The transport to Chengdu was rather calm in comparison to our previous transfer day as the bus picked us up from the boat and took us to our train and with a final bus meeting us in Chengdu we arrived at our very nice hotel late on the Tuesday night. We knew that the next day was going to be busy so we hit the hay to save our energy for the early start.

We met with our local guide Jonny who had organised our transport to the Chengdu Panda Research Institute where we were going to get a close up look at the Giant and Red Pandas. The institute had been set up originally to help with the research and breeding of the rare giant panda. Around 10 years ago it decided to open its doors to the fee paying public and it is now one of the must see things to do in China. We just happened to be going on the one year memorial day for the 12th May earthquake where the epicentre was only some 200 miles away from Chengdu. This meant that the park was open for free to Chinese nationals so they were going to turn up in their thousands. Luckily enough our early start meant that we could not only get around to see the Pandas before the crowds arrived but we also got to see them when they are at their most active (apparently unless they are chomping on bamboo they conserve their energy by sleeping which equates to about 75% of the day!). The pandas did not disappoint with many "Ahhh"'s coming from the many onlookers as they got their fill of bamboo with some lying around on their backs and some reclining in the trees they all looked so contented it was hard to believe that there are only less than 1000 of these black and white bears left in the world.

When we'd heard all the things that pandas have going against them it is a wonder that there are that many still alive. They apparently only eat one type of bamboo which does not grow in abundance, their breeding season is only 3 days in one year and the females are very picky about who they want as their mate. To top it all off the male pandas lunch box is incredibly small in comparison to the female pandas lady bits so even if they do hit it off the chance of insemination is very slim!

After the great pandas it was time to see the red pandas who are no way near as rare as the giant pandas but in my opinion are far better to look at. These guys had well and truly had their fill of bamboo when we arrived and were laying flat out in the sun with all four of their legs dangling down over the branches where they lay.

Just as we were finishing up at the sanctuary it suddenly became crammed full of camera wielding Chinese. They were all scrabbling to see the latest celebrity who had turned up to fondle and adopt a panda. The nations favourite was in the house… Big Jackie Chan! The crowds was getting deeper and deeper so we slipped out of the entrance before getting caught up in all the hype.

Once we got back into town we only had the rest of the day too see what Chengdu had to offer so we got out our map and hit the streets. With more luck than judgement we stumbled across the Wenshu Buddhist Temple. This little calm oasis in the middle of a bustling city was lovely and relaxing to walk around and as it was the memorial day we were invited by the nuns and monks to lay a flower at the shrine as a mark of respect which we duly carried out. We made our way back through the towns streets trying not to get run down as we walked on the pavements! We made it to the central square where many people were gathered for, as far as we could see, some sort of remembrance ceremony. Overlooking the square was a huge statue of Chairman Mao who stares down at the masses with his arm raised in his trademark salute. This statue of Mao is one of the biggest in China. With the fact that there were many people in the square the police and army had turned out with small troops of soldiers marching past the statue it was quite a spooky site.

To round off our tour of the town we headed to the Peoples Park to watch what happens there. The place was packed with people either playing Mahjong, drinking tea on mass, dancing, singing or just sitting round watching the world go by. We spent some time watching the old women line dancing to traditional Chinese music a sight that had to be seen to be believed.

All that was left on our must things to see and do in Chengdu we had saved for the evening. Firstly we were to try the cities signature dish, the Hot Pot. Now this isn't the winter warmer that you would get in a nice Lancashire pub. The hot pot is available in 3 different temperatures, Not at all spicy, hot and melt-your-skull hot. The dish is eaten by sitting at a round table that has a huge hole in the middle inside which sit's a gas burner and on top of that sit's the metal dish that contains the hotpot juice. The dish we had was split down the middle so that we could have a not at all spicy and a hot dish at the same time. The not at all spicy dish side contains water and various herbs and spices and the hot side contained probably the most amount of chillies I have ever seen in one dish complete with the seeds, a small amount of water, a few more chillies for good luck and when we thought it couldn't get any hotter the emptied about a litre of chilli oil into it. They then turned on the burner below it and let both sides heat up. Then the pre prepared vegetables turn up and you throw them into the boiling vat of juice in the middle of the table. After a few minutes of boiling in either water or oil you fish them out and eat along with rice. I went straight for the hot and after a few mushrooms and a couple of pieces of winter melon my entire skull had gone numb and my whole mouth was ablaze. Still tasted nice though but I couldn't eat that all night and soon went onto the other one. Katie dipped her chopstick in the hot one and after licking the end of it she nearly passed out! Once we'd had our fill it was time to move on to the final thing on our to do list, we were off to the theatre.

The performance that we were to watch was a selection of the most popular performances from the Sichuan province theatre. Once we had sat down and had been served our obligatory tea the show started with a piece of music called Nao Tai which was performed by the musicians to give us a taste of Sichuan opera folk charm.

The woman singing just seemed to shriek and wail in high pitched Mandarin so we weren't too disappointed when this ended. Next was a stick puppet show where both the performer and puppet appear on the stage with the performer holding the puppet high above his head. This show is deeply rooted from the Han dynasty around 200BC so there has been a lot of time to develop this act. The puppet was exquisitely dressed and decorated and we were in awe of the performer as he worked this puppet from below. He could make it blink, wink, dance, throw and catch silk scarves and moved around the stage in a very human way. It didn't take to long before you didn't notice the performer below and were mesmerised by the puppet above.

There was another operatic performance called Baixi Zhengba again from the Han Dynasty which contained more warbling but this time in spectacular costumes. Again we weren't to sad when this finished. The next act was very simple but highly skilled. A hand shadow show where the artist created all sorts of animals and birds using just his hands and a spot light. These again were amazing to watch but what really took the show for us was the performance called changing faces. This is a unique skill of the Sichuan Opera and is well known all over the world. Only the performers know how it is done and they are few and far between. The performer changes the colour not only of his mask but of his entire costume in the blink of an eye. He waves a flag or fan in front of his body and what was an entirely green outfit turns into a red one in a split second. He then waves it back and it changes colour again. There are no special tricks in the lighting and is all done by slight of hand. They are so confident about making these changes without showing the audience how its done that they ventured out into the seating area and performed the mask changes literally feet away from where we were sitting. This performance and the whole show was very professionally performed and we left more than happy with what we had seen.

All that was left was to discuss the performance over a beer in the bar back at the hotel and sink into our comfortable hotel bed after a hard days sight seeing in Chengdu.