2 days in Chengdu

The third city we've been to during our China trip is Chengdu. This is the capital of the Sichuan Province and we came via the high speed train. It took about 5 hours for the trip. We have booked the train tickets from Trip.com and we exchanged our voucher at Xi'an North train station the day before our departure.

I thought that Chengdu would not be as big but I was wrong. It has a very organised metro line and lots of tall buildings at what I think is their downtown area. For this leg, we decided to splurge with our hotel accommodation. We stayed in a hotel that I did not know was a 5 star one LOL. It was called Dorsett Grand Chengdu and was very near the train station. We were assigned to a room in the 33rd floor and this was our view.

We arrived at around 3pm and just decided to go to People's Park. It was so easy to get to as it is right beside the People's Park station. Entry was free. It was a Saturday afternoon and so it was packed. It was nice to see families with their kids playing and just enjoying the atmosphere. The park was huge.There was a bonsai garden and a fish pond.

I think it is the only park I have seen that has a mini kid's carnival. There were rides like bumper cars and roller coasters. This was the busiest part of the park. Also, we found out about a food cart that sells of sugary lollies that can be customized to different characters. 

The kids love it!

Chengdu is known for their spicy food and abundance of hot pot. We are not really adventorous with food but I tried to eat dumplings with a little bit of spice. It was surprisingly not too bad! I would not hesitate to have it again. 

The main goal why we headed to Chengdu was to catch a glimpse of how their pandas are being taken cared of. We went to the Panda Research Base and I have written all about it here.

Some tips we have compiled for your upcoming Chengdu trip:

1. The Panda Research Base opens at 7:30am. We got to it at 8am and there was a long line at the entrance already. You can choose to come in really early and buy tickets right there at the entrance.

2. Taxi rates can vary from time of day, taxi companies and etc. We paid 60 RMB going to the panda base on an early morning but only 40 RMB coming back to the hotel after. This was even though there was heavier traffic going back.

3. Souvenir costs are pretty much the same whichever store you go.

4. Heading to or from the Chengdu airport? Easier to take the subway line whichever way.

5. Be specific when ordering food. Some establishments might forget you can't only tolerate a spicy meal.

6. It was a good decision to just pay for a subway ticket everytime we would ride a subway line. Saved us time from searching how or where we can have a permanent subway card refunded. Although it takes time to line up at the ticket counter but we did not mind.

Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!

Mornings with the Pandas in Chengdu

I have not blogged for a long time because me and Joel went for a 3 week holiday to Japan and China. After coming back to Australia, I spent a few weeks getting back to my daily grind and now that I have settled I will try and write about our amazing trip. I might not be able to write it in order of the itinerary but here we go..

On our last 2 days in China, we were in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. We arrived in Chengdu via the high speed train from Xi'an. I planned for us to go and see the pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding or Panda Base for short. It has been created to imitate the natural habitat of pandas for their rearing and breeding. This base takes care of other endangered animals such as black necked cranes, white storks and etc. There are other panda bases in Chengdu but I chose this because it is the nearest (because of its location, it is the most crowded!)

I've read a lot of blogs and one of them suggested not to go with the group tours as they leave the city late and when you arrive at the base, there will be tons of people and most probably the pandas are asleep already. It is said that giant pandas generally spend most of their time sleeping. Therefore, I did not bother to look for tours.

We woke up early and tried to get there by 9am. We asked the hotel staff's help to hail us a taxi. We paid about 60 RMB for the 10km journey and upon arriving, saw heaps of crowd already! Talk about trying to beat the crowd LOL. As with all tourist attractions in China, we had to line up to buy the tickets. Adult ticket is 58 RMB.

Upon entering, some people were lining up to ride the free shuttle that would take you directly to where most of the giant pandas are. We ignored that and just followed the general crowd. The map of the base makes it look huge but walking through the area is not that bad.

There were bamboos on the sides that kept the area cool and shady anyway. I even felt that I was back in Japan!

The first pandas we saw were the red pandas. They were so cute! We had the right timing when the carer came to their area and fed them. They were eating and getting food from the bucket while the carer cleaned their space.

We also saw pandas sleeping on top of the tree which was cute!

Also, a panda playing while his mum is sleeping. The young panda was so playful that it climbed up and down their tree house which made for a great crowd entertainment.

The crowd was becoming thick as the tour groups have arrived. We decided to do a bit of people watching by sitting on the benches that are on the sides. I saw people were selling panda headbands or accessories inside the base.

We would have stayed longer but we had to go back to our hotel to check out. Before we left, we didn't forget to check their gift shop for a souvenir.

Goal achieved for our last day in China! We then headed to the airport via the metro line for our flight bound for Australia. Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!