NOBODY PANDA RING TO ME

The day starts badly with news from Ren that they have not organised any visits for me for after the show.

My whole visit is in tatters yet again!

I pay a quick visit to the Panda reserve whilst I await the responses from several emails and plan my next move. I am left wondering why it was that this once ferocious carnivorous beast has become such a benign, bamboo chewing embodiment of cuteness? As a species, it has already outlived it’s evolutionary shelf life by Three million Years so little wonder it needs protecting. Not quite the current embodiment of the nation that it represents.

My little excursion gives me time to clear my head.

I refer to the map of Chengdu and find the provincial government offices. Twenty minutes later I am doorstepping the security hut and the armed guard is about as impressed as John stones walking into HSBC hq with a pig protest banner. I was rescued by the changing of the guard and a female member of staff who witnessed this and phoned her English speaking colleague. He dictated an address to an awaiting taxi driver and I made good my escape before the soldiers had time to recover the situation. The driver dropped me off pointing down a dingy back alley. Disbelieving I set off only to be met by a girl who had helped me negotiate for some products at the trade fair the previous day. It transpired that she worked for the Sichuan Province Department of Agriculture which was where I was heading for and spent the next couple of hours in the company of the “big cheese” of the Sichuan government agricultural body. They weren’t going to help me with any visits but it was a bit of a wheeze and I got some good general information from them.

24 hours in town and I witness my first serious RTA, a youngish bloke on his scooter. I realise that the innovative Chinese have patented a deadly stealth road menace, the silent but deadly electric scooter.