It is the fourth of July and we are about to have our last meal together as a group. Tomorrow a woman named Debra and I head for Beijing while the others head to Hong Kong. From there one woman is going on to Thailand, two are spending an extra two days in Hong Kong, and one is going to stop in Japan, but most are going home.

It has been a fascinating, but also tiring time and most people can't imagine that I am only half way through my trip. I am looking forward to two days by myself in Beijing before Elene arrives on Wednesday night and we start up again. Of course we will be working at our own pace, so it will be quite different, but we will also have to attend to some details which we have not had to bother with here.

This morning we went to the panda reserve. Our leader had discouraged us from being too enthusiastic, since the group she brought last year were only able to see sleeping pandas, lying with their big paws over their eyes. We had read that we should go early, at feeding time, and to our delight, three of them were alert and perky, posing for photo opportunities. After a while one lumbered off, but the second spent the whole time sitting on the edge of the moat that divided us, facing in our direction and chomping away on bamboo. The third panda was perched in a tree, and adjusted his position from time to time whenever it appeared the cameras had stopped snapping. I was sorry I forgot to bring the video this morning (I have to charge it at night), but someone else was shooting and we all plan to share our best pictures. The panda reserve was a lovely place for a walk, despite some treacherously slippery stones, and we all enjoyed being out in the greenery without any rain.

Our guide took us to see the red pandas which were indeed sleeping, although their raccoon-like faces were not covered and another Kodak moment occurred. We were invited to pay extra to go into the house and help with feeding of the baby red pandas, but at a cost of $4 for the privilege, only two of the group indulged.

Heading back into town we went to lunch in a little commercial park which promised bowling, but I did not see the bowling alley. The centerpiece of the park was a waterslide which was not open, and which was so dirty it was hard to imagine it had ever held water. My guess is that the plastic resin attracts the coal dust which permeates the air, and that the slides can't be properly cleaned, so the pool has been abandoned.

Our guide is surprised that we like spicy food so much. I am surprised that he hasn't learned that from other American tour groups, but perhaps they are afraid of food that doesn't look exactly like the restaurant back home. We are really quite adventurous, although we haven't had any major challenges since the scorpions back in Beijing. There are in fact three rankings among the group based on that night -- those who at no scorpions, those who ate one (including me) and the hearty souls who downed two.

This afternoon we went to see the cottage of the poet Dufu, China's most famous poet, though perhaps not their favorite. He lived in the 8th century and traveled in various parts of China, suffering from the rebellions of the end of the Tang Dynasty. Chengdu was only one place where he lived, but they have a lovely park in his honor with a recreation of his thatched cottage. We are told it is built according to descriptions left in his writings, but knowing he was a simple man, I have to imagine that the scale of the house is something more likely representing a high city official at that time. Again, in the Panda park and at Dufu's cottage we were surrounded by Chinese tourists rather than foreigners. I guess there just aren't that many foreigners here. I am sitting in the hotel's Internet cafe, and in the rest of the cafe there are only Chinese people -- something we did not see in the four-star type hotels we visited in Shanghai, Nanjing or Beijing.

Now bicycles are everywhere in China, but this city seems to take an aggressive stand with bicycle police. In intersections there are traffic cops, with their backs to the cars, focused just on the bicycles. You have to be twelve years old to ride a bicycle in the street. You are not allowed to have an adult passenger on a bike, although you can carry children under 12. According to our local tour guide, if you get caught with a second passenger, the police will take your bicycle and they will not fine you. You have to work with them for some period of time. In his case, he was made to watch the traffic until he caught someone else committing the same offense, and then he could turn the penalty flag he had been given over to the next culprit and retrieve his bicycle.

Armed with this information we have been using our perches in our tourist bus to check out the passing vehicles and indeed we have seen half a dozen people get caught in the last two days.