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by Leonie Andrews

Panda-monium

OK, sorry about the awful pun, but I couldn’t resist. Seeing pandas is one of the highlights of most trips to China. Panda central is now the Panda Base in Chengdu, after the previous centre in the countryside was largely destroyed by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.
Thankfully it was a quiet day when we visited. Our guide told us that on public holidays 30,000 people will visit the centre in one day! The other good thing about visiting pandas, for sketchers that is, is that they tend not to move too quickly and also like to sleep a lot.

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These two are older animals. The one at the top is demonstrating how to eat while lying on your back. The other has just crashed out.
The younger animals such as these ones are a bit more lively and enjoy playing with each other.
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Whether this is a recent behavioral development isn’t clear to me as pandas in the wild are generally solitary and while giving birth to twins is common generally only one baby will survive in the wild.
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If I thought I might escape the Panda Base with my resistance to the animal’s charisma intact but I was sadly mistaken. All it took were the 9 baby pandas which had been carried out to lie in the sun. Their gowned and gloved keepers brought them out and placed them on the grass where they slept on oblivious to the collective cooing and camera shots of the onlookers, me included. Soooo cute!
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by Leonie Andrews

Sunday in Sichuan Province

What could be more appropriate activity for a Sunday than to take a drive in the country. Our group drove out of Chengdu at about 9 in the morning, while most of the local population was still asleep. Our destination was Leshan, the 12th largest city in the province (3 million people), which is home to a famous sculpture of the Buddha. The sculpture sits above the confluence of three rivers and was built with the purpose of seeking the Buddha’s influence to stop the capsizing of small boats (well this was in 713 AD). The best views are from the water so we took to a boat and cruised downstream to see the statue.
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Given that the sculpture is 71 metres tall the view, even from the water is quite foreshortened.
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After a great lunch of local noodles we drove to Huang Long Shi village (Yellow Dragon River), a popular tourist destination for Chengdu residents. The largely reconstructed main street runs either side of a small stream. Shops selling food and totally pointless souvenirs abound. We sat down in one of the tea houses for a spot of people watching. To one side we could also see some of the carved stone frogs that decorated the stream bed.
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Soon it was time to head back to town and in that time honoured tradition we joined the rest of the locals in a massive traffic jam. Ah there is nothing like a drive in the country!

PS apologies for the picture quality, I had to do these late in the evening.

by Leonie Andrews

Friday morning in the park, Chongqing

The hotel we stayed in last night is located next to Erling Park, in the Yuzhong District of Chongqing. We walked in the park after breakfast and saw many local people practicing their Tai Chi.
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It was about this time that I discovered that it’s actually quite difficult to draw people doing Tai Chi. The movements may be slow, but the continual flow is a challenge to capture.
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We walked through the park to a section that overlooked the river. The park was originally a private garden and we realised that the viewing platform where in fact the roof of a pavilion. Having descended the stairs we found a beautifully designed building, one small corner of which I’ve captured here.
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On our way back through the park we saw a beautiful bridge with railings carved to resemble thick ropes and an area of the gardens where old men were ‘airing’ their caged birds in the trees. I could have stayed much longer but we had to catch our bus for our next destination.

by Leonie Andrews

Kunming

You know what they say about the best laid plans… Well I was expecting to be able to post some drawings of the Stone Forest, an amazing landscape of limestone rocks that we visited yesterday, but it started to rain just as we got to the stones and drawing proved impossible. Of course by the time we got back to Kunming the rain had stopped. As compensation we bought some tea, because tea plants (Camelia sinensis) are native to this area. So here is my consolation cup of chrysanthemum tea.

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Thankfully the weather was much better today as we visited the Western Hills area of the city to climb up to the Dragon Gate, a Daoist shrine on the side of a mountain overlooking the city. Here is my sketch of the gate in its pristine state (I’m considering putting some colour on it). The character on the left is ‘gate’ and that on the right is ‘dragon’. You may notice a ball shape on the underside of the lintel. It is traditional for students about to sit their exams to climb the mountain and touch the stone.

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So good luck to you all and we’ll settle for the weather to be kinder when we visit the ancient Buddhist sculptures at Beishan.

by Leonie Andrews

Yangshuo Markets

Like any Chinese city or town Yangshuo has  range of markets. Across the road from our hotel is the local fruit, vegetable and meat market. It opens very early, we were there at 6.30 and it was already getting underway. I did two quick sketches of some of the vendors and buyers on the street outside.

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West Road is the tourist market at the river end of Yangshuo. It’s full of ‘not quite’ silk scarves and antiques that are at least a week old. Our guide suggested that it is a good place to buy cheap souvenirs, or maybe a special present for someone you don’t like very much!
It was 30 C and quite humid today so we had a pleasant cold drink while watching the world go by. This is some of what you can see looking towards the river.

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