My Grand Tour of China part 3 – The Pandas of Chengdu!

We left Xi’an on the early morning Bullet Train and arrived in Chengdu around 12:30 and taken straight to lunch.

Again, this was another ‘Lazy Susan’ experience but with ‘spicy’ dishes, not many of which were to the liking of our group.  I must say it was probably one of my least favourite meals.

After lunch, we checked into our hotel and after another quick change we set off on our half-day guided tour of Jinli Street which is about 550 metres long and is a part of the Temple of Marquis with a small food market with some unusual local produce, which we all declined.

Next, we visited Kuanzhai Street, known as the ‘Wide and Narrow Alley’.  These two places were very busy and had lots of small, quaint shops and traditional buildings, and a Starbucks!

After some free time at our second stop, we made our way to the restaurant which lay between both of these areas for our ‘Sichuan Dinner’ which was more palatable than the lunch-time meal.  Once finished we returned to our hotel for a glass of wine before retiring for our early start in the morning.

We left the hotel just after 7 am as our guide explained that we would have a better chance of seeing the Pandas outside as once the temperatures rose, the Pandas would remain indoors.  Temperatures hit 38 degrees and the humidity was higher!

The Chengdu Panda Reserve is similar in layout to Singapore Zoo with lots of slopes and walking.  If you were not on a tour then you could use the mini-trains to take you around the reserve.

We reached our first enclosure and the Pandas were inside and you could see these through the glass, not the outdoor experience but at least they were close.

We carried on to the next enclosure where we had our first glimpse of these adorable creatures outside, lying up in trees relaxing with their legs hanging down.  There were lots of oohs and aahs and that was just from me?

After spending a fair bit of time here our guide tempted us away with the words, ‘would you like to see the baby Pandas’?

Our guide explained that we would have to queue outside and this would take approximately 30-40 minutes before we got into their indoor enclosure.

Fan at the ready and we joined the queue.  When we finally got inside we were ushered along fairly quickly which was a little disappointing but we saw baby Pandas in their incubator and some in a play-pen and, oh yes they were absolutely adorable, as you will see from the photos below.

Last stop before our early lunch was the ‘Red Pandas’.  To me these creatures look like a cross between a domestic cat and a racoon, nevertheless, they are adorable in their own way.

Once we had completed our tour we were taken to lunch inside the reserve and this again was a ‘lazy susan’ shared meal and was enjoyable.

After lunch, we embarked our coach for the 4 plus hour journey to Chongqing where we would embark on our 3-night Yangtze River Cruise.

Next time the fabulous Terracotta Army!

If you would like to know more then please contact me.