Day 3 Louguan Tai

Very little sleep till the early hours but still up at 6.15 to shower.  We were lucky to have hot water for the shower in the apartment and a decent pressure.  Breakfast was a toast made with very thin sweet bread.  No butter or margarine so spread thinly with a jam found in local supermarket by one of the volunteers. I had managed to buy coffee but there was no milk so black coffee it was.

The apartment

Everyone was excited that we were leaving so we were all packed and ready to leave by 8.  We stood on the corner of the busy road waiting for the mini bus.  The journey to Loughan tai was one and a half hours, the mini bus beeped its way along swerving to avoid mopeds, cars and pedestrians.  The chinese love to sweep and even on the busy roads there were people sweeping every couple of hundred yards with brooms made from bamboo.  The scenery changed along the route and soon we could see the mountains through the mist.  There was lots of new building going on, new homes and shops popping up along the side of the busy road.  

Building of new apartments and shops Loughan tai

I arrived at the Shananxi Wild Animal Rescue and Breeding Center and dragged my huge suitcases through the center to what was to be my home for the next three weeks .  It was the old baby panda enclosures that had been converted for use by the volunteers.

We met 'Tiger' who was based here at the center and would be our guide, taxi booker, waiter, plumber, electrician, fire maker and at times guard when eager Chinese tourist attempted to get in to see where 'foreigners'  lived.

Red Panda

Grabbing my camera I joined the group for a tour of the center and met the animals.

Snow Leopard

Owl

Moon Bear, Asian Black Bear

Golden Takin

What no Pandas ?  Eventually we were taken to the Panda complex and walked around each enclosure peering in amongst the trees and grass for a first glimpse of the Panda and there it was having a morning nap.

My first sighting of a Panda

Just as I thought this was the only one we were going to see someone shouted "Panda" and there in the tree was a Panda fast asleep.

I feel very lucky to have seen this within only a short time of arriving at the center as in the following weeks I met many tourist who would be disappointed that the pandas were not out when they visited often because they arrived just as the pandas had been fed and were busy munching carrots and panda cake inside.

After a busy morning we were introduced to Mr Deng for our first lunch. Lunch was at 11.30 every day, we all groaned at learning this but it was surprising how hungry we were by then after we began our work with the pandas. 

A typical lunch, vegetarian duck, sweet and sour, cucumber and garlic, peking  pork and tea

Mr Deng's from the outside

After handing over our passports for the local police to check us out we were given a tour inside the panda enclosure, no photos are allowed inside except on Thursday so no cameras for our introduction.  My panda is Xin Xin  (shing shing)  female age 6 and when I first met her she was munching on a carrot.

The rest of the day was spent walking around the outside of the enclosure watching the pandas and settling in to the house. 

 Dinner back at Mr Dengs was 5.30.  The temperature in the evening really dropped and as there was no  heating I piled on the scarfs , hat and mittens and several jumpers.  The evenings always felt long and people started to drift off to bed by 8.30 mainly to try and get warm.   

Tomorrow is a special day, my birthday and the first day of work with the pandas :) 

I received a text during the night from my parents wishing me a happy birthday, this was lovely as sleep was difficult on a really hard bed and I woke every time my hip or shoulder and sometime my ear were really hurting digging into something solid.  Or maybe I just couldn't wait to get up and start work!