Today we went to see the Pandas at the local zoo in Chongqing. There were also a variety of other animals to check out. There were a lot of people wandering around the zoo area. It seemed like a common place to come and take a walk and see the animals.
[Mya, Spophie and Chessie - "oooooh the Pandas are over there"]The Hippos seemed really interested in the kids behind the glass.
[Heron of some sort - cleaning itself]
[These look like black swans - never seen anything like it. They were beautiful]There were street vendors right outside the zoo gates selling all kinds of food and goodies.
[These tasted a lot like Grapefruit, but just a little sweeter]
[Folks having noodles cooked fresh]
[More street food available - ready to cook to order - yummy stuff on a stick]I bet you thought you were going to see pictures of Pandas! Well you will have to wait for Lily's blog entry for that. The only Pandas you get to see are these crazy walking pandas, that play happy birthday and have beadie little green eyes. Scaaaaaaary. Even more so when there were a good 20 of them going at once. You know almost every girl had to have one.
[Pandas take over the world ..... singing their evil happy birthday song]
[Lucinda tries a panda on for size]
[Mya, Sophie, Chessie and Lily after a long hard day]Chongqing by the water was very interesting. The region is partially surrounded by mountains
and seems to be perpetually foggy. Part of it is air pollution and the other is just plan foggy weather. It did seem like the air was cleaner than the last time we were here 7 years ago. I would guess less coal burning.
The amount of construction going on was mind boggling. There were apartment houses and businesses going up everywhere. 20+ stories each. This is a growing area with around 33 million population in the municipality and I think it was 4-5 million in the city itself. One thing is for certain, it is a friendly city. People were very nice and greeted us. as we walked around you would here people saying "Hello" to see if they would get a "hello" back.
The food is spicy and I love that style of cooking. I also managed to find a Starbucks after lunch. That's the only western style restaurant I am willing to go into while I am here.
[Yangtze river (I think) it may have been one of the tributaries that connects near there]
[Downtown was busy and action packed. Lots of buildings and activity]
[Nothing quite so sad as a truck full of empties]After the zoo and dinner, our family friend, David Stienke who is in Bei Bei took an hour long bus ride to meet us at the hotel. We had a great chat about his 3 months in China as part of his college coursework. Here is his blog on the trip he has been experiencing. http://davidisinchina.blogspot.com/. It is amazing how small a world it is. He also received a care package from his parents that I had tucked away in our luggage.
A great day. I also realized I may have a couple of our locations mixed up in the blog. If I get a chance I may change some of it around. Though I am not sure it really matters. It has been go go go since we got here.
Tomorrow we head out to Fuling to see the Orphanage that Lily was in, and then the next day, to do a ribbon cutting on the new orphanage that was just finished. Happy Thanksgiving all!
Ciao - Eric
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