Our first impressions of Chengdu (other than breaking the washing machine) were how much better the city was than Xi'an. We took a stroll down to the old quarter and walked around a bustling market. "I" was hungry so demanded (I don't know why but spat my dummy out) we went for food. We got to a hotpot restaurant to find that it only did fish and after our experience with fish in Xi'an decided not to be brave. We walked back to the old quarter and a few skewers of unknown meat (spicy but delicious).

We were up bright and early on the 8th to try and get to see Panda's whilst they are still awake. The first two areas were a let down (one panda asleep in a field and another in a small room looking agitated), but then we got to the adolescent pandas who were eating and alot more entertaining. The morning followed the pattern of watching pandas for ten minutes and then moving on to watch another group of pandas. The adults were the most entertaining as one of them was obviously bored and spent his time falling out of trees and jumping on other pandas (who were asleep and didn't look impressed).

For the rest of the day we went on an eight mile walk around Chengdu, we even had a "Dicos" chicken burger (China's own version of KFC) which was actually delicious.

Our next meal was a local delicacy (hotpot) which consisted of a large bowl (placed on a burner on the table) filled with chilli oil, about 40 chopped chillis and a type of pepper (which is meant to numb your whole mouth, but doesn't seem to work on me). You are then given the raw meat and vegetables to cook yourself. The meal was so good we went back for another one the next day.

Other than that we spent our time in Chengdu strolling around the streets and drinking beer on the banks of the river (or in an Irish bar, they get everywhere). It is starting to be a recurring theme of our travels to spend most of our time relaxing.

The day we were due to leave the hostel we finally managed to dump alot of our winter stuff as it is finally warm enough to go without a coat and our next stop of Guilin is supposed to be 25 degrees so it may even be time for shorts.

After our dinner and we'd stocked up on supplies for the 24 hour train ride we thought we would go back to the hostel and update our blogs but were sidetracked when we bumped into the Danes again and drank the afternoon away.

Getting on the train was the usual bustling with ten people trying to get through the space of one. We are starting to get the hang of it now as between us Sarah and I managed to leave at least four people on the floor (maybe more but we didn't look back). It sounds cruel but you don't get anywhere in China being nice!

Once on the train I brought out the Bai Jiu which shocked all the Chinese people in our carriage. Especially one guy who kept filling my cup (with my Bai Jiu!) and laughing hysterically when I finished it. I made him have one but after that he refused to drink anymore. I awoke at 10:30 in the morning to find them instantly offering me more but I turned down there offer (as I still felt a little drunk).

The cheetos that we bought for the train ride have been the ultimate let down. We thought that we had bought tomato flavour and cheese flavour and quickly realised that they were strawberry (who does strawberry crisps?!) and nut flavour.

The scenery out of the window is incredible, rolling hills and meandering rivers disect the crop fields. If it's like this now I have high hopes for Guilin and Yangshou.