Sterling’s Blog

By Sterling

Once upon a time there were two pandas named Cloudy and Coco.  They lived at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Beijing.  They were best friends, and played all day and all night.  The pandas were among many other pandas so that they could be given to children that stayed at the hotel.  The thing they feared most was being given to children and leaving the others.

One day it was Cloudy’s turn, but much to her surprise (the China one child rule) her best friend Coco was picked up too.  So they got put upon the bed for hours and hours.  Finally, two kids came running in and hugged the two pandas.  Cloudy and Coco went everywhere with the children and had a great time.  A few day later they flew to Tibet.  While they were there, Cloudy and Coco decided to adopt a Mountain Goat — Everest — and a yak — Tibety Confety (TC).  They had a good time in Tibet and then it was onto the cruise — two pandas, two kids, a yak, and a mountain goat. 

On the cruise, Cloudy had babies!!!  Twins!!!!!!!!!!!  Because she knew they would not like being in the suitcase when they were newborn and might get squished, she sent them to the next hotel, the Four Seasons.  When they reached the Four Seasons, a terrible thing happened.  Bamboo (Boo) was there but Jacoby got lost!!!  Cloudy was soooo worried!!  The kids’ Mom had to ask the hotel manager to go look for Jacoby.  Finally, they found him.  “Hooray!!!,”  Cloudy shouted.  There were four pandas and a yak and a mountain goat.  There was a family. 

Everest’s Story

Once upon a time there was a mother and father mountain goat.  The mother was named Lily and the father was James.  They lived in Tibet.  One day, they were climbing around the base of Mount Everest.  Lily was saying, “What should I name my baby?  Is it a boy?  Is it a girl?   Yak yak yak yak yak.”  Suddenly they saw some climbers having trouble climbing, so they ran over and helped them.  After a week of climbing and helping, they reached the summit.  At the summit Lilly realized that she forgot she was going to have a baby so she had a baby at the top of mount Everest.  She named him Everest.  When the climbers saw how cute he was they snatched him up and took him away.  Lily and James were to slow.  They brought him to the store and sold him to a lady who gave him to the same child that had gotten the pandas.  Everest became their stepbrother.

Tibety Confety’s (TC’s) Story

Once upon a time there were two parents and a baby yak.  The parents names were Yak Jr. an Yacker.  Their baby was Tibety Confety.  They lived in Tibet.  One day when they were drinking water from a pond TC got stuck in a baby tiger trap to get pet baby tigers as stuffed animals.  He pulled and pulled and pulled all day and night but it just got tighter.  While he was pulling, two mountain goats  and some climbers walked by on their way to Mt. Everest.  Finally the farmer came and brought him home.  His parents had walked away as usual expecting me like always to run after them.  TC was very lonely.  Then, what seemed like years after, a lady came and bought him and popped him in the same bag as Everest.  He and Everest got given to the same kid that owned the pandas.  TC and Everest soon became the panda family’s step brother.

Ending

At first, Boo and Jacoby were scared of Everest and TC because of their horns but after that they lived happily ever after as a family.

The family.  From left to right, Coco, Jacoby, TC, Everest, Boo (little panda), and Cloudy.

You might not know elephants live in China but they do. The Chinese did not know they lived there in the wild until 1949 because the elephants were so rare!!!

The Asiatic Elephant and the Gaur are two of China’s largest land animals. The Asiatic elephants have lived in China for hundreds and thousands of years.

Since they had no text book or information, they thought the elephants had become extinct long long ago. Another reason that the elephants were not seen is because they moved away from the big cities to southwest Yunnan where there were lots of plants but not a lot of people. In 1986 over 230 wild elephants were found in southwest Yunnan!!!!

Elephants eat bamboo leaves, wisteria leaves, twigs, wild fruit, and other greens. Their food has to be easy to get because they eat 450-650 pounds of fresh food in just one day!!! Their gray color and ability to walk silently makes them very unnoticeable. The gray blends in very well with shadows deep in the forest.

We did not see a wild elephant in China, but I hope we will encounter one later in our trip, because they are such amazing, interesting animals.

Click on the drawing below to learn more Elephant Fun Facts: