I was stuck in the middle seat flying from Xi'an to Chengdu, but when you are bookended by two friends, it can actually be fun--on a short trip. We flew Sichuan Airlines, with very pleasant attendants dressed in gorgeous vibrantly purple Asian style dresses (I would truly love to wear one of those!), but the snack was awful; most people threw it away. No problem: the flight was just a little over an hour so no one starved, especially since we've been eating so well at least for the past ten days. Unlike our guide's warnings, our flight arrived almost on time, although the same flight only a day before was over three hours late, typical for China so we've been told, so apparently we were very lucky.

     Chengdu has over 13 million people, so it is much bigger even than New York City. The populous Chinese say that any city under one million people is just a village; it does not qualify to be called a city. But nothing we've seen so far compares with the crush of Beijing! That is a city many times over.

     Last night we attended an ancient Chinese dramatic art, a "Changing Faces Opera."  Most of our group went, which I think is very good since Chengdu is known for three things: the Changing Faces Opera, brocade, and the Giant Panda Sanctuary. This morning we arose early to see the pandas; early in the day they are more active, so it was a good idea to reach the sanctuary close to the time it opened for the day. The first giant panda we saw was male, 12 years old, sitting in his large enclosure patiently eating sticks of bamboo. Adult pandas are solitary creatures, mostly silent, although they are able to make many sounds. It is believed they are a member of the bear family, and are an endangered species. Deforestation and low reproductive rates contribute to the pandas' rarity, but China realized back in 1949 that their nearly extinct national treasures needed to be protected, and measures put into place are increasing their population in several countries. However, once a panda cub is born, it is shipped back to China; this is part of the agreement countries make when accepting adult pandas from China for their zoos.

     The word panda comes from Nepal; it means "bamboo eater."  While most of the adult pandas we saw were sitting and eating bamboo, one male panda seemed especially lazy: he was lying down, chewing on his sticks of bamboo. He did look happy, content, but I wondered if they get bored, or lonely, or what they think of all the thousands of people who walk by their enclosures each day. Another enclosure held several adolescent pandas. These teenagers were more active, playing and fighting with each other, climbing trees, walking a bit into the woods and then back out again, wrestling. Mother panda was also there, but she mostly kept her distance while the children played; if she did come near they would climb up on her back and hang there. This was an entertaining section of the sanctuary! We also saw a short video on how the newborn pandas were rescued from overactive mothers who might harm or kill their babies; with human intervention many pandas who would otherwise not make it at least have a good chance of reaching adulthood. People worldwide come to see these magnificent and relatively rare, beautiful animals. It was a treat to walk on the bamboo shaded paths, sighting pandas going about their daily lives.

     After lunch we walked through People's Park. One brave member of our group chose to get his ears cleaned out; it cost 30 yuan or $5. He sat in a chair right in the middle of people enjoying tea; it wasn't only our group that photographed the process, which included a very long implement that looked as if it could go in one ear and out the other, brushes, and a tuning fork. I could not figure out why a tuning fork was needed, but I'm sure the Chinese understand why.

     We had open free time this afternoon. I needed to feel Chengdu, to have a fast walk and to be in the sunshine, and I also wanted to find Mao's statue in the Center Park. So I set out walking, but with neither a map nor my Mandarin dictionary, an unfortunate mistake. Walking in the warm sunshine felt very good, but soon I realized I might be walking away from Mao instead of towards the statue. So I asked some young people if they spoke English. "A little" is the familiar reply. But no one knew where Mao was. Finally an older woman told me to take the #4 bus, about 20 minutes away. Dinner was scheduled for 6PM and it was already 5:45, so I realized I needed to head back quickly; I was not going to find Mao in this short a time. I think I have gotten lost in every foreign country I have visited or lived in, and China was no exception. To compound the confusion, buses seem to aim at people walking in crosswalks--even when pedestrians have the green crossing light. (This is very much like walking across streets in Phnom Penh.) I took several wrong turns, but turned up at dinner only 15 minutes late. When people heard I was looking for Mao they thought that was very funny. I guess it is!