Hello

We are currently in Chengdu, in the Sichuan Province, or in other words Panda Land. We only have one day here so it is pretty action packed, we took off to the Giant Panda Research centre, where they are researching panda breeding. It is the biggest population of pandas in captivity, and somewhere where they have actually got pandas to breed which is no small thing. There are 40 giant pandas there, with numerous babies and red pandas. It was the coolest place! We saw at leat 15 adult pandas, all sitting around on there bums eating bamboo and just letting the outer layers fall on their tummies. They are incredibly lazy, but also captivating. I felt like I could just watch them for hours. Further into the park we saw a bottom hanging in a tree, a panda baby was asleep. It looked pretty uncomfortable but he was gripping on. It was lovely to see a panda mum and her baby playing together, she spend most of her time falling off things and sitting on mum's head.

My favourite part of the day was holding a giant baby panda cub. She sat on my lap a bundle of legs and fur, and chomped on bamboo dipped in honey. She was called Mei Mei and was 7 months old. She was absolutely adorable, and so heavy with very sharp claws. He fur was quite coarse and she was pretty massive considering she was a baby. I got loads of pictures, and it was such a wondeful experience which I will never forget.

Later on we went to people's park, which was really odd. People and bands and dancers all flocked in to designated areas and began to sing, dance and perform to crowds. It was deafening as they had massive speakers, and were obviously trying to drown each other out. One peiece of advice, do not go there with a headache, you will leave with an even bigger one!

In the evening we went for delcious gelato with a girl we met at the hostel. I, of course, had chocolate and Luke had beer flavoured; he liked it but I wasn't convinced. He described it as "malty." Later we went to a bar which brewed its own German beer, and had cocktails and pizzas together. It was shame we couldn't stay out took long but we both had early trains to catch. There have been so many lovely people we have met on our travels, and it's a shame to have to say goodbye.

Next on our adventure is Zhangjiejia, a beautiful National Park where they got the inspiration for the mountains in Avatar. Better get my walking boots back on.

Lots of Love xxxxxx