It was a reasonably short journey time of around 2 hours to reach Chengdu.

At the train station, we were met by our local rep, who I think Bing (our tour leader) had a little bit of a soft spot for.

For dinner, we were venturing out for hot pot. Now this isn't a casserole type dish like you'd expect, but essentially a big dish split in two with bubbling soup like substances - one hot and one of mushroom. You then were given various meats and veggies to put into the cauldron to cook your own food. The meat wasn't really meat, but more processed type foods like bacon, mini sausages and fatty ham. Once you'd cooked your meat, you then placed it into a bowl of sesame oil along with garlic and coriander (or some other herb). It was then time to eat.

I decided that as appealing as the idea sounded, without real chunks of meat it was going to be a no go for me, so I wandered down to McDs.

The next day was Panda day - was very excited about this and I was hoping it was going to be one of the highlights of my trip.

We all piled into the bus and drove out to the Panda centre.

The initial hunt for the Panda lurking in the bush was quite fun and we quickly spotted one fully lazing around on bench. It could obviously sense some activity around it and chose to open an eye to see what was happening. We all got quite snap happy with our cameras even though there wasn't actually too much movement.

That was going to be a big worry for the day that we'd go there and the pandas wouldn't actually being doing much of anything except sleeping it. Apparently they have to eat in the region of 40 kilos of bamboo to produce energy, so most of the morning was taken up eating whilst the rest of the day was spent trying to conserve energy.

There was another larger panda in the foliage but he was too far away to get a decent shot.

Next on the cards were the Juveniles. These guys were really really on the lazy side and barely moved at all. The positions that they were sleeping in were quite comical, with arms draped uncomfortably over random posts - one was even in a position as if to say "woe is me".

The most movement we got out of these four was one progressed to lift his leg up to do a big poo. He then lowered his leg pretty much directly back onto the poo that he'd just made - lovely.

We went into the nursery, where we all had to queue up and quickly file past a window where on the other side was a large crib with four or five baby sized pandas (about six months old) were sleeping. I couldn't figure out why no one was taking photos and took one and progressed to be told off by a man in a uniform. I hadn't seen any signs but that's because they were at a six foot high level - a silly place really - I'm not going to look up when there are pandas down.

A couple of people in the group broke the bank and paid the 1,000 Yuan price to hold a panda and get their photo taken - as nice as it would have been, a hundred pound (220 NZD) was a ridiculous price to pay, but I guess it was probably aiding in stopping the exploitation of the pandas (or not - the Chinese would have paid anything to get their photo).

It was then time to go and watch the year old cubs having a play. These guys were actually encouraged by their handlers to have fights and chase each other. It was so entertaining watching them climb up the wooden structures and try and jump on each other or falling over - it was all part of their learning process. It was definitely my favourite section but unfortunately as was the norm, we had limited time to watch the cubs.

The centre also had a red panda section. These were tree dwelling critters that although technically related to the panda were named after them.

They are probably half the size of a small fox, and looked quite similar to Basil Brush (obviously not with the clothes on!!). The Red Pandas were a lot more active than the Giant Pandas, with at least one of them doing laps of the enclosure.

We had a quick drinks break to watch a short film and then headed off to the panda museum. This was quite bizarre in that a lot of the exhibitions actually looked like they'd been put together by school groups about a zillion years ago - all the stuffed animals were really unkempt and looking a bit on the old side.

It was then time to persuade the parentals to let me buy a soft toy - not the actual purchase of it, but to convince them to ship it home for me in their luggage. It was the first of many items that I wanted them to take.

On return to Chengdu, we were dropped off at a Buddhist Temple, where we wandered around looking at the various parts.

Bing took us to a vegetarian restaurant inside the temple - apparently they were quite good at making veggies look like meat dishes.

Again, I opted out and went and sat outside to ponder my naval whilst they all ate. Try as I might, unless I can pick the dish and actually know what it is, I really wasn't fussed on eating it.

Along with the ticket to the temple we were given some incense to make a wish, so I wished for longevity and health for my family, in particular my niece and nephew.

That night we all went to a traditional Sichuan Opera. This was particularly entertaining with comedy acts, instrumentals, fire blowing, marionettes, dancing,, a bit of singing and finally the mask changing show. This was an extremely clever performance where the people's masks changed so quickly you couldn't actually see how it was done and it wasn't just one or two masks, it was at least a half a dozen masks - even the marionette changed her masks.

Friday was National day in China (btw - if you want to come to China, don't do it on National Day/week - it's the busiest week of the year and that's saying something for China!).

Ma, Pa and me headed up to the people's park to have a look. As dad said, the Chinese definitely know how to build a park, it was truly stunning, with a little rock garden and little rivers and pavilions all over the show.

True to form it was raining again so the locals that would normally be out and about in different parts of the park were all huddled under one pavilion have a music-off session. In one corner there was the traditional violiny thing and a dude singing, whilst in the other corner was a large choir pouring their hearts out. The racket was just amazing and it was just about impossible to listen to one without the other screeching in your ears.

Two young girls convinced us to buy Chinese Flags as part of National Day where the money would go to charity - I think that it was probably their own charity rather than a real one though.

We called into the local Tea House in the park, where I finally had my first cup of tea in China (and also my last).

Whilst there, these guys were trying to convince us to get our ears cleaned. They had these odd looking instruments with fluff on the end which would go into our ears and then they'd use a double pronged fork thing to vibrate the first thing. Funnily enough we all declined the offer.

We walked across to the people's square were there was a gigantic statue of Chairman Mao overseeing everything. There was also a large fountain display that moved to music.

After another drink, we headed back towards our hotel. Stopping for pizza before we were due to go to the airport to catch a plane to Shanghai.

Upon arrival at the airport we shuffled down to the appropriate check-in counter where we were told to check in individually then Bing changed his mind and took all our passports to do it as one group.

I made the mistake of asking for a window seat. This seemed all well and good, because I got seat A. However once we embarked onto the plane, I was surprised to discover that I managed to get the only window seat in history that didn't actually have a window in it - it was a boring old wall. I wasn't impressed and this wasn't helped by the fact that the others were laughing at me because of it - who needs enemies when you have friends like these.

Although the journey wasn't long, it was fairly painful with the guy behind me insisting on clearing his throat every two seconds - this just seemed to be a slight extension on their spitting and hocking policy that the Chinese are so good at. I was definitely ready to get back on a train if it meant that I wouldn't have this sound in my ear for the whole trip.