Chengdu, China

Our latest vacation was spent partly exploring more of China.  We traveled to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China.  Our choice for visiting this city was to see China’s National Treasure, the giant panda.  One of the rarest animals in the world, of those living in the wild 80% of which are in Sichuan Province.  We decided to visit the Panda Breeding Research Center in Chengdu which is a unique opportunity to see the Panda in an environment that mimics their natural habitat.  The center leads the world in research into the rearing and breeding of Pandas.  We signed up for volunteering at the Center by cleaning a Panda cage, washing them down, and best of all feeding them.  It was great experience.
 

Within the same day we visited Antique Street with a history stretching back to the Qin Dynasty around two thousand years ago.  Walking through the street you see many handcrafts and antique items for sale.  Finally we stopped on Jingli street in the evening, it is recorded that as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC).  As we walked down the streets we saw stores selling handicrafts, etc.  It was a very happening place to visit as the streets were very crowded as we casually walked around and stopping at a few select shops here and there.

The following day we went to see the “Big Buddha”.  We traveled to Leshan to see the biggest Buddha in the world and the longest reclining Buddha in the world.  The Buddha is situated at the Lingyun Mountain where the Minjiang and Dadu River meet, east of Leshan City.   Created in the Tang Dyansty it is the biggest stone stature in the world at present.  Historical documents show that the carving was begun in AD 713. According to legend, there was a river monster that lived on the confluence of the rivers. The monster often caused floods that capsized passing boats. Believing that the statue would protect boats travelling up the river, Master Haitong, a Buddhist abbot of the Lingyun Monastery, initiated the project by raising the necessary funds.  It was really a great site to see!  Aside from climbing down the mountain side we also took a short ferryboat ride along the river to get a better view of the statue.

In the evening we went to see a Sichuanese Opera which originates back to the 1700's.  Sichuan opera is more like a play than other forms of Chinese operad.  The traditional opera we witnessed had a combination of dancing, stunts of face changing, sword-hiding and fire-spitting.  This was a great experience and a great way to end this trip within China.

Singapore!

Our next vacation stop was the island of Singapore, known as the world's fourth leading financial center and it's port is one of the five busiest in the world.  We stayed at the Shangri-La Sentosa Resort which is one of the only beach front locations within Sentosa island and a popular resort.  Our hotel was beautiful as expected with great views of the China Sea and the boats awaiting port side. 

On our first day aside from relaxing poolside, one of our first adventures was the MegaZip ride.  It is located at the top of Mount Imbiah and is one of the longest and steepest zip wires in Asia.  Interestingly it was on the sixteenth season of The Amazing race. 

Lastly we visited the Night Safari which is the world's first nocturnal zoo.  The Night Safari is an entire open-air zoo within a tropical forest that is only open at night.  It is divided into eight geographical zones which we explored on a tram ride.  We witnessed cultural performances after the tram ride such as fire eating and a Creatures of the Night Show.

The next day we started with a visit to the Merlion statue.  This is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village.  The lion head represents Singapore's original name Singapura meaning "lion city".  Following this we went for a luge ride down a long winding path, we all had a blast racing down the hill.  It was a self-steering, gravity-driven three-wheel cart which we sped down a hill over a course of 650m ending at the Siloso Beach.  At the end of the luge, there is the Skyride we took back up to the top enjoying the views of the island along the way.  Next we went on the city’s Cable Car which gave us a bird’s eye view of the city, taking us from Sentosa Island to Mount Faber.  After arriving on the main island of Singapore from our Cable Car ride we took a taxi over to the Singapore Flyer.  This is a giant Ferris wheel that reaches 42 stories high, with a total height of 541 feet making it the tallest ferris wheel in the world, taller than the London Eye!  We chose to ride the Flyer in the evening as it is located near the shore of Singapore's Marina Bay with an amazing view of the city. 

On our last day we took a tour to Legoland which was a highlight for Cooper and Brady!  The park was a two hour bus ride into Malaysia where we then had a great time on rides and looking at the many Lego displays.  The park was not crowded and we even had a complete roller coaster all to ourselves for several rides.  It was a great day for the family and a perfect way to end our vacation.