Satani Bat Bi: Satani Bat Bi: Chengdu & Leshan, Part 3

Whew! Back in Chengdu, we walked around the downtown area, taking in the one thing we've agreed Chinese love the most - neon lights:

On these buildings, the neon lights "fall" down the building, like cascading rain:

Wouldn't be a town square without Mao:

A metro station is below this lit-up ribbon swirl:

With the red flowers and decorate trees (and slight chill in the air), it had a very Christmas-y feel to it:

Another pedestrian underpass by a busy street, with neon above AND below ground:

Massive scooter parking lot:

Because all the scooter-riders were at this huge pedestrian mall shopping area:

We found this side-alley to escape the neon crowds. It was a passage-way built in 1914 to lead to the YMCA, built with cooperation between Chinese and Westerners:

Through the alley:

You can barely see the YMCA sign in front:

Billboards around town:

Next morning we got up early to head out to the Chengdu Panda Base. About 20 minutes outside of town there is a massive panda research/conservation/breeding center for pandas. They are so very adorable - red pandas, giant pandas, giant baby pandas, giant SOMERSAULTING pandas - absolutely love them and their little cooing noises. There's something about pandas that makes me lower my voice and watch in awe. The center had these cute signs up in English and Mandarin stating "We're the Chinese national treasure and we don't like noise - silence please." Most people got the message, but there's still so much unavoidable shrieking the first time someone sees a panda - "OH! LOOK! I see it! In the tree!!! Oh, look! Another one!!" Hmmmm.

Panda babies taking a nap:

Good call:

Pandas deserve great landscaping too:

We walked around to the very far side of the center, and found the pleasant surprises of MUCH fewer visitors and the chanting of a nearby monastery. Watching pandas in silence, with just the monks' voices carrying over the hills, was pretty magical. And then we were treated to this little fella:

A few more adorable pandas:

The walk to the far side of the park:

One red leaf!

A few more orange-y ones:

This is the star of the tumbling video:

Kinda looks like he's giggling at a joke...

And then we went to see the red pandas! They were all in a very large enclosure, but free to roam about. It was the humans that were fenced in, following a wooden boardwalk that meandered through the enclosure. There were four foot high fences on either side of the walkway, but almost every fence had a small, red-panda-sized hole cut out just above ground height so the little guys could weave in and out.