privileged we are to have an opportunity such as this to travel halfway around the globe, especially when you're able to travel alongside 5 of your peers, who are all so fun and awesome to be around! Thanks, Intel :) |