Text by Mark Andrews

They say it is a mistake to return. Ten years had passed. I no longer recognized the city after its metamorphosis. The citizens, I am sure, love the butterfly, but I loved the caterpillar. To where had the old Chengdu of winding, bustling streets disappeared? My 19th birthday had been spent being initiated into the delights and dangers of Sichuan peppercorns. Today, the old shack of a restaurant near the river is no more and in its place sits a sparkling bank. 

My purpose, however, was not to reminisce but to explore the wilds of Sichuan. First, though, I had a pilgrimage to make. Whilst China is often symbolized by the panda, the true home of the bear cat is Sichuan. With the chances of seeing a panda in the wild being similar to having a big win in the lottery, there are three real options for seeing them.

First, there is Chengdu Zoo, prison to about six specimens. Also in Chengdu is the Giant Panda Breeding and ResearchCenter, home to around 20 giant pandas and maybe more red pandas. Finally, there is the most famous option: the Woolong Nature Reserve, which lies around 140km - or 4 hours away - from Chengdu. This is the largest of the special reserves set up for pandas. Along with wild pandas roaming around there are about 30 kept at the China Research and ConservationCenter for the Giant Panda on the edge of the reserve. The cages here are small, and unless you wish to hike in the 200,000 hectares of reserve - not allowed in the spring mating season -you are best off going to the research center on the outskirts of Chengdu. 

Here the pandas have fairly large enclosures, which are completely adequate seeing as for most of the time the pandas either eat or sleep. Even the cubs are hardly little balls of energy. The red pandas, locally known as "little pandas," are comparatively live wires chasing around their enclosure. 

To see pandas with a glint in their eye outside mating season, it is best to arrive at feeding time in the early morning (around 9am). You will not be alone as most of the tour groups time their arrivals to coincide with this. Tours are not really recommended. If you can get a group together of three or four it would be cheaper to go by taxi. The tour guides are hardly Chinese David Attenboroughs, and add little to the experience by pointing at pandas and proclaiming "Look! Panda!" 

The route to the north of Sichuan is a torturous, twisting one. Surprisingly, for much of it, the scenery is not particularly pleasant. Valleys with fast flowing rivers are blighted with hydroelectric power plants and a surprising amount of smoke-belching industry. The road is often little more than a dirt track, with continual construction work, and is patrolled in summer by swarms of angry bees. Closer to Chengdu there appears to be a new road being hewn into the precipitous slopes. 

Songpan is a small town lying in a deep valley. When I visited, it was the scene of frenetic construction, but this was due to finish by autumn 2004. The center of town is walled and the gates confusingly name the place as Songzhou, which is its old name. The information in the major guidebooks is largely wrong about Songpan. The center for the town's tourists is now on the road leading from the North Gate to the new bus station. Accommodation is somewhat of a problem with most of the old places which accepted foreigners being closed down as part of the town's renovations. The few places that accept foreigners are mainly dormitory style. There is also the over-priced Songzhou Traffic Hotel, which only opened in May 2004 but is already looking the worse for wear. Be warned there are frequent power and water cuts.

Click to see Travel Express Vol.65: Chengdu

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