Chengdu

We arrived in Chengdu late on the Thursday evening our time here was short and for one reason (the same reason I assume most people visit Chengdu) Pandas!!! It has been my life long dream to see the Pandas and I have been desperate to see them since i realised they do not have them in UK zoo's (until recently that is), I did my research and decided the best time to visit the breeding and research centre would be first thing in the morning as soon as it opened..... At 7.30am; we got there for 20 past and queued for tickets (there was only about 10 of us queuing at this point) we were finally allowed in at around 7.40 and we made our way to the top half of the park where the Panda nursery was.

Most people just started at the bottom and worked our way up we were hoping we would beat the crowds by doing it the opposite way and for most of the morning we did, it is so beautiful and peaceful at the breeding centre and the pandas are very quiet animals, we stumbled across our first panda a adult just wondering round it's enclosure, I could have cried I had looked forward to this moment for so long and to see them just enjoying their environment was amazing, some of the cheekier pandas seemed to love the attention sitting right in front of us just chomping away on bamboo, others we more shy and hid in the trees, we made our way to the first nursery where there we a variety of panda babies all different ages (including the brand new 1 month old twins); in the morning is when the pandas are most active they get fed between 9-10 and then go to sleep so to have the opportunity to see them playing around was fascinating as they are portrayed as such lazy animals, there was one panda cub in particular which just showed off constantly playing around on it's climbing frame, rolling around and posing for the camera whilst others would just relax and eat bamboo. We wondered round the site for a few hours seeing all the different panda groups and then it started to get busier and busier to the point where we could not get to the barriers to see the pandas, we decided at this point to start heading back to our hotel it was only 9.30 but people were pouring in through the gates I am so glad we went that early it allowed us to pretty much have the park to ourselves.

We jumped in a taxi and headed back to our hotel just in time for breakfast, once we had gotten showered and ready we went to explore Chengdu which was not at all what we expected it was so built up and very city like, we were expecting a little more rural countryside. We wondered across the river which was lovely and then crossed the bridge to a little more of the commercial side of Chengdu which seemed very westernised with Starbucks and sports bars but it was still lovely none the less. Our hotel was called H-Hotel Riverside and it was lovely and perfect for our short trip the only issue was the noise we were next to the street where all the night life was and even though we had requested a quiet room we heard the music blaring until around 2am each morning, again not quite what we had expected of Chengdu but still part of the experience of that city, the hotels roof top bar was amazing with views right along the river which looked magical all light up at night, we could only enjoy it for a short while as we had to get a early night ready for our 5am start the next day in preparation of our flight to Shanghai.