t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


DEC

08

2013

despite the rain and the fog and my constant coughing, lihui and i left changshou early this morning to go visit the chongqing zoo (i got to our rendenzvous point before 7:30, saw a bunch of coworkers leaving for work on sunday; lihui called to say he just woke up, but it gave me enough time to run back to the apartment to grab my umbrella). highlights included seeing a panda for the very first time. i've seen pandas before (washington, taipei, shanghai, chengdu) but they've always been asleep, so i was beginning to think that's all they did. but today i saw a panda that was going to town on some bamboos. i've never seen a panda eat before, it's eerily human-like as they tear off the bamboo leaves with their independently-evolved opposable thumb and stuff pawfuls into their face. at one point i thought maybe somebody was actually in a panda suit.

afterwards we walked to yangjiaping, yet another chongqing commercial plaza, this one located southwest of the city center. yangjiaping is cool because the elevated tram actually crossed over the square. we had a late lunch, 2.5 lbs. of weigh-your-own ma la guo. we then went to lihui's mother's wonton shop (she left before we arrived around 4:30, didn't realize we were visiting since lihui didn't call) for some wontons and some tangyuan for dessert.

we walked back to hongqihogou and grabbed a 6:00 bus back to changshou. by coincidence, we bumped into wang who was coming back from his chengdu vacation. due to traffic, we didn't get back until 7:30. i didn't mind anyway, both lihui and i were fast asleep, too tired from a day of walking. i was so full from eating in chongqing that i went to bed without dinner.