Good morning,

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the place where dreams are made. As we sit having breakfast/lunch (it was impossible to find breakfast again today!) the sun is shining and we have had another amazing morning! Panda hunting has been great but first, a few words about yesterday.

We had a really early start leaving our hostel in Xi'an at 5:00am! After a daunting taxi ride to the airport we managed to check in fine and found a croissant and coffee for breakfast. Our destination was Chengdu, central China, home of the Giant Panda! On our arrival we got the very easy shuttle bus to the city centre and used our map skills and directions to find our hotel, The Dorsett Grand, with ease. During check in Tara told a cheeky white lie and told the lady that we 'always write a review' and as a result she upgraded us to a suite with a huge bathroom, two sinks, free standing bath and 2 TV's - all on the thirty tooth floor! (Personal joke). Our room was amazing and we enjoyed the view, chilled for a while and then ventured out to the People's Park. In desperate need of food all we managed to find was a banana followed by a KFC! It is impossible to find food here that we contemplate eating! The People's Park was a lovely area and we enjoyed walking around and even hired a small electric boat on the boating lake!! We both felt like Royals as many locals took pictures of us as we sailed around steaming past the locals in their rowing boats! We are so Dubai!
After our boating moments of fame we decided to sample the traditional local tea house, HeMing Teahouse. This was jam packed full of locals all enjoying a brew and some even having their ears cleaned! That's right, some people were sat there having a man with a head torch poke around in their ears with long metal instruments!
We chose to give the ear cleaning a miss but did take a liking to the Lemon Tea, not so much so the Organic Tea.

As the early start caught up with us we decided to head back to the hotel via the subway and make the most of our suite! 3 hours later we woke up and went for dinner on floor 6 in our hotel. This was a mini buffet and a first proper meal for days! We did venture out again to the bank to get some cash and to find our return bus stop to get to the airport. It was then back to the hotel to prepare for our day of Panda hunting!

Today we woke up excited and ready to explore again. We took a short taxi ride to the Panda Research Centre and have spent the morning walking through bamboo forests spotting the huge black and white furry creatures. We could have stood watching them all day as they had play fights, ate bamboo, climbed up and around trees and slept in the sun. It was a very special experience to see them so close and so happy in their protected environment. Tara, dressed in her Panda inspired t-shirt bought a new Panda cap especially for the occasion and totally fell in love with each and every one she found!

After a good lunch overlooking the Swan Lake we are now going to have a little wonder, find a magnet for Tom and then head back to the city. Tonight we fly to Shanghai our final destination in China!

Good evening, it's now 6:24pm and we are sat at gate 143 in Chengdu airport. Tara is researching ahead of the next few days and I am frantically writing up this blog at the request of Mr Flynn who is waiting for it to be uploaded!

After our lunch at Swan Lake we decided to head back to our hotel as we had to check out by 2pm. We took bus 198 and then the subway, which we are now experts at navigating! We had a little nap before packing up our suite, which we had dutifully filled and trashed with all of our stuff. We then left our bags at reception and went out of a little mosey around the modern shopping district of Chengdu. 2 hours later we had walked for miles and returned to collect our bags. We walked a short distance with our backpacks on our backs and rucksacks on our front, this is when we feel like real travellers!
The airport shuttle bus was our mode of transport back to the airport and after a very smooth check in we have just enjoyed chicken noodles in a restaurant.

Tonight we will arrive in Shanghai and have 2 days to explore before we move on to Japan.

Love T&T x