Ah Sichuan - Part 3, More About the Giant pandas

When we got there, the Giant pandas were lying on a bed of fresh bamboo having their breakfast. We instantly halted our conversation, and got our cameras out! We were captivated by these fuzzy, nonchalant, and cute animals. The first paddock had 5 giant pandas, who were a year old and were born in captivity. Since they were not moving too much, you don't have to try very hard to take good pictures! It might look like they were posing for pictures, but in fact, they were just eating and could careless about the awestruck visitors. Based on our esteem guide, Victor, they couldn't see further than 10 feet, though have a good sense of hearing and smell.

At some point, one of the Giant pandas rolled onto another one and was partly sitting on it while continuously eating; and at another point, another one snatched the bamboo out of his neighbor's hand and ate it. Yet another one, sitting at the edge, rolled over the edge into the trench between them and us. He just climbed back up and continued his eating as if nothing had happened. Then I remembered they were expert climbers. The adult pandas, 5+ years old, each had his or her own paddock, because they were so territorial. The mothers live with their cubs for the first one and a half years.

Victor reassured us that in the wild, Giant pandas were not so lazy or comfortable. They had to fight for their territory, looked for food, and even when they were eating they had to stay alert of the hostiles in the surroundings. So wild Giant pandas were definitely more fit and more resourceful. These Giant pandas that we were watching, some were born in captivity and some were injured in the wild and being rescued. Once in captivity they were decidedly too well-fed, comfortable and overweight. They were all in a rehab program to help them to get back to the wild, but over the last 12 years, only 2 of them passed the program and were successfully returned to the wild. The rest of them stayed in captivity and live the lives of true national treasure - eat, sleep and be cute. They were too big and lazy to mate, and most of the new born were artificially inseminated. We walked around the park, watching these cuties eating, and saw some cubs sleeping high up in the trees. Victor said the cubs naturally were great climbers because their claws were growing and they had to climb trees (to release the growing pain?) We took as many pictures and videos as our hearts content, and exclaimed with every slight movement of these pandas, including one's pooping action. Victor explained that Giant pandas had small intestinal system, so they had to eat many meals a day and when they had to go, then had to go right there, so no need for separate bathrooms.

Victor explained that first there were raccoons some 25 millions years ago, then there were Red Pandas - the Sifu (master) in the animation Kung Fu Panda, then came the Giant pandas, and then finally came the various kinds of bears, millions of years ago. The Giant pandas each had a name like Xiao Bao, but next door in the Red panda exhibition, the Red pandas lived with their family and each one did not have a name. The Red pandas did look very much like raccoons, and I like them as well.

I must add, the Panda center was very well-manicured, clean, and well-maintained. It was a big park and we spent the whole morning there - mainly because we spent so much time watching the Giant pandas. It reminded me of Disney World, except this was the real deal! They didn't try very hard to sell you Giant panda souvenirs, although they could and they would be making a boat load of money. Even the donation center was very easily missed. Or maybe Victor tactfully ushered us away from those places. We did go to the museum and he gave us an additional lecture about the Giant pandas. Starting from 6 rescue Giant pandas, there are now about 176 of them in this park, and there were multiple Giant panda centers and wild life parks through out Sichuan!

I love this place and promised myself to come back next time I have a chance! If you go there in May or June, that's when you could see new born! But beware the weather is very hot in Sichuan as it will get over 100 degrees.

Ah Sichuan - Part 2, Giant Pandas Rule!

Need I say more?

Ah, Sichuan - Part 1, The Food!

Sichuan, to many, is famous as the home of the Giant Pandas, but to me, Sichuan spicy food is mystical. I've always been told that Sichuan food was so spicy that it would burn your tongue and could give you numb scalp if you were not careful. Just look at the bunch of red chilly peppers, Sichuan pepper corns, raw garlic and chilly oil they put on the food. Secretly I fantasized Sichuan people must have digestive system made of steel.

While interning in the Silicon Valley, I was properly introduced to some authentic Sichuan dishes in a well-known Sichuan restaurant by my Chinese colleagues, and after many years of sniffling and mouth burning, I finally somewhat acclimated to the spice.  I was also exposed to other spicy foods such as Thai, Indian, and hot Mexican salsa.

When Jack was planning a business trip to China and asked me to accompany him, I suggested that to make the 14-hour journey to China worthy, we could visit Guangzhou and Sichuan after his meeting, so that we could try both his favorite dim sum in Guangzhou and Sichuan cuisine in Sichuan!

