We arrived in Chengdu on schedule. We got picked up at the station by Sam from Sam’s Backpacker Guesthouse where we were going to stay. He took us straight from the station to see the pandas at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base – our sole purpose for coming to Chengdu. The pandas would only be in activity around feeding time in the mornings, so that was why we had to go directly there from the station.

First we went to see the red pandas, they are small and red (obviously) with a long tale. And then we went to see the giant pandas, the famous black and white ones. They are incredibly beautiful!! The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base (which have received a price from the UN for their effort for the pandas) have 28 pandas, of which 4 are kids born last year. Only two of the 28 have been born wild, so the center have had a remarkable success when it comes to breeding pandas in captivity. This is a necessity as there are only 500-1000 wild pandas left in China.

The animals had beautifully kept, green areas to stay in. This was a bit of a relief, after having read and heard about the horrors of Chinese zoos. But this was something quite different. The babies were tumbling around, climbing up, falling down etc. They were so cute and clumsy! They look almost unreal, with that black and white colouring, especially with those black rings around the eyes. One was playing with its mother, getting fed etc. The two of them came up pretty close to us. Seeing the pandas was a great experience, even if the rain poured down and I hadn’t brought my rain gear. There was also a museum there, but that was not particularly interesting. But the second floor should be fascinating for those who enjoy seeing beautiful butterflies with needles stuck through them...

Then we travelled back to Chengdu, which is the capital of the Sichuan province. The town has 3 million inhabitants, and is the administrative, educational and cultural center of the province as well as a major industrial city. The hotel was this time of a totally different standard (we met some other guests who had had cockroaches in their room the night before – I hate those things). But we got our much longed for showers (either cold or scolding hot) and then breakfast in Sam’s tiny cafe. I had a chocolate pancake. After that I went for a walk with a few of the others, looking for a tea house. We found one, although not the one we were looking for. It seems Chengdu is famous for its tea houses, where you unlike other places can go and hang around all day, reading, sleeping, playing cards etc. Since it was still pouring down we got tired of searching for the Renmin Park Tea house, so we found one in a back street which was nice enough. I wrote in my travel diary, some of the others played cards, and we drank (or pretended to drink) green tea.

It seems Sam is quite an entrepreneur. His guesthouse is situated in the backyard of a somewhat better hotel, these to seem to co-exist in some strange way. Sam also runs his little cafe, and his office also functions as a travel agency. He is a source for all kinds of information. One thing he told us was that Chinese girls are (ideally) supposed to look small and pale and weak, almost sickly. Because it rains so much in Chengdu the women are very pale, and they are considered to be some of the most beautiful women in China. Western women on the other hand, looking healthy and strong and tanned, carrying around their heavy backpacks – are indeed very unattractive to the Chinese eye. I guess that told us! When we got back from the tea house I spent some time in that same office sending my second bout of e-mails to those back home. It cost me 8 Yuan for 40 minutes.  That’s cheap! 

Together with about half the group I went to have dinner at McDonalds that evening, to the disgust of the others. But it was kind of nice to eat western food, hear western music etc. Afterwards we went to check out a night-market which is a scroll-market that takes place at the sidewalk of the main street Renmin La (the street starting at the large square with the massive Mao statue). Since it was still pouring the market was somewhat reduced, but it was still plenty to see. Afterwards we went back to the guesthouse which lies in a side street to the main street. In this side street you find a lot of costume shops and sewing shops with some very old sewing machines.