Wolong Panda Center and Super Heros Pictures

Well I made it to the Wolong after a 5-hour bus ride with the locals to go 140 km’s up the mountain. It was an interesting ride. The road had blind corners, one-way sections and many potholes and bumps. I was the only Westerner on the bus. On the way down the mountain it took 7-hours.

I arrived in Wolong where there are no English speaking people to be found and all the signs are in Chinese. The bus driver tried to set me up with a woman who had a Chinese hotel. She could not speak any English. This was not going to work, as I needed to get to the Panda Center each day and figure out how I was going to get back down the mountain, as there was no bus station in the town. It was 10km back down the mountain to the Panda Center and there were no taxis in the town. I needed to know which day I could catch the bus back down the mountain as it does not go each day and I had a flight to catch. I had a lot to figure out before I went to the Panda Center to Volunteer.

I was taken by the bus driver to a “hotel” it had a sign in English and the people there spoke a “little” English. I looked into staying there. It was 300 Y a night ($60) and a car to take me back and forth to the Center was going to be 50 Y each way and I needed to go back and forth four times a day. This didn’t make much sense as it only cost 38.5 Y to get up the mountain. I thought there was a hostel in town so I set out to find it. I knew I could come back to this place if I had to. There wasn’t a hostel but God was looking out for me. I walked up the street and saw Westerners. I went to speak to them and asked do you speak English? They said yes. They were from Texas. I had run into a group of 11 people from a Baptist University going to the center the same days as I was and going back the 6 hours to Chengdu the same day. So I asked and was successful, I stayed at their hotel got a ride with them everyday and went back to Chengdu with them in their bus. The hotel and 3 meals included, transportation etc was 80 Y a day. I lucked out. They were traveling around China and Hong Kong studying the panda bears, wetlands and botanical gardens as part of a three week long ecology course.

The group of students and two faculty members welcomed me into their group. They were so nice and inviting. We worked in groups of three at the Panda Center and we were responsible for the feeding and cleaning of three panda bears each day. I had to smile driving with them to the center, (they had a van and driver) at just how well things work out. I came with no accommodation etc and it worked out way better than I could have planned it and I met some awesome people.

One of the panda bears we looked after was in the hospital wing and was caged for most of the day. We were not told why he was in the hospital but he seemed healthy. One of our other pandas was pregnant and due in a month.

I am in Hong Kong now and the transition from China to Hong Kong went very smoothly. I traveled by all most all means of transportation that day. I went by taxi, bus, plane, subway and we almost went by ferry but we are saving that one for another day.

Christine lives in Hong Kong and teaches at an International School. She lives in the Midlevels on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong is really neat. The streets are extremely steep, narrow and have tons of people and little shops on them. I had no idea there were so many hills here and that they are so steep. They have a very large escalator to help get up the hills when it is working. The two times we have needed it, it has been shut down, but I guess whereever they can conserve energy they should and we just got a little exercise.

Christine’s group of friends had a pub crawl last night that was a super hero themed event. Everyone went out in a super hero costume. I went as Syndrome from the Incredibles, Christine went as Laura Croft from Tomb Raider and April, Christine’s roommate went as Storm. There was Super Dave Osborn. He had his costume made and there were two Poison Ivy’s. You will have to check out the photos.

Hong Kong is very hot and lots of people were sweating in their tights last night.

Check out the following two links for pictures. I don't think it will link these pictures. So you will have to copy the addresses and paste it into the toolbar.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/WolongPandaCenter

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/SuperHeros