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...

Sunday 7th September - day 18 Xian - chengdu We wake up at 4.20am for the train, 2 hours sleep and I'm resembling the walking dead. No packing or a shower done so we drag all the bags into the hall outside to pack so the others in the dorm don't murder us with all the noise. It's pissing down when we leave and are drenched by the time we flag a taxi from the main road, at the train station by 5.30am so we get a McDonald's breakfast as nothing else is open and ...

Saturday 6th September - day 17 Xian After talking about hua shan the past few days with a few backpackers who have been, we hear nothing but good things, so we decide to brave another hike. There's also a 0.3m plank path that winds around one of the peaks, it's one of the most dangerous things we've seen, but it's popular with tourists, and we both would like to give it ago. We Leave for the bus at 7.15 and make our way to the train station for the bus to hua ...