10: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding & Bullet Train

Exciting day today, the pandas and the bullet train! We need to be ready to leave by eight-thirty, this gives us plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast; for which we’re down by seven o’clock... and one of the first to hit the buffet goodies!

So first stop today is Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, founded in 1987, it’s China’s largest habitat of pandas, and it’s less than half an hour away just beyond the

city outskirts. We’re here for rope drop (opening time for those of you who’ve not been to Florida’s Disney World), and it’s heaving already, these pandas are a huge draw for the Chinese people, especially with them being their national emblem. It’s a hot sunny morning with clear blue skies and apparently this is quite rare here in Chengdu, especially after it also being a nice day yesterday.

The site is set in huge stands of different bamboo varieties, and for most of the time we’re in the shade of these huge plants, this made it very comfortable walking between the many enclosures throughout the park. The visit was arranged for the early morning to get the best chances of seeing these magnificent pandas at their most active, they like to eat their bamboo in the morning before it gets too hot and by mid-day

head off to the shade and sleep the rest of the day away!

There’s well over twenty pandas on show, mostly in pairs, and it was a real treat seeing them at their best in the large enclosures that were planted out in much the same way as their natural habitat would be in the high mountains around the Province of Chengdu. At the end of our tour around this forty acre site we are lead through an indoor enclosure area that houses the four yearling pandas that were born around the end of last July. I can’t begin to explain how amazingly cute these young pandas are, they’d melt anyone’s heart!

There are also Red Pandas here and they couldn’t be any further removed from the regular black & white pandas if they tried, not least of all as they are not bears at all, but actually

related to the raccoon family. Also:
Regular Pandas - Easy to photograph as they didn’t move much and it’s slowly slowly when they do!
Red Pandas - Virtually impossible to photograph as they endlessly raced around their large enclosure and fought with any other one they crossed paths with!

Shannon had booked lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant on site, you know the set up by now, four tables set up for nine people with the lazy susan for all the dishes to be placed on. The food was good here, and more choices than the pandas have, apparently there are over two hundred types of bamboo but the fussy pandas only eat twenty seven of them!

Second stop today is at Chengdudong Railway Station, just ten

minutes away, to catch the 15:10 Bullet Train to Xi’an. It was organised a bit like an airport, with luggage scanning and passport control, as well as having allocated seating on the train. We’ve upgraded to First Class, which is actually cheaper than Business Class on Bullet Trains! The seats are comfortably wide, deep and have plenty of legroom, allowing the backs to recline without impeding the passengers behind you. You barely notice the speed of the train as the countryside flashes passed... until you enter a tunnel that is, when the pressure on your ears is quite uncomfortable for a few seconds. Amazing to have travelled on this iconic train.

Our coach transfer to the Titan Times Hotel was around half an hour in the crazy traffic around Xi’an, we get a very nice large room but it’s back to a hard bed again...!!!