Starting on October 1 is an eight day holiday here in China, called National Day. From what I can gather everyone in China has this time off and travels. I believe that most of them have come to Bi Fengxia to see pandas. The bus ride up to base normally takes about 30 minutes in the morning and now it takes 50 minutes. That is not that big if a differences but when you have to run around the base and gather fecal samples by 9am. It makes a huge difference. Normally while running around the base in the morning there are not many people about so it’s a nice walk. Not this week. There are hundreds of people everywhere. And they all stare at the blond girl walking around with bags of poop in her hand.
I have made it a point to do the observations this week where the public cannot go. It’s a small breath of fresh air but you can never get away from the honking of bus horns going up and down the mountain. The pandas don’t seem to mind at all. The real challenge is getting off the mountain at the end of the day. The bus ride down is normally 30 minutes back to Ya’an. Not this week. First the bus leaves and hour later then sits in traffic on the mountain roads for about hour and half, not moving. On Monday after about 30 minutes of not moving a Canadian research and I started to walk down the mountain.
Once at the bottom we found a mini bus, (white shuttle van) to take us the rest of the way back to Ya’an. That drive still took another hour. The traffic is bumper to bumper, and going at a crawl if it’s moving at all. On the plus side I get to see fireworks every night. Over all I just keep smiling and am happy that I get to walk down the mountain not up.
Cheers from China! and Happy National Day!
-Kim
