Thursday 11th September - day 22 Chengdu - zhangjiajie Our train to zhangjiajie takes about 22 hours with a change over at 12am at a station where we have to wait 4 hours for a 4am train to zhanagajie. We decide to wait outside the train station and find a little quiet spot to sit down in opposite. We are harassed by these two guys who drive past us on their motorbikes, stop right In front of us and just stare, muttering in Chinese. Theyk do this at least 4 ti...

Wednesday 10th September - day 21 Chengdu We leave the hostel at 7.30am to make our way to the panda breading centre. We catch a local bus (no 1) to zhaojuesi bus station (north chengdu) and then change for the 87 straight to the breading centre. We arrive at 9 and pay 54 rmb to get in. The panda is unique to china but with a population of just 1,600 and another 300 odd in zoos, they are seriously endangered. The research centre was set up in 1987 to 'give a he...

Tuesday 9th September - day 20 Chengdu The journey to Leshan looks easy enough, a bus down to xinnanmen bus station and then a coach from there. When we get to xinnanmen, we decide to get some fruit for the journey. We grab 2 bananas and 2 apples, the prices per kilo, clearly marked on. We watch the woman key in DOUBLE for each item - 14 instead of 7 for the weight of the bananas and so on. Realising she's blatantly ripping us off when she asks for 15rmb. It sh...

Monday 8th September - day 19 Chengdu We realise that we can't go to the pandas today as they are most active first thing in the morning and it's now 11. We also realise that we can't go to the mineral pools up in jiuzhai gou. As it's too far for a 1 or 2 day trip and we can't fit it in now with booking our trains. So we take a walk down to the main square tfanu, get something to eat and plan the rest of our trip in chengdu. It's dumpling party and moon cake pa...