ChongQuing & Pandas

On the morning of April 16, 2013 we said our final goodbyes to the Anna and headed for the Chongquing Zoo and the home of the Giant Panda.

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Gathering for our final departure from the Anna
 

After looking out at the length of the pontoon walkway and the
steps at the end, the porters seemed like a really good idea.

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The sky was full of kites, then we found out they were selling them

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A final look at out river boat the Anna.
After loading our luggage and boarding busses, our first stop was at the zoo and the pandas

Our first stop was at the panda enclosure. 
But wait, aren’t pandas suppose to be black and white? 
What’s this red thing?  Its a Lesser or Red Panda
Also an endangered species.

Okay, this is what we came for. 
The Giant Panda.
The pandas were not on display when we first arrived. 
The attendants were cleaning the enclosures so we had to wait a few minutes. 
When this guy came out, he headed straight for this window and tried to peer in. 
We later found out that behind the window was where his food was stored.

Click here for a video of the Pandas

These are photos of several different pandas that we saw

Here are additional photos taken at the zoo. More pandas, other animals and birds and tigers as well.

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Words cannot describe the beauty of this tiger. 

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to 11 ft and weighing up to 670 lb. It is the third largest land carnivore (behind only the polar bear and the brown bear. Its most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside. In zoos, tigers have lived for 20 to 26 years, which also seems to be their longevity in the wild. They are territorial and generally solitary but social animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey requirements. This, coupled with the fact that they are indigenous to some of the more densely populated places on Earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans.

Tigers once ranged widely across Asia, from Turkey in the west to the eastern coast of Russia. Over the past 100 years, they have lost 93% of their historic range, and have been extirpated from southwest and central Asia, from the islands of Java and Bali, and from large areas of Southeast and Eastern Asia. Today, they range from the Siberian taiga to open grasslands and tropical mangrove swamps. The global population in the wild is estimated to number between 3,062 and 3,948 individuals, down from around 100,000 at the start of the 20th century

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This is a Taiwan Blue Magpie

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Nothing like a good scratch to finish off a visit.  We headed to the airport for our flight to Xi An

Click on the following link to quickly fly to Xi An.

Xi’ An and the Terracotta Warriors

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