China: P...P...P...P...Pick up a Panda!

Our journey from Xi'an to Chengdu (Panda Central) was certainly not without drama. We shared two taxis to the station with John and Dori. Me, Keeg, and Stu jumped in one, whilst our young Scottish friend shared with John and Dori. We got to the train station first, and as time was of the essence we swiftly got through the barriers and got on the train. We put our bags down, got settled etc. and waited for Forrester to turn up. Some time passed. All of a sudden, we realised that Vinny had given his ticket to Kirstie earlier for safe keeping. Nightmare! We had visions of Vinny being stranded in Xi'an, whilst we frolicked around in panda land. This certainly could not happen, especially since Vinny was clearly the most excited about our encounter with the black-and-white, furry, little buggers. He does love cute things after all! Anyway, with about 3 and a half minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, I valiantly vowed to sprint through the vast railway station to take Forrester his ticket. With the potential for Keegan and Stu to be arriving in Chengdu minus two people but plus one massive rucksack, it was definitely nail-biting time! I set off like a Usain Bolt being chased by a cheetah. But after a world-record breaking 20 metres. I basically slammed slap bang into Vincenzo, John, and Dori. Crisis averted! Rejoice! Huzzah! etc. The canny Scot had cunningly used an old ticket to slip through the barriers undetected! "The Crisp" strikes again! (Just to clarify - Vinny's new nickname is "The Crisp" due to his effortless, fluid and crisp cue action when playing pool). Anyway, we were all very sweaty, but super happy. We enjoyed a few train beers with the gang and then went to sleep with excited anticipation of the endangered-animal wonders which lay ahead!

We arrived in Chengdu the next afternoon, checked-in at the infamous Mix Hostel (1 quid a night accommodation), and headed out in search of Sichuan's world-famously spicy cuisine. We went to a local restaurant and smashed up some Kung Pao chicken, some belly Pork, spicy shredded pork and some deep fried sweetcorn. Ace. After that, we strolled through the Old Town, and made our way to Tianfu Square, where an imposing statue of Mao was to be found. After our twilight jaunt, we got back and had a few brewskis in Mix's charming garden, and then got an early night ahead of the next morning's panda extravaganza!

We had to get up early in order to catch the pandas' feeding time. Apparently they wake up at about 9am, chow down on a seriously large amount of bamboo, and then spend the rest of the day sleeping! Therefore we got to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre at a few minutes to 9, and thus just in time to see them stirring from their slumber. Then the feeding frenzy began! It is quite impossible to describe just how satisfying it is to hear the sound of a panda's tooth crunching on bamboo. We saw older, wise-looking pandas, stroppy adolescent pandas, and also extremely playful, clumsy and excitable baby pandas! It is quite a privilege to witness so many pandas in one place. Obviously though, this was the place to see them, since 80% of the world's pandas reside in the Sichuan province of China. It was quite a surreal experience too, as the pandas actually just look like humans wearing big panda suits; especially as they lounge around, scratching themselves like your inappropriate uncle, and stripping leaves swiftly and easily from endless poles of bamboo. The panda's wrist works like an opposable thumb to grip the bamboo with impressive dexterity. It truly looks like you could give a panda a seriously good handshake. After checking out the Giant Pandas we were taken to see the Red Pandas, which in all fairness are a bit shit. They're just really small, and look like a raccoon. And yeah, just generally a bit boring. Not impressed at all mate! Apparently, you could hold a red panda in your hand for a fiver, but obviously none of us were particularly arsed. One step better though, you were able to hug a big Giant Panda for around 40 quid, or even hold a baby Giant Panda in your hand for 120 big ones! Our budgets certainly didn't allow for such an extravagance, and so we went without man-handling a panda this year. John Prescott, certainly got more than a handful though when he visited the place a few years before; the Panda museum demonstrated this with clear pictorial evidence. He did however (as my mate Spunge pointed out) look like he was about to eat it.

After all the excitement, we went back and napped for a while, then went to McDonalds (again! - shameful I know, but just try eating Chinese food all day everyday). That evening it was the Champion's League final. Vinny was too knackered to watch it (the girl) and Keegan is not the biggest footy fan, so just me and Stu headed out to watch it. We watched the game at an Irish bar called at 2.45am and it was all rather disappointing all round. Man Utd were crap and essentially might not have bothered turning up, since Barca absolutely walked it. There was a great atmosphere in the bar though, and the wealth of Barca fans present were going absolutely mental. We also met a charming chap there, who was staying at our hostel, and it turns out lives in East Bridgeford (10 minutes from Bottesford i.e. back home in England). Consequently, he was a Forest fan, so we chatted about footy and also drinking in The Reindeer pub of East Bridgeford. It's a small world after all.

The next day, Stu and Vinny left me and Keegan alone for a few days, as they headed out on a 3 day boat trip down the Yangtze river through the impressive Three Gorges. Thus me and Keegan went and explored Chengdu a bit more, before catching a gruelling 25 hour train journey to Guilin. Highlights of our pleasant, exploratory day included- visiting the peaceful Wenshu Monastery, eating some wicked-sweet fried rice for lunch in a bustling Chinese food hall, and then walking past a man in the centre of the busy city, who inexplicably had a live rat and dead mouse attached to the same piece of string. Weird to say the least! Indeed, even after a few weeks, China was still continuing to surprise me.