So the highlight of chengdu was def. the PANDA consevation center! We all gathered early in the morning in the hotel lobby (spiral staircases, iumspressive marbnle pillars....and two purple, plastic "chandaliars"?!) and everyone was bouncing around with excitement, which probably wasnt helped by the breakfast "juice", which tasted and looked like pure cordial.

The pandas were incredible, so adorable and it was just so cool to be so close to them. They seemed quite content just to eat bamboo all day long - they were so lazy they wouldn't even bother to sit up and eat, each one laying on its back within a couple of minutes. They looked drunk, half-passed out at 9am. We did see some "kung-fu" pandas, playfully fighting we eachother, but mostly just falling down clumsily. Certainly I can't imagine how they would survive in the wild - they are not the most adaptable species! I always felt so bad that deforestation meant that these amazing creatures have become endangered, and it turns out that not only do they only eat bamboo, but they only eat a specific type of bamboo! PLUS the most ridiculous thing - they are actrually carnivores, but so they could eat meat they just don't...want to? A buddhist revelation perhaps - pandas with a conscience?

The baby pandas were break-your-heart cute! Squirmy, floppylittle teddy bears, they looked so much like stuffed toys your could've sold them in the gift shop (and i would def. buy that!!!) They all curled up in their cot, laying like human babies on their tummies. One woman seemed to have the cuddle-and-love-the-baby-panda job, which has got to be the best damn job in the world! Admittedly, when they are first born, shockingly underdeveloped, they look like bald rats. They are so ridiculously smaller than their mothers, and unfortunately, many first time mums have NO idea what to do when this screeching rat-thing falls out of them with a "plop". We watched a video of a birth, and one panda started beating her newborn up!!!

After the panda center a group of us walked to the Wenshu Monastery in the middle of Chengdu. After buying tickets from what was quite literally a hole-in-the-wall, which we poked our heads into to find a face staring back at us, we wandered through the temples to the vegetarian restaurant. The food was good, but I enjoyed walking around the monastery afterwards more. Orange-robed, shaved-head monks scurried in and out of various doorways, and the smell of incense was thick in the air. It was prettymuch the opposite to the Japanese Temples, all red and gold, lots of shiny dragons etc. was pretty cool to walk around, it was like a whole little town within the walls. Any sense of peace was soon lost when we made the mistake of going to the big supermarket to pick up some food for the train (aka the pot Noodle Express) - OH MY GOD it was so packed! Just as bad as the Beijing Train Station, everyone pushing, shoving and screaming at one another! We quickly grabbed something (anything) and hightailed it out of there!