Monday we arrived in Chengdu at 14:00 after a 25 hour train journey, we met our tour guide Kid and caught the MRT to our hostel, we spent the afternoon relaxing, showering and washing clothes. At 19:00 we went to a restaurant to try the famous 'hot pot' which is a sort of Chinese Stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table, ingredients such as thinly sliced meat, vegetables, wontons, dumplings and seafood, are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table, it was super spicy!!! After, Kid gave us a mandarin lesson. We were all so tired from the train still that after we went straight to bed.

Tuesday we were up early for a trip to see the Pandas! We visited the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Centre, home to around 100 Giant Pandas and a few Red Pandas, they were so cute eating their bamboo and play fighting, it was also really interesting to hear and see the progress they have made in breeding research. After, we went to the Leshan Buddha which is the largest buddha in the world, it is 71 meters high, and has 8.3-meter-long fingers, the 9-meter-wide instep is big enough for one hundred people to sit on and the 24-meter-wide shoulder is large enough to be a basketball playground, it took 90 years to carve. The buddha is located at the confluence of three rivers where there was lots of flooding and boat accidents so people put the disasters down to the presence of a water spirit, it was decided to carve a statue beside the river thinking that the Buddha would bring the water spirit under control. In the evening we went out to a bar for drinks which turned into a night of dancing and was a lot of fun!

Wednesday we had a lie in and had McDonald's breakfasts to nurse the hangovers! At 13:00 Kid took us on a walking tour of Chengdu, we visited the WenShu Monestary, the city centre and a park where there was lots of performing and a traditional tea house, whilst we sat drinking tea people were offering to clean our ears which was strange and rather unhygienic! On the way back the two of us went for a nice Pizza Hut date before heading back to the hostel and grabbing our stuff for our night train to Xian.