So it finally arrived, the day we get to see the pandas. We traveled to the Chengdu Research base of the giant Panda Breeding. It was awesome. We arrived as the pandas were eating their bamboo. The base is laid out in sections were the panda are arranged chronologically. We saw an very old male panda and some 1 year old panda.

We watched one older panda strip the outer layer of the bamboo with his teeth and spit it out while he ate the inside green portion without ever putting the stalk of bamboo down. Some of us even paid to pet a panda and get our pictures taken with them.

We learned about the mating habits of panda and the very low chance of natural breeding due to the fact the women panda are very selective in their mates. Since panda live alone or in very small groups, it is difficult for mating to occur naturally. The breeding station has a very high success rate in artificially breeding. birth rate and babies that survive. They have won awards and continue to make improvements.

After our panda experience we had lunch at a very fancy restaurant. Needless to say, it was incredible. We then went to the Sanxingdui Museum. It is located near an archaeological site that dates to the Neolithic, Shang and Zhou periods. In 1988, this site was declared a National Key Cultural Relics Protected Unit, due to its scope, the wealth of its contents, and the rarity and precious nature of its excavated objects.

We got to see artifacts from the Shang-period where two sacrificial pits were unearthed with more than one thousand gold, bronze, and jade objects. Of all the objects excavated at Sanxingdui, the bronzes are the most fabulous and strange, with their high degree of historical, artistic and scientific value. We saw many masks. clay type bowls, pitures, cooking items and weapons. The detail and beauty of these items combined with the precisions of the shapes, especially circles was amazing. We all had a hard time taking in the magnitude of something 1000 years old since our country is only 200+ years old.

Tomorrow we are visiting the Sichuan University for a tour of the museum held within the university and having an exchange with students here. We then will travel via sleeping train to Xindu, approximately 19 hours away. The blog will be updated as soon as Internet access is locates at our next stop.