Chengdu

We left Xi'an and got on another overnight train to Chengdu. We had 2
random people in our cabin and unfortunately one of them was a very
loud snorer. It was the early hours of the morning and still Colin and
I couldn't sleep. When the other man turned on his light and sighed
about the noise I decided that it wasn't really fair that the snorer
was sleeping while the rest of us lay awake. So I climbed down my bunk
bed, tapped the snorer on his arms and made 3 loud snores while
pointing at him. He laughed, nodded and then lay on his side rather
than his back. Finally we could sleep!

We arrived in Chengdu around midday and wandered through the city,
past a big Mao Tse Tung statue. The next morning we went to see the
pandas. They were lovely and because we went in the morning, they
weren't too lazy yet. We got a few videos of them play fighting. It was
hilarious to watch as they don't look quite real, they look like men in panda
costumes (they definitely were real though). Really pleased we saw them
here and not in a zoo where they don't have much space to move.
Has anyone heard of the saying: "Stop being a giant panda"? It's what
you say if someone is acting like a spoilt brat / lazy. That afternoon we
went to the Wenshu Monastery and walked through the Wenshu Fang
Old Quarter. In the evening we went to a Sichuan face- changing opera
show. It was fantastic! Lots of colourful costumes and bright lights. The
English subtitles were hilarious and eventually we gave up on reading
them and just enjoyed the beautiful show instead. The best bit was the
face changing, but it was all very entertaining and like nothing we'd seen
before.

On Sunday we got up bright and early to go to Leshan and see the Giant
Buddha, the largest in the world. It's carved into the mountain by the
river and it looks amazing. The queue was crazy and almost treacherous
at times on the mountain path to the base with people shoving and
pushing in the queue. Spent the rest of the day walking around the
park there and after a long day headed back to the hostel.
Today we leave for Guilin and Yangshou, which we're really looking
forward to as all the other travellers we've met have really
recommended it.