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Published: November 6th 2012
After our interesting train journey from Xi'an we finally arrived in Chengdu 18 hours later, which is in South-West China in the Sichuan province, and took the metro to our home for the next 3 nights, Mix hostel. We liked it straight away as the staff were super friendly and it had a tropical feel to it, with indoor plants and an open air roof top which was cool. We decided to have a chilled out day as we were quite tired and spent the afternoon resting and planning our next few days in this region, before meeting up with Simon from S.A and checking out the Wide Lane area of the city. Lined with cute restaurants and shops, it was quite touristy but really nice so we wandered through the streets there for a while before jumping on the metro to Lazy Bones hostel & bar (sister of Mix hostel) and having some dinner and drinks there. Whilst there we met a really nice English couple who we had seen in Xi'an so chatted to them for a while and discovered we would be travelling a similar route towards Vietnam so agreed to meet up with them again soon.
Something we had both been looking forward to for a while was seeing the Sichuan Panda's here, so when the alarm went off at 6.30am the next morning I was up early and raring to go. I was so excited! We chose to make our own way to the Giant Panda Breeding & Research Base as it was cheaper than taking a tour and we could spend as long as we wanted to at the park, so got 2 local buses there and arrived by 8.30. On the bus we met a cool Spanish guy - the last few days we have met some really nice people - so the three of us went to the park together. The reserve houses over 50 panda's and focuses on helping them to breed (which they don't do as they are so lazy) to keep them evolving and the environment they were in was really natural, with big open air spaces for the pandas to roam around in.
Our first glimpse of these amazing animals was of a lone giant panda lazing on his back, chowing down on a ton of bamboo - we couldn't believe how close up we could get
without disturbing him, and as we were in the park early we got to see them in peace before all the tour groups arrived which was brilliant. After gaping at him for ages we moved on to a nursury and managed to see a tiny one month old baby panda which was so awesome - it was so small it hardly had any fur and couldn't open its eyes yet, it was wrapped in a blanket and the staff would feed it and check up on it every so often which was lovely to see. It's mother didn't really know what to do with it so for fear that she may kill it by accident the centre are hand rearing it until it is bigger and healthy and can go back to it's mother. Then we found another nursury type building which had three baby panda's in a crib who were 2 months old - they were soo cute and fluffy, we looked at them for about an hour and took so many photo's of them, they looked so cuddly we just wanted to take them home! They are only in there for an hour a day so we were
really lucky to see them and they were a big highlight of the day for us, although all the panda's were incredible.
We then saw the elusive red panda climbing down a tree and walking right in front of us - these are red/brown and more like foxes than traditional panda's, and are pretty rare so again we were lucky to see these, especially as it was during a time when they were hardly any other people around. Lastly we found 6 giant panda's chilling out on wooden decking (and some were asleep in tree's), sleeping and eating bamboo and generally lazing around doing what panda's do which was really nice to see - they just seemed oblivious to all the people looking at them in awe! These creatures are really amazing and we had a brillaint few hours here, it was one of our favourite day's in China so far up there with the Great Wall and I would have loved to have gone back again to see them!
That afternoon we checked out Tianfu Square in the centre of town which was unimpressive, but found a great noodle place for lunch and then went back to
the hostel before going out in the evening. We found 'bar street' but it wasn't really our scene so tried to find a restaurant for a bite to eat, but even though it was 9.30pm on a Friday night places were closing which we found strange, so called it a night which we didn't really mind about as we were tired anyway. The next day we had a lazy morning (getting more and more like the panda's!) and walked to Wenshu Monastry which was pretty nice and housed several small temples, before getting on a bus to the Tibetan Quarter and walking around there for a while. That night we went for dinner to the tasty noodle place from the day before with Simon and a Chinese guy we had met at our hostel which was nice - the noodles are so good and even though only £3 the Chinese guy said they were the most expensive he had ever had! We then headed to an Irish pub we had heard about called Shamrock as Manchester United were playing Arsenal and Scott of course wanted to watch the game - the pub was packed with a good mix of Chinese
and British people and Man U won the match so Scott was pleased. We debated on staying out for some more drinks but knew we had an early start the next day so headed back to our hostel.
We had been researching on visiting either Juizhagou National Park or climbing Mt Emei whilst in Sichuan as they are both accessible from Chengdu, and although the park looked great it was a 10 hour bus ride there and back (so two days travelling) plus hefty entry fee's so we chose to visit Mt Emei instead, which is just 3 hours away. On the way there we would also take in the Giant Buddha in Leshan...both of these excursions will be detailed in our next blog!
After a side trip away from Chengdu for a coupel of days we came back for one more night and had heard about a great Muslim restaurant nearby, so went there and had one of our best meals in China so far! It was called Da Ba Jie chicken, served in a spicy tomato sauce with potatoes and red/green peppers and then you got this home baked soft naan bread to mop up the
sauce with - it was really delicious and cheap! The food has been really good the last few days for us actually and any weight that we may have lost we have now put back on after gorging on noodles, rice dishes, buns, dumplings, and various local snacks! We went to bed full and happy that night, but again had to be up early for our flight to Lijiang in the Yunan province, one of the last destinations we will visit in China.
Sichuan has been great fun and Chengdu one of our favourite cities - good food, nice people, decent driving and of course panda's- what more could you ask for!
S&V's Travel Info & Tips: General Info: Approx 10 RMB/Yuan to £1. Chengdu is probably the most organised Chinese city that we have visited. People and cars seem to obey all road signs and the transport network excellent. The people are really friendly in the Sichuian province and are constantly smiling. Transportation: Local buses are 1.5 RMB, whilst the metro is 2-3RMB depending on distance. Getting to the Panda Research Base is simple, take a number 1 or 16 (2 RMB)bus to the end of the line (heading north) then transfer to a wooden bus 87 (2 RMB) for half hour which stops outside the base.
Food: The food situation has got better and better the further south we have travelled - It also seems to be a lot cheaper. Kuan Chef Master Beef Kitchen serves delicious noodle soups. The hostel food is great at 15 RMB a dish and the Muslim restaurant near Nijano metro stop is amazing. Accomodation: We stayed in a private twin room in Mix Hostel for 110 RMB per night. They are also connected to LazyBones which is probably in a better location and had a better traveller vibe and lounge area. Other observations: x) Traffic here is semi-normal. xx) There are a lot of great Sichuan street snacks on offer all over town.
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Jade Lees
non-member comment
OMG
I want one, can you bring me a baby one home?? :)xx