After Jack's meetings in Shenzhen, we took the train to Guangzhou on Friday afternoon and got together with my relatives. We had a welcome-and-farewell-combined dinner in one of the top two restaurants in Guangzhou. My relatives didn't understand why we would want to go to Sichuan, yet spend only three short days in Guangzhou - the food capital of China. First my cousin said: we have really good Sichuan food here in Guangzhou. Then my uncle suggested that we could go to the Guangzhou Zoo to see the Giant Panda triplets. Seeing that our plans were made, my aunts warned me strenuously about eating Sichuan food. Not only would it give you pimples and red skin, worst of all, it could give you internal heat (the Traditional Chinese Medicine interpretation of inflammation). "Sichuan food is not suitable to a Cantonese girl like you," they said. They gave me many high quality Chinese tea, and made me promise to drink it throughout my trip. My friend also advised me to drink the water in Sichuan which was of cooling element and would help counter the heat in the spicy food.

We flew to Chengdu, Sichuan on Monday afternoon. I was a little baffled that people in Sichuan didn't look much different from other Chinese we saw in Guangzhou or Shenzhen. They were not especially husky or muscular and didn't seem to have super powers. Even the local dialect was so similar to Mandarin which wasn't difficult to figure out. Luckily, my carefully selected first hotel in Chengdu, Buddha Zen Hotel, exceeded my expectation, so I was happy about that. The Buddha Zen Hotel was on a street where a real Buddhist temple was located. It was small and tastefully decorated as a Chinese Inn from ancient times. Even the whole street was a backdrop of an ancient Chinese street with antique stores, art galleries and local eateries. It was decorated with lots of red lanterns from the Chinese New Year celebration in February, which made it especially festive.

The next morning we met our local guide, Victor, at the hotel lobby at 7:30 sharp. We were going to see the Giant Pandas. Everyone told us to be there earliest possible or the Giant Pandas would be gone indoors if it got too hot outside.

We got into Victor's orange BMW sedan, and he carefully drove out of the hotel underground parking structure while talking us through the itinerary of our three-day trip. The way he talked made you think that he was leading a group of 30 people on a bus ... yet there were just the two of us in the car with him.

During our ride, Victor told us many anecdotes about the city, the culture and the food of Sichuan. Victor explained that Chengdu (成都) means: becoming the capital. A long time ago, the capital of Sichuan was at where the airport is some 30 minutes away, but then that area was flooded often because it was at the junction of two rivers, so the officials decided to move the city to where Chengdu is now, and building it up as the capital of the Provence, thus, becoming the capital. 

Victor also told us there were four major Chinese cuisines: Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu, and of course, Cantonese (Guangdong). He said the key ingredient of Sichuan dishes was the broad bean sauce, and almost every family had its own recipe. I told him in the Bay Area, we had been going to this Sichuan restaurant for many years, but one of my friends who traveled to Hunan and Sichuan once told me the food in this restaurant tasted more like Hunan cuisine. It was something to do with whether you feel the spicy in your mouth or your throat, or something like that. Also, Sichuan food creates this numbing sensation on your tongue because of the Sichuan pepper corns. We were dubious ever since. I asked Victor if Kung Pao Chicken, Ma Po Tofu, and Cold Noodle were authentic Sichuan dishes that he would eat at home, and he said yes. Then I asked if Hot and Sour Soup was a Sichuan dish and he said no. Hot and Sour Soup was a soup from Hunan, which was a big surprise for us. He explained: Sichuan dishes were normally spicy, so they used to eat bland vegetable soup to balance out the spice. I explained that in America, every Chinese restaurant makes Hot and Sour Soup, I just thought that it was an authentic Sichuan dish, because the Sichuan restaurant made it especially spicy and flavorful, comparing to the Cantonese restaurants, for instance. Victor told us the reason why people in Sichuan ate so much spicy food was because the climate was so humid and eating hot peppers help to prevent arthritis. At that moment, the people of Sichuan instantly became more human to me.

I asked Victor if Moms (our favorite spicy sauce, 老干妈) was from Sichuan, and he said no, Moms was from Guizhou (贵州)! This really made me feel let down, because I always thought I was making authentic Sichuan dishes with Moms! Indeed, this kind of spice is different from that kind of spice. When I told Victor about the story of the cooling element of Sichuan water, he laughed. Oh, by the way, we also learned that there was no such thing as spicy Mongolian beef. Beef made in Mongolia is bland with little flavor. 

The best part of the day, in addition to watching the pandas, was when Victor took us to the original Chen Ma Po Tofu shop in Chengdu! We tried the original recipe of Ma Po Tofu, and alas, we could take it without having numb scalp or other sufferance! That was one of the most joyous and relief moments of the day, and it was only lunch time! Now we know Little Sichuan in San Mateo did not fail us after over 20 years of patronage. On the other hand the authentic Kung Pao Chicken was a bit of a surprise, because it tasted sweet with lichee flavor, and they seemed to put in way too much peanuts but not much chicken. We preferred our own Kung Pao with lots of veggies. At some point when he was eating some small pickled green chilly pepper, Jack observed: "Hmm, now I feel the spicy in my ear." The cold noodle was gone before we remember to take any pictures.

To be continued:

Part 2: Giant Pandas

Part 3: Giant Buddha

Part 4: Mt. EMei