Panda-monium

So the prospect of 28 hours on a hard seat was enough to board a plane, sometimes life's too short.

After a couple of extra hours in the airport it was onwards to Chengdu, a city of ~9 million.

Mao statue - Tianfu square, Chengdu

The main draw is the world leading giant panda breeding centre. Successfully breeding pandas since the 80s there's over 100 pandas in the huge park & less than 2,000 in the wild. The baby's we saw were a month old and still tiny, often new mothers will accidentally kill their cubs as they are so fragile at birth so at the centre they tend to grab them quick & reunite them when the cubs are bigger.

juvenille pandas

red panda

baby panda <1mth

adult panda hanging out

A visit to the Chinese opera is more of a talent show with a series of performers taking the stage. The finale the highlight with a face changing act including a mannequin breathing fire.

face changing at the opera

Back to the train station for one last overnight sleeper. After a 4 hour delay (spot a common theme emerging?) we were on our way. There's something magical about going to sleep in the dark, leaving a city behind, and waking in the morning to a view of terraced farming and fields of colour. The hours fly by looking out the window & reading, War & Peace seemed suitably epic to take on a long journey but it's easier to read at night without the distraction of the scenery. A couple of changes on this train, I'm now the only foreigner in the carriage, the attendants are even more smiley & casual than before & there's no more western toilets.

Who doesn't love a toilet picture

view from the train - Chengdu to Guilin