Pandamonium!

Last weekend was packed full of fun little sidetrips to some great places around Chengdu. We started with the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. Started about 2000 years ago this is the system that is still in use today to keep Chengdu's water supply right on target. The science behind it isn't too exciting but it was impressive that they were able to do it so long ago, plus the place was absolutely beautiful.

From there we went to Mt. Qingcheng, home of some of the most important temples in Taoism. Again, absolutely beautiful. It was definitely nice to get outside of the city and be in a little bit of nature, away from tons of huge buildings and breathing fresh air. There was a 2 hour hike from the bottom to the summit with various temples and great sites along the way. At the top we walked all throughout the main temple and ended up having some tea served to us from actual Taoist monks, absolutely a highlight of the day. However, the tea break was cut short because they let us know that the chair lift back down was about to close so we needed to rush. We got to the chair lift and realized that it had stopped running about an hour and a half ago, so there started our race against the sun. It was about 6:30 and the sun was already getting low, after arguing with the people who ran the chair lift to no avail we began our jog back down the mountain (this time the short way). We ended up getting back down in plenty of time and with a fun little story.

On Monday we did what most tourists come to Chengdu for - to see the pandas! Let me preface this, for some reason I really started liking pandas about a year ago (it may or may not have coincided with Kung Fu Panda coming out) so I was pretty damn excited to go see them. Chengdu and the surrounding areas is home to about 90% of the pandas left in the world, with about 120 at the Research Base here in Chengdu. We got there nice and early in the morning when they were just being let out and served breakfast. The place was huge and we walked around for a while and then I did the coolest thing of my life for about 2 minutes...

That's right, believe your eyes. I had a baby panda sitting in my lap. I have about 25 other pictures from it where you can see my face immediately light up. I couldn't get the huge grin off my face for a couple hours afterwards. It was almost as good as holding Gracie.

Lastly, we made our way to Huanglongxi (aka "Ancient Town") because apparently someone heard that we should go there. I had never heard of the place but it was definitely a good time. A very small town with some of the typical shopping you'd expect but with a lot more of a China feel to it. Again it was a beautiful place right on a river, the view is great as you cross one of the sketchiest walking bridges ever built. Some more temples were seen and I even got to peek my head inside of one of the monk's rooms. It really makes me appreciate all the unnecessary things that I have. From there we took a stroll down a small street and found the oldest man in the world, who just so happens to be a calligrapher. The accent that he and the surrounding women had was so thick that even the small amount of Chinese I've picked up on was nearly useless. After the guy through back a shot of rice wine he slowly got to work painting. He did four pieces for the four of us and all are (from what we hear) extremely good. The guy was an absolute badass and the artwork was absolutely worth my $3.

So that was my weekend. This week has been packed full of studying and a trip to the KTV for karaoke and drinking. I leave tomorrow for Chongqing, the 3rd larget city in China. It will be my first Chinese train experience of the summer and should be quite interesting.