Pandas, Parks, and Plazas!

Names: Chelsey Butler and Catherine Jenkins
Class Year: 2019 and 2020
Hometown: Williamstown, WV and Proctorville, OH
Internship: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding
Location: Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Wow it's already week 5! We can't believe how fast it's gone by! The past two weeks we have been in the husbandry department working in the Sunshine Nursery and Delivery House. We have been working independently and along side the keepers preforming the daily husbandry tasks for the pandas. On a typical day, we start off the morning by cleaning the enclosures and scrubbing them down as well as bringing out each panda's daily diet which is a crate of bamboo. After cleaning the facility it is time to give the panda's their panda cake as well as the other specific supplements they need. We love watching the pandas eat the cake, they are very sure not to miss a single crumb! After the lunch break, we go back to the panda's enclosures and spot clean as well as cleaning the outdoor enclosures on some days. 

Some of the highlights of working in the husbandry department was seeing how blood draws were taken, touch training, feeding pandas the panda cakes, and distracting the four one year old cubs while the keepers cleaned the glass for the visitors. 

Lake at the Panda Base 

Even though a majority of our time is spent at the Base, on the weekends we like to go and explore Chengdu. Last weekend we went to the New Century Global Center which is the world's biggest building! The Global Center was five floors, and had an ice skating rink, a movie theatre, and a HUGE water park all inside! 

New Century Global Center

Water Park inside the Global Century 

   

Ice Rink 

We also visited IFS which is another shopping area that has a panda crawling up the side of the building!!! We ate at the Good Good Mexican Grill, that was suggested by a colleague at the Base.

Entrance into IFS 

It was indeed GOOD GOOD!  We compared this area to the Times Square because of the immense size. Then we went to People's Park and rented a power boat and drove to explore the small lake. Many people visit People's Park to play various card games and Mahjong tile game.

Good Good Mexican Grill

Boat Ride at People's Park

Huan Huxi Stream Park is one of the list visited parks of Chengdu but not for a lack of beauty. It is right next to the Du Fu Thatched Cottage and includes many of the poets works. In the center of the park there was a huge lake where many of the locals played with squirt guns as well as wrote symbols on the sidewalk with water. Across the lake you could see what is known as Eagret Island where various birds perched to rest.