Xian - Day 3

Since studying Daoism in university, I had always wanted to go to a temple called Louguan Tai. It is reputedly the birthplace of Laozi and a major center of Daoist teaching beginning in the 5^th century. The temple is located about seventy kilometers to the southwest of Xian. While transportation to the temple may have been difficult it is also the location of a panda rescue center. Since Pandas are so adorable, many of the hostels offer tours to the center. We asked our hotel whether they could tack on a trip to the temple alongside a trip to the panda center. They said they could, so we booked our trip for Monday morning at eight in the morning.

The drive took an hour through the smoggy countryside. Also going with the three of us were two girls, an Australian and a Japanese. After about an hour and a half of driving we turned and drove past a large temple. Alongside the road were buildings built in the old-style, but that looked half abandoned. I don't think the tourists have discovered Louguan Tai yet. Finally we pulled into a parking lot and got off. We had arrived. We followed our driver into the 'rescue center', and he gave us a bit of a tour. The first panda was quite near the entrance, but I was dismayed to see that the habitats were not great, with a lot of concrete and iron bars. The panda was not black and snow white like the photogenic pandas seen in the media, but had some light brown fur. I later found-out that the pandas from Shaanxi province actually belong to a different sub-species from the ones in Sichuan and are coloured differently. In addition, the panda was injured and limping. She had a huge sore on her leg. According to our guide she was injured while mating. The panda walked around for a bit before going inside, after which we moved on to see more pandas. Perhaps the most interesting panda was a baby, who had his own very large habitat. While the members of our group were oogling him, I put my shirt on the ledge just next to the bars so I could have two free hands to put on my contact lenses. The panda came over and nearly snatched my shirt. I even managed to touch him, although he shrunk back when I did.

There were also a number of other animals in the 'rescue center', all native to the area. The next animal we went to see was the Golden Takin, a type of antelope. Surprisingly one of them was ranging freely throughout the grounds. We were told that it was a baby and wasn't aggressive. One of the staff members came up to us and asked about how farming was in our own country. He was obviosuly from the countryside and thus had a nearly impenetrable accent.