After having a wonderful time in Xi'an, we were full of hope for our next destination, Chengdu and it didn't let us down! We travelled again on the overnight train, but this time it wasn't as grim an experience, as we'd booked top beds and had plenty of room for our luggage!

We haven't mentioned so far too much about the Chinese people themselves so I'll try to give you an overview now.......

The culture is so different to that of the UK and, I'd expect, most other Western countries. I've been amazed as to how curious the locals are here, as I thought they'd be much more used to seeing Westerners, but everywhere we've been so far (except maybe Beijing) people have stared at us quite blatantly. They've obviously not been taught it's rude to stare! People seem fascinated by us and it's weird being a source of giggling curiousity!

We've also been quite subtle about taking photos of each other at tourist sights as there have been many instances where locals will come up and ask to have their photo taken with you and, once one person asks, they all start asking, so before you know it you've had your photo with everyone and their granny before you can leave!

The traffic in China is also horrendous and there appears to be no rules of the road or road discipline in place at all! The consensus over here appears to be every man for himself which applies to both traffic and the locals when they push and shove to board public transport, to buy tickets or in shops. Queueing is more or less non-existent! It all seems very rude and upfront but I guess it's just how a different culture lives!

Anyways, on to Chengdu....We'd come to Chengdu primarily to see the world famous panda sanctuary, as well as the Giant Buddha at Leshan, so not really to see the city itself, although we've been told that Chengdu itself has some lovely parks and temples for those staying a bit longer.

We arrived fairly late and our hostel had signs up advertising the Sichuan Opera so we signed up, eager to see the famous face-changing act which is world-renowned. It was awesome! The show itself was a mix of different acts: Chinese opera, comedy act, face-changing, fire-spitting, acrobats, hand shadows and dancing. Anyone coming to the Sichuan province should definitely put this in the itinerary!

The next day we travelled to Leshan. You can get there by public transport but there were enough people in our hostel who wanted to go that we hired a mini-bus and went together. It was about a 3 hour drive there which was quite gruelling but the Giant Buddha was well worth it! The features of his face are so clear that it's hard to imagine that this was sculpted so many years ago! The site upon which the Buddha sits is also great for exploring and seeing the temples and gardens typical of China.

On the trip we met a Dutch couple and an Australian guy who are also travelling for a year so it was really cool to compare trips and hear about their experiences so far! As a result, we've slightly revised our route through China to also visit Macau as we've been told it's well worth a visit! We also met a guy on vacation who was British but who has lived in Thailand for 14 years.

The pandas at the Chengdu research centre were the highlight of our trip here. The sanctuary houses pandas of all ages and species, such as the red panda and the Giant Panda. The baby pandas were particularly cute falling all over themselves and playing! We also found the male Giant Panda of much amusement as he was just sprawled on his back stuffing his face with bamboo like a typical male!

Our next destination is Chongqing where we take the Yangtze River Cruise to Yichang and our hostel have been really helpful at booking us tickets etc for that! Looking forward to it!

Craig and Nikki