Dragon Boat Festival, Pandas and Tibet

The Dragon Boat Festival has been held annually for more than 2,000 years and commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC).  Some of the customs include dragon boat racing, eating zongzi, wearing a perfume pouch, tying five-colour silk thread and hanging mugwort leaves and calamus.  The legend holds that the race originated from the idea of the people who rowed their boats to save Qu yuan after he drowned himself in the river. People threw the zongzi (rice dumpling) into the river so the fish would eat the rice and not their beloved poet.  The winning team of the dragon boat race is supposed to bring harvest and happy life to the people of their village.

Zongzi - a rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves - the stores are loaded
with this holiday food and you can buy all kinds of different flavors

Pandas at the Chengdu Reserve

The Giant Panda is adorable but their habitat is continuing to be swallowed up in development so China has established reserves ... one of the biggest is in Chengdu.  They were delightful to watch!  Slow moving, playful, eating, and sleeping ... that's a pretty complete description of the Giant Panda. Because of the heat, the Pandas ate inside where it was "air conditioned" so we had to observe them from behind glass during lunch.  I hope a few of these pictures capture their personalities.

The Red Panda looks more like a raccoon but they were still fun to watch.

Strolling around Swan Lake in the panda reserve was a beautiful walk.

Welcome to Tibet

Lhasa is a city full of wonderful culture, color and history.  At 13,000 feet we had to acclimate to the altitude but did fine.  The daily temperature wasn't over 80 but the sun was HOT ... it hurt your skin even with sunscreen on.  The Tibetan people all wore long sleeves and long skirts or pants ... they looked so hot but you need the protection from the sun.  The skies were so incredibly blue and at night you could see millions of stars.  The sky was particularly beautiful because we don't get many clear days or nights in Xi'an due to the pollution.  Lhasa is surrounded by mountains and when we visited the two monasteries high in the mountains and hiked around we could really tell that we had gone up in elevation. At about 15,000 feet we often would stop to catch our breath.  I didn't notice the lack of oxygen so much except when climbing up hill or up stairs ... and there were a lot of stairs.

Beautiful views flying into Lhasa

Potala Palace - incredibly majestic on the hillside as you enter the city.  

Looking down over Lhasa from Potala Palace 

Morning Prayers 

The prayer wheal is spun counter clockwise and you walk counter clockwise in the temples, monasteries, etc.

Located at the foot of Taipu Hill, Sera Monastery is one of the three most famous monasteries in Lhasa. 

The monks hold debates each afternoon as part of their study ... it was very interesting to watch 

huge banners are all hand stitched to hang on walls and along the mountain during the "Yogurt" Festival in July 

This is butter ... people bring butter to the temples as an offering

Drayerpa Cave Monastery is a series of caves built into the mountain ... very remote
and a lot of hiking to get from one cave to another ... I love the sound of this horn

The native dress was worn by most women ... ladies with the colorful aprons are married

Gandan Monastery up in the mountains ... we hiked all around the top of the mountain
This monastery is the largest in Tibet ... at one time 10,000 monks lived here

One of the doors at the Summer Palace ... the rope hanging symbolizes the 5 essential elements
White - Clouds,  Blue - sky,  Red - Fire,  Green - Earth,  Yellow - water

Hiking around at 15,000 feet

I loved how expressive and friendly the people were

Children are taken to the temple and blessed by the monks ... it is ashes on the nose to keep away evil spirits

Building a canal

Break time - game time

This gal was studying with one of the "masters" at the monastery 

This is one of the roads we were on in the mountains

We enjoyed a couple pedi cab rides

Summer Palace was very ornate with beautiful flowers 

love the shoes and flowers

Prayer poles and prayer flags are everywhere 

business was slow in the dental office

Yak pies - burned for fuel

The end of my trip was a whole new adventure.   We landed far away from the terminal and had to leave the plane with only our boarding pass and identification ... no purse, no carryon etc.  We were met by many police and airport security, firetrucks, ambulances etc.  It was kind of eery!  We were then bused to a police station by police escort, and locked in an outside area ... gates and fences.  Then 4 people at a time were taken into the police station where we were screened, identity checked etc.  Finally after over a 2 hour delay we were allowed back on the plane to collect our carry-on bags and then bussed to the terminal.  We never were told why ... maybe a drill, maybe they suspected James Bond was on board ... I guess I'll never know but I'll also never forget.

looking back at our plane as we were being bussed away