Ya'an Wildlife and Nature Film Festival

Staying connected is a critical factor in keeping good business relationships. Luckily, our hotel is one of few with great networks both local and foreign.

The West is still expanding and actively seeks investment in new business sectors. One organization specifically searches and maintains friendly relationships with investors from foreign countries. As the hotel is a foreign brand we often receive invitations to events and networking dinners. This time we were invited to attend the opening of the Ya'an Wildlife and Nature Film Festival.

Ya'an is a University 'town' 2 hours from Chengdu. It is green, hilly and small compared with Chengdu. We stayed 2 nights and had the chance to visit some local sites.

Our first evening we arrived and met with the organizers for lunch at the hotel. As soon as all were seated the Chinese liquor was offered. This is 50% alcohol and sometimes more. Here you have no choice, but to drink. If the host invites you, you drink. Done. So, glass after glass, it burns going down. Small glasses, but nonetheless potent. Five drinks later and everyone was having trouble using chopsticks.

After a quick nap we headed for the Panda Breeding Base in Ya'an and saw panda after panda including some youngsters.

That evening we made our way with police escort and 12 mini buses to the festival on the university campus. This is very common for any government function to have a caravan with police escort and stationed police officers at intersection to keep the caravan moving. It is a little over excessive.

We arrived at the festival and drove right up to the rear entrance behind the main stage. The event was outdoors. There they had rolled out a red carpet for all the VIPs. Not sure whether we were included or not. Either way, we walked the red carpet and cheers came from the small crowd that had gathered. Ha! Hollywood. We walked past the stage and were seated at reserved seats in the front row. Looking back we saw a sea of people. And you won't believe it when I say there were 10,000 people there.

The opening ceremony started and dragged on with speeches from government officials, military generals and romantic chinese love son

gs. Fireworks lit the sky and two hours later we were more than ready to leave.

Along with us were guides and translators from the local university. They were always willing to help and make sure we felt comfortable. Shelley and Claire even accepted our offer to join for BBQ later that evening after everyone had gone to bed. We still wanted to see more of the city. They showed us a famous bridge and a good BBQ spot on the riverside.

The next day we went to a local town in the country side. Ancient and beautiful. It is wonderful to see the colour green again. Trees, grass and flowers!

Even some local fresh water eels for lunch, freshly gutted with a utility knife.