Moira's Poem

Our Wild Side of China
Written by Moira Le Patourel
April 5th, 2019


In the beautiful city of Chengdu,
We started the trip off right,
Heading to Dujiangyan and Wolong base
Where we met the bears of black and white.

Here we fed them,
Face to face,

And watched these bears at play,
Red pandas were spotted here too
Adding another rare species to the day.
We headed high up to the mountains,
To Rilong and to see the 4 sisters peaks,
Spent time there in the valleys
Adventuring at 10,000 feet.
Seeing stupas, yaks and prayer flags,
Serenaded by a young man on his flute,
We chatted, we laughed, we learned,
While eating incredible local delicacies, to boot!
From here we wound our way lower,
Down from the mountain roads on high,
Bound for the capital city of Shaanxi,
Our ride on the bullet train fortified
by our interesting experience at Dairy Queen,
(One Bella will not soon repeat)
and some spicy Sichuan chicken burgers,
found only at the prestigious KFC
In Xi’an the dumplings were steaming,
The Terra Cotta warriors stood strong and proud,
Tour guides have been known to take flight here,
While helping their beloved group beat the crowds.
Onwards, back to the mountains,
Our brave crew carried on,
As one by one the plague hit us,
Oh, who will be spared when we’re done?
We searched high and low in Tangjiahe,
For takin and muntjac, boar and bear,

Throughout day and night,
We searched with all of our might,
But the Minshan mist hid the bear.
Next, to the Golden monkeys in Huangyang
At the top of a thousands steep stairs,
With blue skin on their faces and nethers,
It sure was a colourful affair!
With the skinniest bridge now behind us,
We drove the twists and turns to Pingwu
Stopped and explored the Bao’en temple
Along the road to Jiangyou.
Street markets bustling with people,
Filled with chickens, ducks and vegetables too,
Taste tests of litchi and mulberry,
A vibrant plethora of food.
Memories of all the friendly locals,
Smiling faces, selfies and chats,
No one could argue differently,
Travelling with these Laowai is where it’s at
Now we find ourselves back where we started,
In the beautiful city of Chengdu,
I know I speak for Bella, Melinda, John and I;
In a world of 7.7 billion people,
We’re sure glad we travelled with you.
Tomorrow we all adventure onwards,
To other corners of the world to play,
I hope you enjoyed our adventures together,
And with that I will leave you – Xiè Xie