Panda

I'm so excited; today I went to the Chongqing Zoo to see the Pandas. They were so cute and there was a 6 month old baby. There are only about 1000 left, so they are facing extinction.
I managed to get this video of the 6 month old panda through the glass.

Our local guide in Chongqing is full of life, she loves telling us jokes.


Why doesn't the fisherman give you fish? Because he sell(s) fish (selfish).


There is a saying in Chongqing "dogs bark when the sun shines". It is so misty in winter that the sun isn't seen so the dogs don't know what it is.


The zoo was well patronised by the Chinese. The first panda we saw were the red pandas, native to the Himalayas in India and Nepal and southern China, they look a bit like racoons, I really like their colour and one posed really well for me. They aren't much bigger than a domestic cat.

The pandas were so cute but of course they really aren't as they are very bad tempered and quite a solitary animal. They don't even particularly like each other. The women are very particular who they mate with and the men are almost impotent, well that is what our guide told us as the excuse for their low numbers. Who knows what the real story is?

We were also lucky to see a South China Tiger, when we first went by his cage there was nothing to be seen but near the end of our visit to the zoo he appeared and what a magnificient beast!


Next stop was a museum commemorating the Flying Tigers, and American Volunteer Group and Chinese Air Force who fought against overwhelming odds and lifted the spirits of both the American and Chinese people during the darknest days of World War II.

After lunch I walked over to a local side walk market, bought some socks for 3 yuan that have massage beads in them, I must take a photo and put up! Also saw an old Chinese guy practicing 'cupping' on a woman. Lynne was very interested as she also does it but not to the extent of this guy who had blood running everywhere!

This is one of the dishes we had for lunch, chilis galore but very nice.

We went for a stroll in the highest park in Chongqing but the visibility wasn't good. I was quite amused to see a whole lot of beach umbrellas along the riverside. Once again the Chinese were out in force, playing mahjong and cards. Enjoying lunch and strolling around Eling park. We went to a tea house and had a tea ceromony where we tasted three different teas, I can only remember lychee tea because of the story of the Lady who ate 300 lychees a day. We also had olives, very strange, they were green and had a sugary coating and very hard, you had to chew them off the pip.

Last stop before catching the plane to Guilin was a local market. It was so good to get a chance to see what the local people did for leisure. They were having such fun, the toffee makers were facinating.