Chengdu

The train was much the same as the others- we played cards, ate too much food, read books... nice & lazy. We were woken by the train staff at 4.45am the following moring!! We arrived in Chengdu at about 5.30, so we killed time till the breakfast places were even open. We spent the morning at the Giant Panda Research & Breeding Centre. It had big enclosures for the pandas, so it wasn't too zoo-like (but still very touristy). We saw adult, sub adult & baby Giant Pandas- they were all extremely cute. They just sat there munching on bamboo non stop, then reaching around on the ground to get more bamboo, then continued the cycle. We were able to get quite close (with abarrier of course). There were even adorable 3 month old cubs, being fed bottles of milk by the staff... awwwww. We watched a very graphic film on the panda breeding at the centre... way too much information. Although it was set to an Enya soundtrack which softened the mood a bit! We ate a vegetarian lunch at the Wengshu Monastery in town, which was very nice. Some of the dishes were made to taste like meet though, which was a bit odd. We explored the picturesque streets & shops nearby, and headed to Tibetan Street, which was not as I imagined. It was really sad as Tibetan people & monks were begging for money and kept following us around. The Chinese probably owned all the shops & got the profits anyway. Our next stop was Jin Li Street, another very pretty, traditonal style collection of lanes. We inspected the shops & food stalls, before returning to our rooms. I watched the Culture Show that night, which showcased Sichuan (The province Chengdu is situated in) opera & entertainment. Was a fun night! the performers had very unique talents, especially the amazing hand shadow puppets! There was also singing, musical instruments, a comedy piece, fire spitting, acrobats & puppets. I had dinner at a local BBQ place- huge plate of spicy vegies & meat for $1.50! I was exhausted after such a long & busy day, but I got up early again the next morning as there is just too much to see in Chengdu! I went for a big walk by the river (it is possibly a canal) to a huge park. I passed a dead kitten on the way which was sad. The park was really nice, with little bridges crossing the lake, and the mandatory old people doing weird 'exercises.' I met a few of the girls for lunch, before we headed to the People's Park, however we didn't have enough time to explore as they were due to go to a cooking class. We walked back part of the way, again running into a food market with dead chickens and raw meat. That night I had delicious local BBQ dinner again, and a 50 cent longie of beer. I then met 3 of the girls on Jin Lin St at one of the bars. There were a lot of Chinese tourists about, and we were the subject of many of their photos! Some people tried to be sly about it- filming the building, and then slowly moving to us, while others posed with us at our table! So funny. The next day I got up very, very early, and Mel and I headed to the People's Park. There was a bit of tai chi, yelling, a lady hittng a tennis ball at a wall (she was so hopeless, but kept it up for over an hour), and some amazing old ladies- one was about 60 I reckon, and she was doing kicks over her head and stretching down to the ground with her arms bent; I was so impressed. We sat at a tea house on the lake, and enjoyed about 4 cups of tea while watching the loacls. There was a cute old man making bird songs, a lady cutting her toenails while sitting with her friends and some big card matches. We wandered around after that, and there was a lot more action. A high energy aerobics class, badminton (we joined in, and I had a huge rally going on with the old man), ballroom dancing, hacky sack... they have so much energy! There was a random haunted house for some reason in the park, and it was only $1, so we checked it out- hilarious! A little old man led us through a series of dark, underground tunnels, which made us think "what the hell are we doing??" He showed us to the entrance of the 'haunted' part, then disappeared. We were a bit freaked out being alone! The actual monsters and stuff tht popped up were so tacky, but we wanted to get out of there, it wa really claustrophobic! We met up with the group to have famous Sichuan hot pot for lunch. Basically, you throw raw meat and vegies (and quail eggs) into a pot of boiling water sitting in the centre of your table. However, our waitress put about 5 plates of food in at once, so it was too full to boil properly, and one of our gas outlets was broken. So with the technical difficulties, the meal was all a bit too much effort, and a bit overrated! I'm glad I tried it though. We then headed off to catch another overnight train!