Greetings from Darren and Alice!

We are now in Chengdu. We took the night train from Beijing to Xi'an which was actually quite cool, we were in dorms of 6 with 3 bunks high! We arrived in Xi'an and went to the hotel which was right in the centre of Xi'an which has a walled ancient area in it where we stayed. we stayed right next to the bell and drum towers which are similar to the picture above. We spent the morning walking round the tops of the walls which was great, looking over the city. Xi'an had a very different feel to it, it seemed to have kept a lot of its old charm with old buildings and hutongs. Hutongs are old fasshioned small streets. After this it started chucking it down so we went back to the hotel (getting lost on the way) and got ready for our trip to the teracotta warriors.

we took a bus to the terracota warriors and it was absoloutley chucking it down when we got there which was a bit miserable. but once we got to the actual pit where they are it was great. it was such an phenomenal thing to see, to think that these figures were only discovered 30 years ago but date back to 3000 years ago. and they are so well preserved. im hoping to put some photos up soon! but no time at the mo (sorry)

after this we had a chilled evening and found a really lovely restaurant with really great food! after this we went to the muslim quarter and had a mooch around there looking at the markets and the different food stalls. it was really weird to see chinese muslim people! we had an early night as we had to be up at 5 for a plane ride!

the next day we boarded a plane to Chengdu. it was a quick flight with free egg sandwiches! hurrah! we checked into the hotel and had a much needed snooze! after this we headed out for what was to be our best day so far!

we walked into the centre of the city (getting lost again!) and on the way had lunch in a thai restaurant which was really nice. its funny i imagined Chengdu to be small as its the smallest Chinese city we've visited so far, but its still got over 4 million people living here! so you can imagine how big. We went to a square in the centre of the town where there is a big statue of Mao and lots of fountains and did a bit of people watching! which was much fun as there were loads of babies around and here they wear these funny suits that are bottomless so its really cute seeing their little bottoms poking out! not sure what happens when they need the loo though... After this we went to a market that sold goldfish, pets and plants. it was really cool in some places but horrible in others some of the animals were really badly cared for, as you can imagine. there were some really cute puppies though that i played with and nearly took home with me! but we didnt stay too long cos it was a bit sad really.

After this we walked to the peoples park. here we stopped at an outdoor teahouse and had some lovely lemon tea. thenw e found this square in the park where there were loads of people so we sat and did some people watching again! it was amazing and really relaxing just watching the different people. there was a woman who was in her forties playing hackie sack and she was really really good at it. there were 2 little kids trying and failing to fly a dolomon kite and an old couple flying a kite so high in the sky you could bearly see in. in 4 little stands around the square people were doing kareoke (some quite badly) and there were old couples dancing. it was just so beautiful.

in the evening we went to a cultural show with the group. this was in a teahouse so we got free tea with frangapani flowers in it, it was so yummy! the show was really good, with different things such as opera, music, acting and shadow puppets. the finale was a show called changing faces in which the characters changed the colours of thier clothes and masks and we have no idea how! really really great.

This morning we went to the panda sanctury, which is the main reason we came to chengdu. i twas really really good, and as the weather wasnt great the pandas were on top form sitting right next to the fences chilling out and chowing on bamboo. they are so funny and cute! there were babies too and they were really cute, one of them got on a rocking horse! adorable! after this we went to a monastry and walked around and then we all went for lunch at a vegetarian restuarant. this was absoloutley amazing as they brought out about 20 dishes between 13 of us and there were so many different things to try without worrying about eating the rear end of a chicken or a goats intestines!

now we are going for a stroll round the tibetan area, and tomorrow we move onto Kunming. should be fun!