Although the main breeding and research centre for Giant Pandas is further inland at Chengdu the zoo in Chongqing has 9 giant pandasincluding 5 females – all of whom have had cubs in recent years. As you probably know giant pandas are not very sociable animals and are kept on spacious individual compounds with plenty of room to roam but screened from their neighbours. The females are only receptive to male attention for 24 hours or so a year and much depends on whether they get on. Like Chengdu Chongqing has been very successful with their breeding programme and almost all the females that we saw had been successful mothers.
All the Pandas were doing what they do best – sitting back on their haunches – either stripping the leaves off bamboo shoots or stripping down the stems - some prefer the leaves and some the stems – but whatever they need to eat an awful lot of bamboo and when they are not eating they are sleeping.
Inevitably in the zoo grounds were a group of elders practicing Tai Chi. The zoo authorities have had to set up signs asking these groups to turn down the volume of their music since it disturbs the animals!
After the pandas we visited an art gallery in the zoo grounds. Distinctive Chinese art as I have explained in previous blogs is based on poetry, peaceful countryside vistas and the inevitable ‘stamp’. Again the paintings on offer were far too expensive but one art form that was available at a reasonable price was painting on the veins of banyan leaves. Individual leafs are steeped in a liquor which dissolves away the fleshy art of the leaf leaving only the skeleton vein structure and then using delicate brushes exquisite Chinese scenes are painted on to these veins. I am very pleased with the leaf that I bought.
All too soon it was time to leave for the airport and our flight to Xian.
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