During the first week of November, I went to Chengdu, China with my school. There were twenty people on the trip plus two teachers. The trip was to be a service trip where we were to work with pandas, take of them and learn as much as much as possible about them.
When signing up for my DW trip (Discovery Week, which was the name of the week of traveling), I was of course, knowing me, late to choose the ones I wanted. So I ended up only paying half attention to the ones I put down… About a couple weeks later all of the lists of trips were hanging up in the lobby of school and when I looked at what I had gotten, I was disappointed because my first choice was Thailand and I didn’t have any close friends on the trip. By the end of the trip, those thoughts were completely different.
The flight to Chengdu was four hours and I sat with two friends that I didn’t know too well but had classes with. We had already started to get close because we talked almost the whole flight due to the plane being uncomfortably hot (which didn’t make falling asleep easy). Once landed in Chengdu, we met up with our leaders from the Panda Conservation (Rustic Pathways). We talked about logistics and then went on the bus. When walking outside, I could easily tell that the air was more polluted but I didn’t mind considering I didn’t have to walk by someone smoking every minute (which is what it’s like in Korea).
We took a two hour bus ride to the hotel which was a Holiday Inn. We ended up not actually being in Chengdu while working with the pandas, but traveled there later in the trip. We were expecting something more run down so my friends and I were happily surprised when we opened the door to our room. I shared a room with my two friends and we became best friends almost instantly. We had about twenty minutes in our room to settle in and get ready for dinner which was just around the corner of our hotel. We were the only people in the restaurant, which was good considering how big of a group we were. Being unadventurous and scared of Asian food, I ended up just ordering pork dumplings. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next four days we worked with pandas at the Panda Conservation. Every morning we would wake up around 7am and eat a traditional chinese breakfast (which ended up being toast, ham and fruit for me). Then we took a bus to the conservation and headed off to work with our pandas. (We had to wear some really special looking outfits.) Each group got assigned pandas and worked with the same ones each day.
First we cleaned the cages and the outside area they hang out in. Then we break bamboo by smacking it against the ground so that the pandas with weaker teeth could still eat it. I’d say my favorite thing to do when working with the pandas was breaking the bamboo or feeding. To finish up cleaning, we would sweep the leaves from the bamboo off the ground. After cleaning we went back to the office where we played card games or watched a movie/presentation about pandas until 11am. At 11am, we went back to feed the pandas. We fed them carrots and “panda cakes”, which were made from egg, rice, corn and soybeans. I’d say from feeding the pandas I’ve learned that they are very picky about their food, they are super lazy and barely come forward to meet your hand with the food and they chew very loudly.
We ended up barely getting to touch the pandas which surprised me until I was told they are in fact quite vicious animals (which makes sense considering they are bears), but my group did get to touch the panda’s paw (it was not very soft). At 2pm and 4pm we came back to feed the pandas as well.
We had two hours of lunch each day. We would walk about three minutes to a little restaurant that only had us as their customers. The first day I sat down and saw different dishes coming out and my thoughts were “no way am I going to survive a whole week eating this stuff”. But after that first lunch, I surprisingly started really liking the food we were having. Although, Chengdu is known for its spicy food so I had to be careful with what I ate considering I have a low tolerance for spice. After we ate, we had about an hour to play games like cards or a vicious game called ma-jong (don’t think I’m spelling that right), which was a game played with tiles of Chinese numbers (so now I know how to read them!). The game is a bit complicated so I’m not going to go into detail of how it works but it was really fun to play and everyone got very competitive.
Each night we went to a different place for dinner. We went to the restaurant around the corner (which I talked about earlier) the first night and last night at the hotel. For the other two nights we went to a town called Ancient Town where we walked around and grabbed something to eat. The other night we went to another small restaurant near our hotel then took a trip to Walmart. My friends and I ended up splurging big time and bought some comfort snacks and some crazy candies and chips that only China has. We tried them in the hotel and my friend has a funny video of us doing it.
The last two days we drove two hours to actually be in Chengdu. We ended up exploring and going sightseeing which was my favorite part of the trip. The first day we were driving to Chengdu and stopped along the way to see the world’s biggest buddha. We climbed multiple steps to see the top of the head, which was huge. Then we walked down a huge flight of really steep steps to see the rest of the body and to finally reach the bottom where you saw the feet at eye level. The buddha was incredible to look at and I was thinking the whole time that my mom would love to see this.
Then we got to Chengdu and walked around a very popular area where there was a lot of food and shopping. I ended up trying a weird gooey candy and rice balls covered with some brown powder and brown sugar syrup… But of course I used the opportunity of choosing my own dinner by having dumplings. The town was beautiful and so fun to walk around in. We had an hour and half to do so and I could’ve stayed there for much longer.
The next morning we went to another town that was just as cool but not as packed with people and stores. Everywhere you walked there were chairs where you payed someone to clean out your ears. I was very interested and finally ended up doing it with my friend (again was thinking about how my mom would instantly find it the most interesting thing and would try it). It was a really weird feeling and sometimes felt good but sometimes hurt. I’d say it’s definitely worth trying but I will not being doing it again. During the ear cleaning multiple people would sit next to me on a ledge to take pictures with me and my friend. (Walking through China as a foreigner you are treated like a celebrity and pictures of you are being taken often. For example, I would be cleaning the pandas’ cages and everyone would be taking pictures of the pandas and then notice me and start taking pictures of me as if I was as exciting as a panda. I felt weird about it at first but eventually got used to it.)
After walking around we went to Hot Pot which is a popular lunch in China where you have different flavored broths (spicy, seafood, tomato and mushroom) in the middle of the table. You then are served a bunch of meats and vegetables and you cook them in the broths. It was fun to experience and quite tasty.
After eating lunch we went to a park where we went around talking about our favorite parts of the trip and tying on bracelets to remember the trip. We then walked around and stopped to dance with some old Chinese woman. In parks in China, old woman dance to loud Chinese music together and there is always a leader to switch up the routine and lead the group. We joined in and got laughed at and taken pictures of but the dances were fun to do and if I were living in China I’d certainly want to do that often.
We then got to take rowboats out for a bit in a little lake until we had to head to dinner. For our last dinner we had pig and duck. By end of the trip I was feeling very adventurous and ended up trying a chicken neck. That doesn’t sound too impressive but if you’re looking at the picture, you can see why that would be scary to eat.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we played card games and pool in the hotel lobby until it was bed time. Everyone was feeling sad because the trip was over, especially my close friends and I. The next morning we had to wake up at 4:30am to get on our flight and once again it was very hot so I didn’t get to sleep on the plane. I ended up getting home around 3:30pm and slept for a bit considering I had school the very next day.
If you’ve gotten this far I apologize for how much I’ve written but once I started writing I couldn’t stop. I get excited when talking about the trip considering it was one of my favorite trips in my whole life. I made a couple new best friends and other friends that I still keep in touch with and get a big hello from in the hallways. I will never forget the trip and hope you enjoyed hearing about it!!
And side note: This morning I finally got out on the ice! (My dad had to push me a bit to do so and I’m thankful he did.) I practiced with men from the ages of around 20-40 from 10-12pm. It felt amazing to get out and skate again and I will be practicing with them every Wednesday and Sunday. I’m very happy it worked out!!
seoulfulsojourn.net 