Chengdu Round 1

A 16-hour train from Xi’an to Chengdu was not something I was looking forward to. And to rub salt into the wounds, I had no luck getting a cab to the train station so I had to walk for about 30-40 minutes with my heavy packs on in 30+ weather. By the time I arrived at the station, I was wet with sweat, frustrated and to make matters worse, I couldn’t find where my train was leaving from.

But of course it all worked out and I found my train, located my bed and got settled in for the long journey that was sure to be unpleasant.

To my surprise the journey actually wasn’t that bad. I was lucky enough to have probably the only other English speaking person on the carriage, possibly the train, in the bunk below mine. So the first 4 hours was ok, we just chatted and laughed at the Chinese and their weird and wonderful ways, tried the Chinese version of two-minute noodles and pissed of the lady across from us cause we were talking and laughing. So really it was a painless train trip thank god!

Chengdu is China’s fourth largest city and I didn’t know this before I got there. I was hoping for a bit of a smaller, slower town then Beijing and Xi’an, but I was wrong. It was just like the others, busy, smoggy and mental. So I checked in and literally chilled out that afternoon and night and organised the next parts of my adventure as I didn’t want to be stuck here an extra day like I was in Xi’an.

As the city seemed like the others, I wanted to make sure I had something planned for the next day as wandering around the city didn’t really interest me as there didn’t seem to be much here, so I booked myself on an outing to the Panda Breeding Centre.

The Panda zoo I will call it was pretty damn cool. Although it was absolutely bucketing down rain, it was still a fun day out. The zoo focuses purely on breeding pandas as from what I learnt, this is not an easy task. So there were enclosures containing pandas of all ages, from the nursery to teen pandas and then the big old ones. Even though the rain kept a lot of the pandas inside which made snapping photos difficult due to the thousand Asian flashes bouncing off the glass, a few of the furry fellas were outside in the rain which meant I got at least a few good pics.

That afternoon was spent booking the rest of my china trip so I got everything in that I wanted to as I already have had to leave off a few places as time just wouldn’t allow it, and organising my 10-hour bus to Jiuzhaigou, one place I was not going to miss.

I will be back to Chengdu again as this is the only place the bus leaves to go to Jiuzhaigou, so I will plan some more adventures then and avoid the smoggy city.

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Pandas at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base

Panda at Chengdu Panda Base