We have now left Xi’an on another sleeper train. We survived the 16 hour journey by sitting in the corridor watching beautiful mountains out of the window. Following an exciting tea of pot noodle, Matt and Will squashed up on one top bunk, and Ellie and I were next door on another top bunk. Having dozed on and off we eventually arrived at Chengdu at 5.00am.
Our hostel here is a little garden oasis in another noisy city. We have a lovely triple room with en-suite. The room has Tibetian tangkas on the wall and lovely carved doorways. The bed is really comfy too! much better than the night on the sleeper train! The garden is full of plants and palms, growing bananas. It has little bridges over ponds and bubbling streams with fish and turtles in.
Today we visited the Chengdu Panda Research and Breeding Centre. We were all really excited about the visit, and it didn’t disappoint. The centre is set in lovely gardens, with large enclosures that you walk through on wooden walkways. The pandas were climbing and sleeping in trees, eating bamboo and having a good old back scratch on a tree! We also saw a short documentary about pandas and the work of the centre, a museum full of interesting exhibits and then…… the tiny, fluffy month old baby pandas! Ellie and Will were really besotted (ok so was I!!!!)
We have visited the People Park. It was full of people dancing and singing……and even doing kareokee!!!!! It was very noisy. We found a quieter spot by the lake in a teahouse, where Matt and I sampled some local tea and green tea. (I’m sure it was something very special, but you can’t beat a cup of good old Yorkshire Tea!!)
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