Jet lag recovery in Chendu, 10/9-10, 2015

We arrived in Chengdu on a warm rainy night and our bird guide, Sid Francis, was there to pick us up right on time.  I had been contemplating a bird trip to Sichuan for a few years and had come across Sid's website while doing my internet research.  He also has a forum thread on Bird Forum which is very informative about birding in Sichuan.  Looked like he knew his stuff and that his clients were pleased.  As it turned out Sid was the perfect bird guide for Honey and myself.

Sid dropped us off at Holly's Hostel where we spent three nights prior to our week long trip with Sid and two nights afterwards.  Holly's is conveniently located right off Wuhou Ci, close to Chengdu's Tibetan district, the Wuhou temple and the Jinli shopping area, not to mention banks and restaurants.  We found Holly's to be clean, economical and friendly.  The girls at the front desk spoke English and were very helpful.

The next morning we ate a late American breakfast at the upstairs restaurant at Holly's and then went in search of a bank where I could use my ATM card.  The Bank of China proved to be the only one that would take our card.  In the afternoon we visited the nearby Wuhou Temple which is a very old memorial to the emperors and generals of the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history.  I wasn't carrying my bird camera so I missed shots of Eurasian Kingfisher, Chinese Bulbul, White-browed Laughingthrush and Chinese Blackbird.  But we got some good tourist shots of the temple complex.

Adjacent to Wuhou Temple is the Jinli shopping area with plenty of foodstalls.  Want some fried rabbit head?

That evening we passed a popular large hot pot restaurant on Wuhou Ci.  I had studied up on the famous Sichuan hot pot prior to the trip.  Luckily the order sheet also included English so we chose our skewers of meat and veggies to be cooked in the boiling hot cauldron laced with red chiles, chile oil and Sichuan peppers.  It was the spiciest thing I've ever eaten but it was really good.

The next morning we left at 7:30 for a morning trip to the Panda Breeding Center on the northeast side of Chengdu.  This was a private tour we arranged at Holly's.  Actually it was a driver and a couple of tickets.

We didn't see to many birds but the wet drippy conditions were just to the pandas' liking.  We only saw one Red Panda.

But we got to see plenty of Giant Pandas.  They love munching on bamboo but don't seem to do much else.

And there were some babies in the nursery.

Birds were numerous though not much diversity.  It was tough to photograph in the dark and wet conditions. This would be a problem throughout the trip.  Here's a Red-billed Leiothrix.

Chinese Bulbuls were abundant but up in the tree tops.  Plenty of White-browed Laughingthrushes on the ground.

On the ride back we got to see plenty of Chengdu.  Mostly it was apartments for Chengdu's twelve million residents.  Many of the buildings were heavily planted on the roof.  I guess it's all part of the "fung shui" harmony with the Earth thing.  I like it.