Gran-in-Waiting: Day 6/7 Chengdu: Panda Research Centre

Amazingly we are nearly halfway through the trip and I am thankful for a free morning to enjoy a late breakfast and a leisurely morning re-sorting my case.  At noon we leave for our first internal flight from Xian to Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province and the furthest inland that our route takes us. At 400 miles and an estimated 10 hours by car, the 1 hour flight is the obvious option.  Nonetheless, basically the day consists of travelling and an evening meal, and I am left wondering whether we should really have invested so much time from our tight schedule to see a few pandas. Could we have visited London Zoo instead?

I really needn't have fretted because the research centre exceeds all my hopes. Everything is set up for the pandas enjoyment and well-being and there is no hint of zoo about the place.  The pandas are beyond cute and the enclosures set in beautiful parkland, which has been designed so that humans can enjoy the viewing without interfering with the scientifically controlled conservation programme that is being carried out. Each panda has its own home, with a large outdoor area and an air-conditioned house. We see baby pandas in incubators, and then a group of juvenile cubs rolling about and eating bamboo shoots, then a mother and baby playing together.  They are so entertaining it seems as though the scenes could have been put together by Disney animation. Even the red pandas performed for us, and one even ran over Louise's foot!

Chengdu is a large town that has been modernised over the last 20 years. Many of the poorest street alleys have been renovated into designer street markets, preserving something of the old charm with street food and wall murals of how life used to be.

We left our hotel this morning at 7am and finally flop into our next hotel just after midnight.  Phew - it was a long and tiring day. Worth it though.