As the Gengda panda base is quite a way up in the mountains, it provides for some amazing views while I am conducting my observations. I really love being able to watch and observe the pandas each day. Although we are still working through figuring out who is who in each of the enclosures, I can see that each one of the bears has its own unique personality. There are two sister cubs Pang Niu and Chu Xin that just graduated from the kindergarten area into the regular enclosures. My eyes always seem to wander over towards them to see what they are up to. They are very playful with each other and spend a lot of time wrestling and trying to knock each other off of their platform.  When their keeper comes out with their breakfast bowls of “milk” they follow him to the top of the enclosure like two puppies close on his heels.  Bing Cheng is also another one of my favorites to watch. He is incredibly spunky and appears to have made up a game that he plays with his bamboo, chasing and attacking it from different angles.

One of my biggest apprehensions before I came here was the food; visions of exotic mouth-numbing cuisine, beyond the limits of my picky palate, played through my head. Luckily those worries were unfounded and I have had some really amazing dishes, and am enjoying the food very much. There are only a couple of restaurants in town, and we are regulars at all of them.

Cheers, Shalyn.